In Which Dave Experiences The Odd Feeling Of Having A QSO With Himself

Lately, I’ve been keeping the radio on 7030 when I’m at home – even in the middle of the day when there’s not much (if anything) on the band.  Occasionally if I hear a CQ, I can call right back, shock the other station’s pants off and hopefully get a pleasant QSO to boot.

Around lunchtime, I heard someone calling CQ – pretty strong signal too.  I called him straight back, and as he was coming back to me, pulled up hs profile on QRZ.  AE6PX – it was a station in Oakland – same city as me. I was kind of hoping that he’d be just a little farther away. The propagation aspect of radio adds extra interest for me.  I love to wonder at how my modest 5 watt (or lower) signals are somehow making it to the other station’s receiver.  In this case of course, it wasn’t too amazing, as he is about 5 1/2 miles away from me. Still, I always need someone to practice my code on, and it’s good to speak to a ham that I haven’t spoken to before.

He mentioned his name – Dave. Hang on – that’s my name.  So I’m speaking to another radio ham called Dave who also lives in Oakland.  It got better.  On his QRZ page is a picture of him riding a bike.  Criminy – I ride a bike too – although Dave is into Ultra Marathon Cycling, whereas a bike for me is my sole mode of transport – just a way to get around and get some exercise at the same time.  Even so, I was now chatting via morse code with another ham called Dave who is also in Oakland who also rides a bike.

At this point, Dave mentioned that we were having a Twilight Zone moment.  A bit later I said that I had to go because I had a dentist appointment. Dave came back to me and said that he went to the dentist yesterday. Yikes! We were separated at birth!

In reality, we are probably very different, but it sure was a nice twist to a QSO with a local amateur.

Update: A week after having this first QSO with AE6PX, I QSO’ed (on 40m CW again) with KE6YX – another guy called Dave who also lives in Oakland, and who also rides a bike.  In fact, he works as a bike repair technician on the weekends.  We’re multiplying!