Bill,
There are many hams who take great pride in collecting QSO cards: Some keep them in huge photo albums, others cover the walls of their shack with them. By the way, QSO doesn't stand for anything in particular; it's just one signal of the Q code used originally to aid Morse. They are used in question/answer form, e.g. "QRP?" = Shall I reduce power?, "QRP" = Reduce power. Hence George's colloquial use of QRP above to mean "low power."
I love working with old vacuum tube equipment (what we call "valves" over here). I have several valve communicaton receivers, an old Leader VTVM and 'scope, and other valve test equipment that's still in regular use.
I still use an old valve/tube audio amplifier for much of my record-playing; a unit built years ago by my father using the ubiquitous 6V6 output bottles in push-pull.
Expecting the youngsters to know a 6V6, 12AX7, etc. is perhaps too much, but getting asked "So what's a valve?" makes me feel positively ancient (I'm only 35).
Then they ask "Huh? What's a 78 ?" Oh dear!
