Here, I have a couple:

First, if you're going to take traffic, have a copy of the ARL  
numbered radiograms. I took some traffic once and had no clue what an  
ARL numbered radiogram was, so I delivered it like this:

Dialed the phone and got the answering machine. "Hi. My name is Buddy,  
and I'm a ham radio operator. i have a message for (blank). Well, it  
says, "ARL forty six". I don't know what that means, but I expect you  
do. Thanks, have a nice day!"

It wasn't until some weeks or so later that I managed to learn that  
"ARL forty six" meant something like "Wishing you a happy birthday and  
many happy returns".

Two more, both on 15 meter cw, both on the Novice band, both well  
after I'd upgraded. Even so, the 15 meter Novice band was one of my  
favorite places to operate for quite some time. It was there that I  
got the worst signal report I ever had: a 219 from Taroh, JH1WIX, who,  
it turns out, is the brother of the inventor of the yagi antenna. The  
other was an hour long QSO, with a straight key mind you, at about  
13-15 WPM, with Shawn, KB7CLX, another blind ham. What a thrill. A non- 
formula QSO, and a nice long one at that.

I once heard Barry Goldwater on the YLISSB net, but didn't get a QSO.  
Also spent a a couple hours one evening not contacting Maralda, VR6- 
something-or-other on Pitcairn Island. I would dearly love a contact  
with one of the hams there, still.

Then there was the month I spent in Germany and the super nice guys in  
Braunschweig. ...

Ham radio's been awful good to me, no two ways.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 746-4127 or 888-75-BUDDY
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