A couple of weeks ago, while doing a POTA activation, my friend, Rick mentioned that there was a young woman who walked by a couple of times looking curiously at us. I hadn’t noticed because I was busy operating. After we’d packed up, however, I guess her curiosity got the better of her because she came up to us, with her two young sons, just as we were leaving and asked what we were doing.
We told her that we were radio amateurs participating in an activity called Parks on the Air, and that we had set up a small station and were making contacts with other amateur radio stations. She seemed truly interested, so it was a shame that she hadn’t come up to us sooner, as we could have given her a full demonstration. I gave her my card and said that if she’d like to know more to get in touch with me.
Well, a couple of days later, she emailed me and said that she would indeed like to bring her sons and husband over and get a demonstration. We arranged to meet last Saturday. The whole family came, including the husband and little sister. The husband is actually an electrical engineer, so he was interested in the technology. I made a few contacts and showed them the code practice oscillator that I modified to work with a paddle in addition to a straight key. (More on that later.)
One of the sons really enjoyed playing with the code practice oscillator. I would have taught him how to send his name in Morse Code, but right about that time, the little sister decided it was time that they all go home. We said our goodbyes and I invited them back if they’d like to hear more another time.
Yesterday, I received a thank-you card in the mail. Included were two nice notes from the sons. It was a very nice surprise, and I do hope they’ll take me up on my offer to come back sometime.