Eye-ball QSO
If you haven’t noticed it yet then I will confess myself: I am a little bit of an oddball! I don’t like ham fests, field days, working mobile, going QRP in the park, ARES or hanging out at other people’s shack. My own shack is where I feel the best. My soldering iron to the left, my radios to the right, the key in front of it. Nobody who can bother me, but the world is coming to me via my set.
Unfortunately this has its limitations, because everybody needs help at some point. And as I am not a recluse I do enjoy some company, every now and then, with people who are like minded. So when I learned about the weekly meeting at the shack of BX3AA I decided to check it out. The Taiwanese hams I had met up till now were okay, but not really like minded. Well, that has changed. Sam (BX3AA) has a little ham shop in down-town Taoyuan. When you go in you are being welcomed by a very friendly 45 year old guy, some jazz music in the background and a cup of Taiwanese tea. And on Saturday afternoon hams from around Taoyuan join him for a cuppa. There is some talk, but you don’t have to say much. Sometimes every one is quiet so to better enjoy the tea and the music. Talking about like-mindedness! I think I finally found my posse!
Unfortunately Taoyuan is a very busy city and my car was parked in a wrong spot and thus towed away. A bummer after such an enjoyable afternoon, but BV3FQ (not in the photo, he had already gone home) made me forget it all a couple of days later. I had asked him where I could buy aluminium tubes and rods (trust me, not easy to find in Taiwan) and phoned me up and said he had already bought what I needed. Well, isn’t that a great way to get help!
Hams helping hams is the group of like minded hams I enjoy best…Then lots of DX… LOL
Richard…KJ4ZIZ
Hans and Richard — indeed, while I have a few minutes of “socialization” every morning, my real enjoyment is reading amateur radio articles or doing my daily code practice. Then, finding a DX station for a casual CW ragchew.
Chuck, K6ZIZ (my original call was W9ZIZ in 1953)
It’s nice there is a ham store one can go into and it’s social as well as sales. To bad about the car!!
Well, it cost me 55 USD to get my car back. And if that didn’t hurt enough already….it will be deducted from my ham-budget 🙁