In 1978 I was in Japan for an extended visit. Of course, I went to the electronic district in Tokyo. It is a fascinating place! Anything electronic is sold there. The biggest problem is refinding a shop that has what you want after leaving!. And of course there is Ham gear there. Stuff I've never seen in North America.

    I wander into this dealer and there is all the STUFF. More or less on one side of his shop is rows and rows of Japanese gear. I wander up and down the line. Occaisionally, I go over to a transceiver and flick some switches, rotate the VFO .... Sometime later 3 Japanese hams come in and go to the other side of shop - where all the American gear is - Swan, Collins, Drake. I can only make out a bit of what they're saying, but overall, they seem pretty excited as they pull this Drake off the shelf and start flicking switches and spinning the VFO ....

    I'm spinning the dial on this Yaesu and talking to myself, occaisionally letting out oooooooooH! Hmmmmmmmmmmm! Aaaaah! Across the room, these 3 guys are poking this Drake saying OoooooooH! Aaaaah so .... Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

    Suddenly the room goes completely silent.

    We all turn around s-l-o-w-l-y and look at each other, then look at the radio in front of us and then look at each other again ....

    All of us burst out laughing over the irony of the moment.