God… amateur radio and coincidence

I grumbled as I sipped the coffee Friday morning, yes I know that’s not unusual for me, but being up and conscious at 6:30 in the morning was. I was at that instant not looking forward to going on a long drive and spending hours walking around. First I could not shake the gout attack that plagued me most of the week and the icing on the cake was even at 6:30 it was hot. But this was life in my new world and I would make the best of it and join my son for a day at the annual Texas Ham-Con exhibition at the Irving convention center.

Now I have been to many Hamfests over the years where you walk around and search out a great deal on radio gear and spend time with others who share your passion for amateur radio, but this would be the biggest one I have ever been to and I did not know what to really expect except miles of walking. I was to be completely surprised. Yes they had gear of every type and price range from the used boat anchors to the new and impossible to program, but I did not anticipate what ‘fate’ had in store for me.

I had been corresponding with a ham who followed my blog, Harold WB5KZO, and we talked about meeting up at the show, but there was much more in store for me when I entered the convention floor. Because right at the door was a ham who noticed the call sign on my hat and immediately started a conversation about a QSO we had years before. This was followed by a couple other men who stopped me as I wondered around the exhibition floor.

Harold met up with me and we had a great face to face QSO that lasted for quite a while, and ended with an invitation to his place in East Texas to try out an antenna I was looking at for my apartment. I know most hams are generally outgoing but Harold just made me feel like I was talking with an old friend and I am looking forward to heading over to his QTH.

The icing on the cake was when I stopped at the buddipole table and was greeted with a firm handshake by Steve WG0AT (featured recently in a QST article). It took me a while but the fog cleared and I remembered our contact from many years ago. You may ask with hundreds of contacts how could I remember this one from years before… Steve works low-power SOTA (summits on the air) with his ‘goats’! I was the last contact of the day and I could here the smile in his voice when I mentioned I was in Alaska. Later I found out just how happy he was about the contact when he sent me a DVD of the contacts he made that day, ( my contact with him is about 6 minutes into the video ).

Now your are thinking why did I call this posting, ‘God.. armature radio and coincidence’ well simply put if I were to take the time to realize how many things in my life have to happen to bring me to that exact moment to meet Steve it would seem like an impossibility. For instance if I did not move into my apartment until July or later or how about if my gout was worse and I could not walk at all and stayed home the meeting never would have happened. Throughout our lives one can see the compound effects of normal everyday events bringing us to certain specific moments.

Now most would see it as coincidence
but to me certain important events
are not random but
directed by the handiwork of God.