Friday, September 11, 2015

Kids Homebrewing in Japan in the 1920s

Michael Rainey's photo.
 
Michael Rainey, AA1TJ, Poet Laureate of QRP and Wizard of the Vermont Hobbit Hole found this drawing and put it on his face book page.  It is clearly supportive of the "International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards" theme of this blog, so I have shamelessly expropriated it.  All for the cause Michael!   I hope this indicates that OM AA1TJ is emerging from a too-long spate of radio-inactivity. 
 
Michael says the drawing is from the 1920's children’s magazine, "Kodomo No Kuni" by Kiichi Okamoto.  David Cowhig, WA1LBP, provides this translation:
 
Title "Ni-chan,  I can hear it!"
The radio kid is saying something like:
-- Wait, no I lost it.
-- uhhhh
-- I can hear it, I can hear it, I've got it!
 
David notes: Sometimes Japanese use the katakana syllabary to add emphasis like we might with italics or exclamation points. 
 
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

1 comment:

  1. Just FYI: "Ni-chan" is means "elder brother". The sister is asking the elder brother, "can you hear it?"

    Also the brother is saying to the sister "be quiet!" (ダマッテテ), a sentiment most radio experimenters will be familiar with should a hapless individual happen to disturb a DXing session.

    Finally, the use of the katakana syllabary is common in literature aimed at children, as this magazine was.

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