I'm an Unashamed Nerd. [View all]

[MineralMan]

For me, the term is not a negative one, and has never been a negative one. I'll tell a story about my nerdiness that dates back to my junior high school days (middle school to you youngsters):

In 1957, I was in the 7th grade. I was a 12-year-old science nerd, and still am, really. In October of that year, the USSR launched the first orbiting satellite, Sputnik 1. It was a major news story and a major accomplishment for humans. We had put a satellite in orbit. It was the talk of the day for a very long time. Of course, the science teacher talked about it to us kids.

One of my hobbies at the time was listening to shortwave radio broadcasts. My parents have given me a Heathkit shortwave radio kit the Christmas before, and I put it together. It worked great. Shortly after Sputnik was launched, I found out the radio frequency used by it to broadcast the primitive telemetry signal it produced. The Los Angeles Times published a schedule of the times the satellite would pass over California for several days.

So, I talked to my science teacher and asked if she thought it would be interesting for the class to hear Sputnik. She was skeptical, but I told her I had been listening to it already. I told her that it would be passing over during our science class two days later and offered to set things up so everyone could hear it. She was still skeptical, but said it would be OK to try.

So, I did. I brought my radio to school and strung up a makeshift antenna. I had tested the setup earlier in the day, and it worked just fine. So, that day, the entire classroom got to hear Sputnik beep as it passed by. 20.005 MHZ, just above the WWV time signal. Beep, beep, beep.

Yes, I was a nerd. Who cared? That day, a nerdish 12-year-old got to be the class hero. Nerds rule!