Walking through Hampstead the other evening we saw two ambulances and two police cars with sirens blaring, bullying their way through the traffic. The place was humming as people enjoyed the balmy weather, for this time of the year. Do sirens really need to be so loud? They should have two settings, one loud and one softer, the latter for moving through dense traffic and pedestrians. The ambulances and police cars were one thing but to cap it all a large fire engine bludgeoned its way through Hampstead's main intersection, forcing cars on to the pavement, and pulled up outside McDonalds. This was followed by two more fire trucks over the next 5-6 minutes from different sides of town. So now three fire engines were blocking the main thoroughfare. I love fire engines but in truth none of them were needed. A couple of firemen walked into the back of McDonalds to see what the problem was while the others hung around outside on the pavement. Probably the fat briefly caught fire. Looking through the window we saw that customers in the restaurant seemed unfazed. Hasn't the fire department heard of radio? Once the first one got there the others could have been warned off. I guess it wasn't a busy afternoon in the fire world and the boys needed an outing. McDonalds started life in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, CA in 1940. The QSL is from the US Coast Guard station at Monterey, CA, heard on 5696 kHz USB in Johannesburg in 1987 in contact with Coast Guard cutter Cape Romain, one of my best utility QSLs.
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