Tonight, for the first time in months, I got on the ham radio, calling CQ on the 40-meter band.
My second contact was “Bob.”
In a flash, my buddy Milton (sitting with me) looked up Bob’s call sign on his computer, and started laughing hysterically.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he said. “This guy’s in Hopewell!”
My oh my.
How is it that I can transmit a 100-watt signal through a magnificent antenna strung up high in the trees; a signal with the capacity to bounce off the ionosphere and travel all the way around the world, and I end up to talking to Hopewell?
Fortunately, Bob from Hopewell was a very pleasant fellow and we had a lovely chat.
He asked me if I was familiar with the many older homes in Hopewell. I told him that I was! And I suggested he check out my website.
Oh MY!
To read my other blogs on Ham Radio, click here and here.
To visit the website for the Norfolk Ham Club, click here.
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One of my very favorite movies is "Testament," which tells the story of a small town outside San Francisco, after San Francisco takes a direct hit from a nuclear bomb. In "Testament," Henry Abhart is the hero, because he's able to talk with the outside world when all other lines of communication have been lost. I highly recommend this movie. It's a tribute to the fact that, Ham Radio will always be reliable when other communications systems have failed.
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The best of both worlds: A fine-looking antenna mounted on Sears Avondale in Illinois.
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Sears Avondale as seen in the 1919 catalog.
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To read my other blogs on Ham Radio, click here and here.
To read about Hopewell, click here.
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WooHoo! Got to love those big tall antenna towers! They are my bread and butter.
Big tall antenna towers have paid for a lot of our road trips looking for mail-order homes.