A Surprise Contact

Yesterday was a slow day around the house. I'd returned late Saturday afternoon from three days in Sioux City at the 188th Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Iowa. I was still feeling the effects of poor hotel sleep (and admittedly still nursing the after-effects of cigars and Crown around a fire Thursday night). While sitting in my wingback and watching football I was tuning around 20m with the K2. Not hearing anything, I left the rig on and went about doing some tidying in the library which houses my radios.

There I sat on the floor, surrounded by some stacks of old papers I was going through, when I heard the familiar warbly sound of over-the-pole CW. The second CQ I copied the call - RM2A. I stood up, leaned over the chair which was now occupied by my XYL, and shot my call at him.

"Do I need to move?" she asked, fighting against my gut in her face, waking our dog in her lap in the process.

"No, you're fine." Easy for me to say, I wasn't the one being smothered.

No reply. He called CQ again. I replied a couple more times while trying not to suffocate my wife, and bingo, I got him. 339 from him, 559 from me. A quick "TU 73" followed, and I logged the contact before going back to my stacks of papers.

A very quick, but fun contact!