Thanksgiving 96

[w1hij at contesting.com]

To the ham radio community out there on the net....,

I feel a little like the guy who wrote "Yes Virginia, there really 
is a Santa Claus", but I had to share some thoughts with you all.

Earlier today, I posted a message to the reflector regarding the 
discussion started by AA8U on the 160M DX window. That issue was 
completely overshadowed by a response I found when I returned from 
a Thanksgiving Dinner out and checked my email. It started like 
this:

----------------------------------
 Bill!

I haven't seen or heard that callsign in 35 years and I'm amazed to
see it again!  One of my fondest memories is the 1959 W1OP Field 
Day
(before I received my KN1LPL novice license) listening to you, John 
Good
and Chuck Ashworth knocking off the CW QSOs with the big lazy H 
antenna!
As I recall u were using a Viking II and NC-300...  The 2 element 
Quad and
KWM-1 on SSB and all of their DX QSOs are also part of those 
memories!

I guess you have been hiding under another callsign for some 
years??  

----------------------------------------------
and came from Frank, W3LPL.....

I am struck by the fact that here was a connection surfacing after 
35 years---generated by a combination of circumstances---that could 
not have been predicted. BUT ...

If there is an essence of what amateur radio means to many of us, 
it is exactly this community which transcends not only geography, 
but also time.

We often find ourselves embroiled in a series of discussions and 
arguments which seem important at the time, but this message was a 
reminder to me not to forget what it is that ham radio really means 
to me and to others --- we are truly a world wide community of 
people with permanent connections and our common interests outweigh 
any particular momentary disagreements...

Let's not forget that this is what we must preserve ---

The memory of it brought me back to the air after 25 years. Three 
months, 1000 Q's on 40 20 and 15 CW, SS, CQWWCW, CQP, and 
especially Frank's message just validated what I knew in my heart 
to be true about the amateur radio community and mean I'll go to 
sleep tonight with a particularly warm sense of being part of a 
large, if unseen, community.  

The occurrence on Thanksgiving Day is almost too much to believe 
but certainly provides a major thing to be thankful for....

73 to all of you, de Bill, W1HIJ (LA Area)
 

PS. I apologize to my friends around the world who may not know the 
special meaning of Thanksgiving, but here in the US it is a holiday 
which is focused on remembering all good things in our lives that 
we are grateful for. (and also of course on consuming vast 
quantities of Turkey and so forth)!!


Bill Scholz
New Century Technologies, Inc.
Newport Beach, California, USA
(714) 720-1697