ANOTHER NIGHT, ANOTHER CONTACT

Oklahoma this time, on a very busy and electrically noisy 40m band. He came back to a single 3X3 call (CQ CQ CQ de W9--- W9--- W9---)[1] with code as clear and crisp as a practice tape[2] and I was somehow not especially surprised when later on in the conversation, he averred his age was 91 and he'd been a ham about 75 of those years!

The band snapped and crackled away from us before I had much chance to learn how he'd spent that three-quarters of century but it was fun while it lasted. It's not a little flattering when a real OT (Old Timer, an admirable title in the hobby) with an FB fist (very well-sent code) answers your call and takes time to chat.
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1. Looks like Greek? It's not that complicated. "CQ" is a general call, sort of, "Hello, who wants to yakk?" and it is a bit of a pun on "seek you;" "de" is internationally used for "from" in this context 'cos it is nice and short (DAHdidit dit) and hey, it even means from in French; W9--- is my callsign, so whoever wants to chat uses that and replies, "W9--- de (his or her callsign)," and we go from there.

2. Paper tape, with holes punched in it. I've got one of those machines and tapes for it, too -- a little motor pulls the tape through switch contacts and you hook up a code beeper to it.
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