I upgraded to General at the end of December. Shortly thereafter I
built a 20m 1/4 wave vertical out of some discarded chicken house water
pipe. Well, I didn't have a qrp rig for 20m (working on fixing that!) so
I cranked up the TS-450 to abt 75 watts (See, I felt guilty. :) ), and
started listening. This was on January 4th.
I heard a weak CW CQ call coming through the noise and finally made it
out as S57FS. Well, I didn't have a clue as from where that call was
originating, but I figured "what the heck!". About the time I started
to answer six or seven other stations started calling him. I'd never
been in a pile-up and wasn't sure what to do so I did the only thing I
knew to do....send my call at my comfortable copy rate (slower than
13wpm), though I figured it was a lost cause.
Well after I ended my call and the rest of the stations quieten I
started hearing "K F 4 K R V K F 4 K R V de S 5 7 F S". I almost fell
out of my chair!
Conditions were pretty bad, with some QSB but I did manage to pull a 559
from him. Normal contact info was exchange and as the QSB increased we
both sent our 73 and signed off. I ran to my atlas to find SLOVENIA
sitting just to the east of Italy on the north shore of the Adriatic
Sea. WOW!
I was excited as rip about it and pranced around the house telling the
wife and kids all about it. Quickly I checked BuckMaster and found his
address and a QSL card along with a postage coupon went to him the next
day.
Today I received his QSL card and below is a quote of the rough
typewriter typed letter included with it....
Dear OM Ed !
I was pleased with our radio-conection
on 14 Mc, too.And very glad to recevie Your
letter and nice Qsl Card. Thank You for everything.
Lately I do not work much on 21 and 14 MC,because
the conditions for DX conections are very bad.
I have been in ham-radio since 1928. In 1932 I
made first DX contacts. I had great pleasure with
telegraphy. From USA only I have got about 30.000
Qsl-cards. I work wit old aparatus: TRIO TS-510
and YAESU FT DX 400. Everything is used up -
aparateus and me with my 87 Years.
I hope and wish to meet You on band again.
Best wishes and good health to You and
Your family. Very best 73
Ivan
S 5 7 F S
The QSL card will be a very special one for me, but the accompanying
letter means a whole lot more!
Sorry to clutter this crowded list with this, but I did want to share it
with you.
Receiving this in the mail made my day/week/month(?)/year(???). :)
72/73
Ed Welch KF4KRV
QRP-L #873
Luverne, Alabama
Crenshaw County - Grid EM61
+--------------------------------------------------+
----------+ Norcal 40a es Straight Key es Wire-wrapped Trees +----------
+--------------------------------------------------+
> Isn't "time" a 4-letter word? <
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