It's still magical to me!

 A different take on Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me."

I keep thinking about that QSO with Alex RG5A on Saturday night. At first glance, just another QSO with Russia - certainly no exotic DX, and millions of QSOs have occurred  between American and Russian Hams over the years.

But lest I grow jaded ...............

According to QRZ, the distance between South Plainfield and Alex's QTH is 5,340 miles. That means my signal covered that distance at a rate of 1,086 Miles per Watt. A record? Nowhere near, but still darn amazing when you pause to ponder it. Think of the flight time if you were to board a plane and travel there - HOURS! At the speed of light, my 5 Watts covered that distance instantaneously!

My transmitter to a hunk of wire, emitted RF energy into the dark night, traveling along the ionosphere to end up at Alex's antenna and his receiver. We take the process for granted, and we've come to expect this kind of thing as "normal", and we complain when it's not!. But to me it's still as magical as when I was studying for my Novice license back in 1978.

The world is huge, but we've made it small. Video and television from all spots around the world is commonplace since Telstar in the 1960s. The internet had made the world even smaller. But in my mind, it's still huge. I stand at the Jersey shore, looking at the waves break and the vastness f the open sea and I still can't quite grasp the miracle of radio, my 5 Watts traveling all that distance. 

It truly is incredible this gift of Amateur Radio that we have been given. I hope the fascination never fades.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!