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38 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2015 TOPS (Taking of Pounds Sensibly) is here at Four Seasons to help you reach your weight loss goals. Losing weight is our main goal but we have a lot fun doing it. We have weekly programs with helpful information along with encouragement to keep you motivated to reach your goal. We have just completed a motivational challenge, "Cruising to Success" with teams of three competing for four months in weight loss, attendance, tracking and exercise. We also reward the top two losers at the end of each month. TOPS is very affordable. There is a yearly membership fee of $32 and chapter dues of $3 per month. If you would like to come and see what we are all about, we meet on Tuesdays in the Ballroom with weigh-in from 8 to 8:30 am, and the meeting from 8:30-9:30 am. You may attend one meeting without any obligation. For more information you can contact our Chapter Leader and Four Seasons resident, Cathy Calhoun at (951) 849-2614 or Rosalee Strong, TOPS Area Captain at (951) 845-9313. ~ Cheryl Burke TOPS Amateur Radio Club The late 19th and early 20th centuries was a truly exciting and productive time for taming electricity, especially as it related to wireless communications. Today, we take for granted the vast networks of radio, TV, cellphones, and many other forms of communications. Back then the scientists and tinkerers developed the basic concepts and equipment that led ultimately to Facebook, Radar, and Twitter (to name but a few). But who were these early pioneers? Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) comes to mind because of his truly amazing and grandiose projects, claiming to have developed, for example, a death ray that would make war obsolete, and a power distribution scheme whereby he could infuse massive amounts of energy into the core of the earth for withdrawal and use anywhere on the globe. To his credit he was prolific in conceiving hundreds of schemes and inventions. Unfortunately, most of them either never worked or proved totally impractical. He did design and develop alternating current generators and several different AC motors that are the backbone of power grids everywhere. He also developed the first remote control that he used to steer a toy boat on a pond, the first neon bulb, leading to the fluorescents that we use today. But despite his genius, he was in many regards a showman and a shill. He didn't even invent Tesla Model S electric car. It was named after him because of his true accomplishments. On the other hand, Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was a relatively quiet tinkerer who worked out the basics of wireless communications in his parent's attic in Bologna, Italy. Just barely out of his teens he demonstrated the ability to wirelessly communicate over a distance of one and half miles. Most of his life then was dedicated to further developing his ideas to the point of achieving long distance telegraphy between Europe and America. His success is noted by the fact that most ocean liners then incorporated one of Marconi's transmitters and receivers, along with a Morse operator to decipher the signals, possibly originating the first emails! Marconi wasn't the first in a long line of scientists and engineers who conceived of long distance communications. Much earlier was Maxwell (1831-1879), who proposed the existence of radio waves, and Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) who successfully transmitted signals over a length of wire. Maxwell's radio waves were interesting but totally useless and impractical, so he never pursued the idea, too bad he was so shortsighted. Other great minds of that era were John Stone (1869-1943) who helped perfect radio design, and Oliver Lodge and Karl Braun. It took many brilliant minds contributing to the success of radio communications, but if we were to crown just one of them as the "father of radio" it would have to be Marconi. (Credit to Thomas White, 2012: Nikola Tesla: The Guy Who DIDN'T "Invent Radio") We meet on the last Friday of the month, visit and meet a bunch of great radio minds here at Four Seasons ~ Peter Hersey, KJ6NRR

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