MOST MEMORABLE QSO's


VP9KD

8 July 2001 00:46 UTC on 10m

After many years, I finally reached Bermuda!
VP9KD wasn't calling CQ so I went up the band and started calling "CQ Bermuda" but he never heard me.  Finally, several hours later, I heard him calling CQ but he was getting ready to go QRT in 5 minutes.
Could I get through the pile-up?


A picture of Walter VP9KD and his lovely XYL
As a child I spent all my summers in Bermuda visiting my grandmother.  I told Walter VP9KD that she lived on Riddell's Bay in Warwick Parish.  Amazingly he told me that he lived in Southampton Parish near the lighthouse which looks down on Riddell's Bay.
My family made me go to sleep when the lighthouse came on in the evenings.

View of Riddell's Bay from Walter's neighbor's house

The house of our next door neighbor, Mr. John Young VP9HL (now a SK), who was a ham.  At the time, I had no particular interest in ham radio.
Shame on me!

After our QSO, Walter met with the family friends who had bought my grandmother's house after her death and took pictures.  Although the color and a few things have changed, the house looks much the same.  When my grandmother died, the family had to auction off her furnishings since they all lived in the States.  As it turned out, Walter and his XYL had been to that auction.  Before his visit with the camera, he described the house down to the finest details, including the cedar chest she once had.  When I told this story to my mother (who had spent her 20's living in Bermuda), she had tears in her eyes.



View of the house from the water.
I spent many hours playing and daydreaming on our dock.

Close up of sign with 
name of our house

Front of "On the Rocks"

View of the house from the back
We often watched meteor showers from here
and ate lunches on the covered part of the porch.

View of the inside. 
I heard about Armstrong's moon walk
from a shortwave radio 
(then on the shelf on the right). 
We didn't have live TV then!
I spent many hours building 3+ story card houses in this room.

Walter's VP9KD's kindness to photograph the places of my childhood brought
back many memories for myself and my family.
Only in ham radio.....


AEØQ

13 December 1998 17:55 UTC on 10m
This was a short QSO in the ARRL 10 meter contest but certainly a memorable one!
Glenn and I were married on August 25, 2000!
Full story



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