June 28, 2020 

For Field Day this year I was inspired to use my homebrew G5RV Jr. in honor of having met and chatted with Louis Varney on 20meter CW one time long ago.

 I remember it was a crisp November morning, my birthday, at 6:19AM in my LouisaCounty, Virginia amateur radio shack. I was listening for signals down on the bottom end of the 20 meter CW portion of the band. I heard a signal and started copying, as best I could with my limited experience, someone calling CQ. For a moment my mind flashed back to WWII where the famous British MI6 code breakers at BletchleyPark would have been listening for Morse Code just as I was doing.

My ears perked up and my half asleep brain went into full conscious mode when I copied “ CQ, CQ, CQ DE G5RV G5RV KN. “ I started to get nervous, my palms started to sweat just at the thought of the possibility I could soon be answering the CQ call from “The Man Himself, Louis Varney, G5RV”. My mind quickly came back to reality after realizing what I had just said to myself. Now he was calling a second time. This presented the possibilities of (1) This is probably a bogus call, a pirate or just someone pulling a prank, or (2) This really is Louis Varney and my once in a lifetime opportunity to chat with the most famous amateur radio operator in the whole world.

So with all the confidence I could muster I found myself sending Morse Code to answer G5RV. As my fingers slipped away from the paddles I waited and waited and waited and then I heard it “KC4AUF DE G5RV KN”.I sent the usual stuff like name is, qth is, and so on. After a few overs we started having an actual conversation.

It was at this time I got this great idea which would be the greatest thing ever, or I would end up with egg on my face and hated by Louis Varney for eternity. I asked him if I could send him a disposable Kodak camera for him to take pictures of himself, his shack, his “ANTENNA” and whatever else he wanted to photograph. I passed it back to him and waited to hear some highly proper insulting remark but what I heard was, “Yes, I’d be more than happy to receive your camera and have my friend, Ronald Glover, G4WGP come over and take pictures for you”. Hearing those wonderful words I almost fell out of my chair. We continued with the usual pleasantries and finally I heard the most wonderful sound ever, “KC4AUF de G5RV dit dit.

Here are some pictures taken of Lewis Varney with that now famous Kodak disposable camera.

de KC4AUF Tony Day 73