#20K

I am coming up on the 5 year anniversary of my return to the ham radio airwaves.

Look for me to write about that in a future blog when I actually hit that date. Coincidentally, the anniversary often falls near the date of the annual Tennessee QSO Party. The TNQP, this year, will be held on Sunday Sept. 6.

As I inch my way toward that observance, and the co-located special event, I've been keeping my eye on another milestone. Last night, I achieved it. Just after 6 pm EDT, I logged QSO (ham radio contact) number 20,000 since my return to amateur radio in 2021.

I call it #20K.

The math times out easily (especially for a Journalism grad) -- 4,000 QSOs per year. So, let's take it a step further. By my count, there have been roughly 1,813 days since I signed back on. So, that computes to about 11 contacts per day.

Whew!

Of course, it ebbs and flows. If I am doing a contest, it results a much higher daily total. Last Saturday, for instance, was the Ohio QSO Party and I logged 40 contacts. Last year during TQP, it was multiple hundred - 223 to be exact.

And then, of course, there are weeks when the lights are off in the K4KYN ham shack. When we traveled in late May/early June, there were no contacts at all for nearly two weeks.

So, you see, it all evens out. 

For the special QSO #20K, I wanted to meet up with a special operator–a "sked" in ham radio parlance. There would have been many great choices. Many of them stop by the blog regularly. And many of us have had many special contacts over the years which I greatly treasure - a special segment of the 20K.

Those operators would have all been great choices.

But I could think of no one more appropriate than my lifelong chum Ed, N4EMG.  How does Fred Flintstone refer to Barney Rubble? "Bosom buddy, close friend and lifelong pal." That's me and Ed. Honestly. I have known him longer than any other ham radio operator.  And longer than any friend, too. Longer than most other people in the world, actually.

So, not surprisingly, we've had a bunch of on-air contacts. 

By the count of my logger, last night's was #23 since 2021. Of course, that doesn't count many late nights back in our high school days. We'd go to the Friday night football game and then, after everyone was home safely, we'd meet on the air and recap the highlights. 

Fun times for sure. 

Back in the modern era, just to make it official, here's the Logbook of the World snapshot:

Also, since I still keep a paper log because I am "old school," here's how I noted the QSO by hand:

I've already suggested Ed and I do it again when I make it to QSO #25K. He's amenable.

Let's see, there are 365 days in a year and 24 hours in a day, sooo...

JG