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[unhappycamper]

This article got me to thinking:

http://gazette.com/ham-radio-operators-always-prepared-to-help-behind-the-scenes/article/1522193
Ham radio operators always prepared to help behind the scenes
By Garrison Wells Published: June 28, 2014

When these guys make long-distance calls from Colorado, it's the hinterlands.

Russia. Iceland. Sweden. The Philippines. Not the normal calling radius of most Americans.

But there are no boundaries for Ham radio operators.

On Saturday, about a dozen local Hams, as they call themselves, were perched on the plains four miles south of Ellicott.

--

When I went back to Vietnam for my second tour, I was sent to the 25th ID repo depot.

At the time I was an SSG, so I missed the morning calls and most of the bullshit. I moseyed into Personnel - the fellow looked at my 201 file and asked "WTF are you doing here?" Good question I said. (At the time Army regs said you had to be assigned in your primary MOS - mine was 31E40, Field Radio Repair. ) They had nothing in my MOS so they sent me to a telephone platoon in the shadow of Núi Bà Đen, next to the Michelin rubber Plantation. I was there a few days before I started calling Personnel.

Daily.

Faster than a speeding bullet I found my ass in the April 1970 Cambodian invasion. Twas an 'interesting' (in the Chinese way) adventure.

I got back to Vietnam after about a month in Cambodia and I marched my ass to Personnel and told them I wanted a job in my MOS or send me home. They didn't have any 31E40 jobs, but the NCOIC of the MARS station was rotating back to conus and did I want the job? D'oh. At the time MARS stations were your best way of making a phone call home.

After I left Vietnam the second time I was posted to Germany .Frauleins, good food, good beer and nobody's shooting at you. What's not to like?

Some of the call signs I've had: WB0xxx, WA1xxx, DA1xx and HB0xxx

I've let all my licenses expire.

[Scuba]

1. I used MARS to call my mom not long before she died. Thanks unhappycamper!

[woofless]

2. USAF Ground Radio.

Got stationed in Turkey where amateur radio was banned, hence no MARS station. Bummer. I got tdy'ed to Athens for an couple months and called home frequently. We had the whole radio shack to ourselves 23 hours a day. Cool.

[unhappycamper]

3. Where were you in Turkey?

I was stationed at a small NATO base around 50 clicks south of Izmir near NATO Beach. I did a stint on a NATO base on the Black Sea wiring up teletype machines in a rather large cave.

Ephesus, Izmir and the Anatolia region were thoroughly explored. Turkey was an interesting place for an 19 year old kid from the mid-west.

[woofless]

4. Incirlik, near Adana in the southeast.

Turkey was incredible and I wish I had been mature enough to really enjoy the opportunity.