01/03/2005 | K7TUC It was 1969 when I shipped aboard the USS Jamestown, bound for Vietnam. There I would meet my lifelong pals and shipmates, Cliff N2IGB, and Poopdeck Paul (no callsign - yet). The three of us have stayed in touch over the years. Cliff and I have logged countless QSO's. We had decided to attempt a QSO during SKN, and agreed on a sked right at 0000Z. Propagation wasn't so hot, Cliff lives in Rochester, NY, and I am in Seattle, WA, but we did manage to log our first QSO of 2005. Then we decided to try some other bands. Poopdeck Paul is privy to all of this as we had been cc-ing him on all of our e-mails. Paul lives in Northern Wisconsin - just about halfway between Cliff and I. So in jest, I asked Paul to go outside a float up a balloon with a big hunk of aluminum foil attached as an aid to propagation. Paul didn't have a balloon handy, but as you can see, that didn't stop him from trying to help. Thanks for the laughs Paul!
Bob -- K7TUC