"10M Rocks!!"

Tonight was a very special night. It was my daughter's (KJ4EGJ) first time using HF. She's just a technician, but 10 meters was open this evening, and we convinced her to give it a try. She's hooked to say the least. She made 15 contacts from 7 different states, and also made Third Party contact with N9N (the Nautilus North Pole 50th Anniversary Special Event) on 20 meters. I want to send out a special thanks to them for letting her come in third party, especially with the pile-up they had.

In any case, we put Ashby out there during the 10-10 contest this weekend, and she made her first 10 meter contact to W5TMC. Special thanks to him for aiding her in her first contact. She kind of froze up on him there, but Mike from Oklahoma was very patient with her, and I love it when Ham's operate that way.

After that, we helped her call CQ on 28.480 for a little while, where she made most of her contacts. She was so excited that she had to take breaks in between, and I made a few contacts while she had vacated the "commander's chair." Matter of fact, I made my first 10 meters contact as well. Thank's to N5WC, Windell in Texas, for being my 1st contact -- even though I think I forgot to tell him that he was. HAHA.

After about an hour and a half, we reclaimed the radio -- there was a few special events we were wanting to get -- and funny enough, she was upset that we had (in her words) "kicked her off the radio". That's when she went to the white board, and marked "10M Rocks!!!" over and over and over. She'd write it, then erase it, and then write it again. I couldn't help but be a proud, proud mother with a beaming grin that wouldn't quit. I think we have successfully implanted the HF bug in her, and she'll work hard to upgrade now. HAHA

As for Tim (AJ4JD) and I, we made quite a few contacts ourselves. Tim made 7 contacts today, and I made 9. Right before we came home I heard a gentleman calling CQ on 14.289, KC2TNY. I answered his call for contact, and was really impressed as to how well he operated, even though he told me that he'd just got his General class last weekend. Congrats to you, Dan!! Thanks for the QSO and hope to see you in the Extra portion of the band soon!!

Contacts for today:
N9N - Special event station - Nautilus North Pole 50th Anniversary
K3MJW/250 - Pittsburgh, PA - 250th Anniversary Special Event
MW0ZZK/portable - Steve in North Wales
N5WC - Wendell, Texas - 10-10=21623
K2DOF - Dan, New York
N5NOU - Mike, Oklahoma
W8AL - 2008 Pro Football Hall of Fame Special Event
VK2GBG - George, Australia
KC2TNY - Dan, New Jersey