MY FREQUENCY

(From a note scribbled on a QSL card)

You may not have realized it, but you were calling CQ on my frequency. I had been listening on this frequency for five hours. It was nice and quiet during my monitoring activity. I had been doing a good job until you came along and called CQ on my frequency. How discourteous of you. When you asked,  "Is this frequency in use?" I held my breath hoping that an alert passerby would spare me from having to say "Yes." You would have taken your CQ elsewhere and my life would have returned to normal. Then, horror of horrors someone answered your CQ. All of this activity was violating my frequency.

I thought I was going to be ill. How can someone be so rude as to get on my frequency and use it in such a flagrant fashion? I felt like I had been personally violated. After suffering for days from the stress and trauma, I finally had to seek professional help.

Our family doctor determined that my trauma was being caused by an emotional disorder. He diagnosed the illness as apathy complicated by the need to, as he put it, "get a life." The doctor also told me that this condition was surprisingly common among hams these days. He prescribed weeks of therapy to help me remember why I had worked so hard to earn my license in the first place. It is a grueling, painful regimen of trying new modes of operating, participating in club events and learning new concepts. I'm making steady progress and someday hope to actually be able to answer those who call on my frequency.

Nick Sues, W7ZMD