Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you're going to get." For old-time friends, a scheduled meet-up on the air proved to be the proverbial chocolate box. Little did they know that their 1100 mile distance would take them halfway around the world!

In the HF world, we are usually at the mercy of the ionospheric skip. One of the hallmarks of a seasoned HF operator is knowledge of how to select the right time of day and frequency band to have a QSO of a certain distance. This also requires the right antennas to be able to make use of the entire amateur allocation in the HF bands.

A little while back an old friend of mine, Mark, contacted me via e-mail. We had been hams together in high school in southern Connecticut over 25 years ago, and we had lost touch with each other after going away to college. Eventually, he ended up in Houston and I was in Chicago. One day he was perusing the ARRL Web page and found an RF Safety article that I had written. He didn't recognize the call sign but sent me an e-mail asking if I was the same person he had known in high school.

I replied that I was, and had thought of him often in the intervening years. So what is the first thing that newly reconnected hams do? They make a sked to meet on the air. I selected 20 meters, since I could recall hearing a lot of W5s on that band. My best operating time is in the evening, after the family has gone to bed and my time is my own. I sent Mark an e-mail suggesting a 9 PM (local time) sked on Sunday evening. I guess I'm not seasoned enough on HF, or at least I've forgotten much of what I needed to know. The skip between Chicago, where I was, and Texas, where Mark was, is very good on 20 meters during the day, but at night those two locations just can't hear each other. Not realizing that, I starting calling Mark on 14.160 MHz at the stroke of nine. The first couple calls, I heard no response. The third time, however, I heard a 57 signal saying my call sign and Mark's, and signing A35RK. I thought I was hearing things; the prefix sounded kind of rare and the accent was American. I called QRZ? and the same voice came back with the same call sign. I looked up the prefix in my DX book and located Tonga on my wall map. I was talking to someone on an island between Australia and New Zealand.

Taking Time Out to Assist

The "propagation path" between Chicago and Houston by way of Tonga. (Map created with Online Map Creation using AZ_PROJ).

Here I was, trying to talk to a friend who was 1100 miles away, and the only station I could hear was in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, in the Tonga islands, 7000 miles away! Paul, the ham in Tonga, could hear both of us. He must have been on a DXpedition, preparing for the CQ World Wide DX contest, since that American accent belonged to KK6H. I've been in a similar position and spent all of my time working pileups of people who needed a new country. Yet, Paul took the time out from this very enjoyable type of operating to help a couple of friends for whom the skip was not right. I relayed messages to Mark via Paul, and stood by while Paul repeated what I had said and then listened for Mark's response. Paul told me what Mark had said and made it possible for us to communicate. As we finished with our indirect QSO, I thanked Paul profusely for his help and, since A3 was a new country for me, asked for his QSL info. I then listened as Mark must have said pretty much the same.

After our unusual QSO, I fired off an e-mail to Mark, recounting our luck in not only making our QSO work despite the skip, but also for having worked a new country.

E-Mail Doesn't Cut It

I suppose Mark and I could have corresponded by e-mail or with an instant messenger program over the Internet. I could have picked up the telephone and called him for a nickel a minute. We could have gotten fancier and tried Voice over Internet. But we are hams. The joy of talking to a long-lost friend with just my rig, my antenna, the ionosphere, his antenna and his rig is far greater than depending on dozens of telecommunications carriers to complete a call or an Internet connection. Even without the ionosphere working for us the way we needed, the addition of one relay station was even more exciting, in this case. If my e-mail from Chicago to Houston was relayed via the country of Tonga in the South Pacific, I would be annoyed. The same path to complete the connection via ham radio was a thrill.

In addition to the technological excitement of making a ham radio QSO, it was particularly gratifying to meet a person on the air with the desire to perform a service to others. Although not unique to hams, it is common to find hams who want to help. Whether providing emergency communications or helping a couple of friends to make contact, this is another prevalent attitude that makes ham radio special.

Greg Lapin, N9GL, was first licensed in 1970 as WN1NUK as a Boy Scout in Westport, Connecticut. When he moved to the Chicago area in 1983, he became KD9NZ, and in 1996, claimed his current call sign. Greg is the chairman of the ARRL's RF Safety Committee, and coordinator of the League's Amateur Radio Interference Assessment group, as well as a member of the FCC's Technological Advisory Council. He is also the author of the "Analog Signal and Components" chapter in the current ARRL Handbook. Greg holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. In his spare time, he enjoys operating both DX and low power with homebrew equipment, ragchewing with DX stations and visiting DX hams when traveling. An Amateur Extra class licensee, Greg is trustee for the North Shore Radio Club, NS9RC, and a member and trustee for the Prairie DX Group, N9PD.

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