More Updates!

Well, I was running out of room below (or at least I felt like it was becoming a novel), so I started a new post. Don't forget to read the post below this for other updates.

Tim held his first Net the other evening. He was net control for the Weather Training on our weekly ARES net. He says he was really nervous, but you couldn't tell it. He did a fine job, and I'm really proud of him. I don't have any pictures, sadly, because I was running the rugrat around town -- one of my other motherly duties -- the kid taxi.

And I've received quite a few interesting QSL cards in the past few weeks. I got conformation of my Tonga contact! WOO HOO! Got the FBI special event card and certificate, and the Football Hall of Fame certificate (I can't remember all these call signs, and I'm too lazy to get up and look at the moment, if you want to know them, send me a comment or email, and I'll send them your way). I've had 2 Nova Scotia confirms, 1 from Mexico that came with a ticket or something that I can't read because I know no other language other than English. I got the Nautalis card, and another one from Australia, which is the most interesting at the moment.

Back during Field Day, I made my first dx contacts. One was an Australian station, VK2TSB. I could hear him okay, but he kept dropping into the noise... a lot of QSB. In any case, this was so exciting to me, to hear Australia like that. So, even though we had a dipole strung up about 30 feet, in the middle of a field running barely 100 watts, I tried to make contact with him. He couldn't hear me very well, but stuck with me to make the contact. There was a Lady Ham in New Zealand, whom I could just barely hear over the noise, but she was hearing me quite well and was relaying my information to the guy in Australia, whom I could hear better than her. In any case, I didn't expect to ever really get confirmation of that QSO, but I sent a card anyway. Now, 3 months down the road, he sent me one back. I was so excited to get that one. So, thanks Steve, for sending me that card. That was a milestone card for me. That was the evening that I finally let go of my mic shyness, and started getting excited about HF. Thanks for sticking with me.