Monday October 12, 1992
After a very uneventful start to the week Nick arrives home, checks the counter and finds an envelope addressed to him from Gettysburg PA: his ticket to radio adventures.
Up in his lair he carefully peels it open, unfolds, and finally knows his own call sign. N9YEW. Rhymes with Paps' hallowed call and could not be a better tribute. Suddenly he has the urge to show up at one of those club meetings on Tuesday night, would have to listen to repeater nets. OOH he can check into those now, well, might need a VHF antenna. We'll see.
Naturally it's time to flip on the rig, but, well, let's rest up first. Time to crack a window, it's rainy but warm, and stretch out and sum up a little. Definitely need to call the Deej at some point.
He drifts off a bit then gets jarred awake by the call to dinner around 6. Ned seems a little choked up hearing about the ticket arriving.
"Well don't be a lid, is that the term?"
"Oh yeah."
Irene, "Paps is celebrating up above, you know that."
"Yeah."
And it wasn't long before he was upstairs twiddling knobs right around 7110 kHz, where the noobs fumble about. Everything is in place, just need to plug in the dipole and get 'er tuned. He had already messed with a noise bridge (with the help of the shelf of books Paps left) and it seemed like tuning won't be a problem, time to check his work.
He had also figured out how to rig things up to tune with a straight key then still use the paddle and keyer for business, which seemed favorable to some of the tuneups he heard with a series of dihs or dahs.
So here goes, quiet spot on 7.112.5 on the 745's dial, power knob at low, hits the key and the meters jump. Tries a few more beeps and twiddles the tuner knobs but no change. Oh yeah, need to pull the knob on this tuner for SWR readout, derp; he'd practiced with a dummy load once.
After pulling that knob and turning it to max range it's making sense, and before long we have the magic formula of Inductor E, Antenna 5, Transmitter 3.5 on the dials which he quickly writes down.
Next is the part with the keyer, which should already be set at a comfortable copying speed of around 8 words/minute, even though he's surely copied a lot faster (thanks largely to repetition...) when monitoring contests. After a deep breath, the debut transmission,
"QRL? QRL?", to check for a clear frequency, then "CQ CQ DE N9YEW N9YEW"
After a sigh of relief Nick remembers that he's still at low power, or QRP.
Also...this keyer needs to be set slightly faster, oh yeah, the code practice transmissions have longer beeps just spaced out more, or, well, the letters are spaced out more, something like that.
So now the keyer is up to about 15 words but that means he has to keep the sending down to what he can read; a challenge one can't resist.
OK, so we tune for just half the available power, about 50 watts, best to leave more in case you need it, but the previous tuning was just fine for 50.
Once more we repeat the QRL and hail. Nothing heard. Then again. After a pause he does the 3x3 instead of 2x2, might be easier to catch when spinning the dial.
Then off in the distance he hears some code but deeper than his radio's side tone, but hears his own call so fumbles for the paper, sure enough, he's being called, slowly, by a KB8 prefix, off to the east it would seem?
For the next 25 minutes or so, somehow he remembered to note the time from the clock, or at least close, he was exchanging pleasantries with Bill up in northern Michigan, also just licensed but got his Novice ticket (fewer privileges than his) in July and running a full 100 watts but with a vertical which would explain the strong signal reports, both 579, and no QSB (fade), strongest possible report is 599, maybe with a PLUS to indicate a high reading on the meter.
Nick was determined to not end the conversation and let Bill say 73 first, by which time he was sweaty and dry in the mouth, but what a way to get there. Bill slips in a PSE QSL which means he has to find his address in a call book, he may have to wait till he can find one in a library that's up to date. Unless, of course, Bill beats him to it and sends the card first.
Oh man, he will have to get cards printed, or else make his own in Word Perfect. Now that could be a creative outlet on slow days at the ol’ office.
So he heads downstairs to get a fresh mug of water to be greeted by "Danni called." Oh yeah, the phone had rung at some point.
Ned rewards word of the inaugural contact with a "At's mah boy."
Once upstairs, and with a background twinge of that same beckoning energy from the classic era with this gal, he tries the number, asks for Danni, and gets,
"Who's this?" Pretty sure it's an April.
Grabbing the first name from the headlines that comes to mind, it takes on a life, in his best twang, "It's Ross Perot, can I count on your vote young lady?"
"This better not be Nick?"
Back to his own voice, "What if it is?"
He hears a sigh, and after a couple of seconds, "WHAT are you doing?"
"Just worked my first station, up in Michigan."
"Why did...oh the radio?"
"Yeap it arrived today - the license."
"Oh cool, it's about time."
"Yeah they were backed up."
"Hmmm, not gonna touch that one."
"Yeah yeah."
"SO...I got a call today, from McDonnells and they want to look at my car - is that like Noreen's gang?"
"Yes it is, wow, she said that would be a...a condition for trading the cars."
"What?"
"You'd have to know how that family works, I happened to mention yours needed a checkup and here we are."
"Oh..."
"Just call when you can, knowing Bart he will do whatever it takes to make the deal go through, he wants my car in an unholy way."
"Oh, really? Just seems strange."
"Not to a car guy, trust me."
"Well with this rain we aren't working tomorrow so I'll call in the morning."
"Yeah I would, you might get a free oil change, maybe more."
"Nick this is great, thanks for thinking of me."
"Well it's rewards for paying your dues."
"Heh. Well tell her thanks."
"Soitenly, we'll probably get lunch this week."
"So how was your day?"
"Pretty slow till I got home."
"Yeah same here, I just mostly caught up on stuff while it's raining."
"So you'll be on the roof with a bunch of smelly guys?"
"Pretty much, I guess it goes quickly with a good crew, not too worried."
"There's worse ways to get through college."
"Well, for now."
"Yeah."
"So, if I may ask, are you happy living at home still?"
"As you say, for now."
"Touche."
"Later."
"You wish."
Nick pauses to reflect upon how they still banter when she’s feeling feisty. "At this point I need a place with antennas."
"Your HEAD needs antennas. So...once you land a dream job, who are you gonna share that success with?"
"Lonely women."
"Nick I swear you are the best of the worst."
"And are you gonna teach?"
"Please, thinking more like sports med, they will have the entire program here soon."
"So you'd get to tape up those football players with bulging muscles?"
"Bite me. Hold on a sec..." and the background noise fades away. "Alright, dork...thanks for yesterday."
"Yeah that was pretty awesome."
"Why?"
"You were there."
She pauses. "That moment was both a relief and kinda scary at the same time..."
"Any regrets?"
"Nick, of course not. I would ask you the same thing."
"I could never regret quality time with you."
"You just got a trademark smile, mister."
"We all have a lot to figure out these days."
"Some of us more than others it seems."
"In time, dear."
"Once I get some cash I'll apply to the twig, get my transcripts and all that jazz."
"I'll spot you that, as a loan -"
"Nick, I can't ask....wait, just how would I repay it?"
"Do you cook?"
"Does a deer shit in the woods?"
"There ya go, sport."
"Nick, you're the best."
"I don't consider myself the best, but I just fill in while he's on assignment."
He hears a resigned sigh, then, "Tell me...what do you think of fair April?"
"Very fair indeed. Impressive, to say the least. Like having a bonus babe around."
This gets a laugh, "I'll have to pass that along. You realize she's fair game, right?"
"I'm not feeling very game these days."
She pauses. "I know, but...still, she's like me, never really dated much."
"Does it come down to purpose?"
"Well...someone's been thinking."
"Soak in the tub does wonders."
"Mmmm....umm, that made my mind wonder...dang...but yeah, I get it, might have to try that for more than just sore muscles."
"Works just as well for sore mind."
"God Nick, when did you get so zen?"
"Bathing, riding the bike, driving..."
"Point well taken. I don't give myself enough think time."
"And that's what's wrong with the world."
"Alright smart guy, I don't wanna tie up the line -"
"Hey if you take your car over can you stop by the school?"
"Yeah, we'll try to."
"I want you to be able to do the transcripts, and can you get a ride out there to drop it off?"'
"Oh, well, I think Apeface can follow me out, maybe we can get lunch on the way back?"
"Perfect, my extension is 184 from the EIT switchboard, they have my name too if you can believe."
"Got it...well thanx for calling me back, HON."
"See you tomorrow I hope."
"We'll see, night."
"Nite you."
And with that, Nick has managed two mellow evenings in a row, well, mellow with perks.