My First QSO

In the ham radio world. first contacts are very important.

It's like a first job. A first car. Or a first date. Or many other notable firsts you can think about. You'll never forget them.

For me: Rax Roast Beef. 1966 Ford Mustang. And, well, two out of three aren't bad. (Smile).

Regarding first contacts, from time to time, members of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) will send an email to the group listing the operator's first QSO (ham lingo for contact) within the group.

The notion of a First QSO sent me on a bit of a ham shack scavenger hunt recently. It was not a long one. I found my first logbook from the mid 1970s within minutes. In the book, I found the first listing and scribbled down the operator's name and callsign. 

It was John from Missouri. I went to look him up on QRZ.com. 

Many hams will include an email address on their bio page but, unfortunately, he did not.  I had hoped to drop him a quick email and ask if he would be interested in doing a second contact on the air some 50 years later. But without an email address, my options were limited.

So, I went old school and drafted a quick one page letter. Told him:

• Who I am. 
• Why I was writing. 
• And I included some details of that first contact. 

I included my email address in the note. I dropped the letter in the mail and didn't think much about it.

Then, last week, I got an email from John. He was happy to hear from me. 

Like me, he had taken a break from radio. For years, he had been very involved and reached a point where he was just tired. So, he took a break.

He didn't rule out the possibility that he might dust off the rig at some point and get back into the game. And if he does, he'd said he would be sure to drop me a line so we could consider doing that on-air reunion. 

Truly, a TN to MO QSO is like a lay-up. So, if we agree on a date and time, I am sure it would happen.

In addition to hearing from him by email, the other cool aspect of his email was that he had gone to his files and found the QSL card I sent him back in the 70s after our contact. It was so early during my ham radio days that I hadn't already received my permanent printed QSL card. I adapted a 1970s era postcard to confirm our contact.

Talk about stepping into a time machine. To see a bit of your handwriting from 50 years ago. That is pretty amazing. In my case, it was early teenage boy scribble. 

But still pretty cool.

What's more, I went to my files and found the card John sent to me. I emailed back attachments featuring the front and back of his card.

I hope it is as meaningful to him as mine was to me.

JG