My Most Recent QSO's

Monday, April 29, 2013

Home Again


It was good to see familiar faces at the Outer Banks of North Carolina , but I had terrible "radio withdraw" this year. As I mentioned earlier, I can "sit" in reasonable comfort, but standing, or especially moving around, brings a lot of pain into my lower back and the muscles in my right leg; hence I spent most of the time at the beach this year just relaxing, watching television, and picking a few tunes on the guitar. I would have been in the same pain whether there, or here at home.

I have an appointment at the Veterans Hospital next week to have a MRI performed on my back. My expectations are to have surgery, as soon as possible, to permanently alleviate this condition. It's reached a point where I'm being forced to live a very sedentary lifestyle. I'm too young to do that this early in life.

This afternoon I turned on the radio and almost immediately worked SAM (S51WO) in Ravne Slovenia. We've worked before and it was good to hear him again. Much more than a handshake, we talked about our radio, antennas, power, and the weather. He congratulated me again on my 3 watt QRP signal and we moved to other conversations.

I like to read about the countries I work on the radio and a quick "google" brought me to a Slovenian musician named Lojze Slak.  I've always considered music to be a universal language which brings together people from all parts of the world.


Lojze Slak played a unique "Diatonic Button Accordion". 

He passed away in 2011 and will be sadly missed in the musical world. 

It really felt good to get the "key" back in my hands this afternoon and I'm looking forward to being back on the air once more.

2 comments:

VE9KK said...

Welcome back John, I hope your trip to the doctor will gain results toward feeling better. Keep us updated.
Mike

Jspiker said...

Hello Mike,

Thanks you. I hope it can be fixed quickly. Some of the new surgery techniques are remarkable and the recovery times are fast. I'll know more about it after the MRI and can think about options. It's great to be back on the air.