[PaQSO] PAQP kudos-NARC kudos-flashbacks

Sun Jun 3 14:05:46 EDT 2018

What a nice story!!

Even though all of our reasons for wanting to preserve the PAQP may be
different, there is a common theme that runs through them all, and, in my
view, it is to preserve the best QSO party in the country!!

I won't go into all the details, since I've posted them on the list before,
but I was first licensed back in 1969 with a two-year Novice ticket that I
obtained with the help of several members of the W3UU Harrisburg Amateur
Radio Club.

Since that time, life took me in many different directions, with my
ultimately ending up in Michigan, where I pursued my University teaching
career until my retirement in May of 2016.  I was re-licensed out here in
Michigan in the Summer of 1994, and upgraded to the Extra class license from
there.

In the early 2000's, I discovered the Pennsylvania QSO Party, and have tried
to participate every year since then.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts, I obtained a county sweep in
October of 2015, and the plaque hangs prominently on one of my shack walls.
In fact, I remember working the last county I needed for the sweep--namely,
Northumberland.  Whoever gave me that county, I'm thankful to you to this
day!!

It would be a true shame to see the PAQP go by the wayside, and I sincerely
hope that another club can pick it up in some form from here.  In the
meantime, I want to thank Mike (N3LI), and the Nittany ARC for having
sponsored the greatest and most friendly State QSO Party out there!!

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ, Grandville, MI

-----Original Message-----
From: paqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net <paqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of w3hkk at roadrunner.com
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2018 12:43 PM
To: paqso at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [PaQSO] PAQP kudos-NARC kudos-flashbacks

Being born and raised in the Keystone State(Philly), a PA ex-pat all of my
adult life, a PSU alum who has returned for many  football games,  former
member of the  W3YA  Radio Club,  and holder of a very similar call to
K3HKK,  the PAQP - and NARC   have always  held a special place in my heart.
A few years ago I even targeted the Clean Sweep award, which now hangs on my
wall, right next to  9BDXCC, a JY1 qsl, and other notable items collected
over 62 years as W3HKK.  

Over the years, during regular trips to Happy Valley, simply announcing my
call  on a local repeater usually brought a couple of replies/welcomes and
comments from "the locals."  And come October I  always find time for the
PAQP with a special goal of  working as many counties as possible. But
sometimes I'd just listen for familiar calls, voices, ormy former home
counties of Philly, Lancaster, Centre and Allegheny. 

Back during my junior year as an EE student, I  shared a modest basement
apartment with   two guys. One cooked  our daily dinner, one bought
groceries ( we each paid 1/3rd) and I did the dishes. It was great and easy
on the budget.  Norm owned a beautiful SX-71 receiver and was interested in
becoming a ham. I was envious of and listened on his   fabulous radio in
exchange for  helping him study for  his novice, and  for administering it.
The next year we went our separate ways.  

Decades later I had totally forgotten about giving Norm his novice exam.
But not Norm.  Over the years we would hook up in the  PAQP. His call had
changed but he remembered mine and would ask, "Is that you, Bob?"  And we'd
reminisce for a minute or two before  moving on with the contest.  It was
fun.  The PAQP brought us together.  Norm by that time was living in NJ and
then VA (retired) and I in Ohio.

One  day just a few years ago I posted on this board and also mentioned I
was going up to the Kent State game.  Norm saw it and replied he too was
going.  In fact  he had seasons tickets!  (So for years we were  both in
Beaver Stadium  for many of the home games but never knew it.  After 50 some
years  we could bump into each other -  tailgating or in the stadium - and
not know it! ) 

Norm  proposed  we meet at the game, and did it with a certain sense of
urgency.  I was  as usual staying with a friend in Millheim and then  going
to the game with  his family for an all-day tailgate. Jim had a permanent
parking place  so I gave it to Norm who said he would stop by.   Fast
forward a couple of weeks to game day. Shortly after my non-ham friend and I
got to the parking area, and set up  their usual elaborate tail gate/feast,
it began to rain.  Then pour.  And temps dropped to the low 50s. So we  took
refuge inside his suv as the rain continued - big time. Our windows fogged
up on the inside as we sat and talked waiting for the rain to stop. It never
did.  Every now and then I saw a tall slender guy  slowly walk by the car,
in raincoat and hat, rain pouring off him.  He never saw us  through the
foggy window. But I didnt recognize him nor expected that Norm would show
up, considering the foul wx. The third time he wandered by ( with loyal wife
in tow) I became
  suspicious, jumped out into the downpour and asked..."Norm?"  His reply
was "Bob?"  Thus began a nearly two hour   conversation in the pouring rain!

Norm: ex-KN3ZGS-WA3BZA-EP2SN; & his then-call AI2C.  I met his wife. They
met my PSU  buddy.  All just outside  the suv in the pouring rain.We were
soaked, but Norm, a normally quiet guy, just kept talking. We covered 50
years of Life in two hours.  Then at the gentle prompting of his soaking wet
xyl, we   agreed to meet at a future game, said goodbye, and went our
separate ways. 

In retrospect, that heavy October rain  foretold something else.  I never
saw Norm again. Never heard from him.  A year later I found his obit.  Yet
something  that started decades earlier, continued off and on via ham radio
and the PAQP,  had been  completed, that day in the rain.  Two old college
friends reunited and, in a sense, said goodbye, without knowing it.   

So let me offer my thanks to  NARC, and the PAQP, in many different ways,
and for  making the PAQP a great contest over the years.  

PS  I love perusing the commentary and all the data points/awards.  It would
be a shame to see all that  go away. But I recognize the ageing  of our ham
population and have seen its effect  here in  my own local club/s. Hope
another  club steps in to carry on the great legacy left by NARC! 
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