Unexpected contact with the far north

Saturday I went to a fellow church member's apartment to help him move to a new place. I had the wrong address to start with, so arrived near the end of the loading process. So we finished loading, tied everything down, and headed for his new duplex across town. Since I had an errand I needed to do after we unloaded, I took my car rather than riding with the rest of the crew.

During the 20-minute drive to the new address, I put on my traveling headphone and tuned around the 20-meter band. Not much loud enough to hear me on the first couple scans. Then I heard a loud call (which I've learned might actually hear the signal from my car). He worked several stations I could not hear, and then called, "CQ, CQ". I reached down to press the push to talk button, gave my call sign, and was rather pleased to hear VX8X return my call. He said he was working from Ellice Island in the Arctic Ocean.

We exchanged signal reports (he was 59, mine was 48). I listened for a while as he worked more stations, and then his signal simply faded away. I could not hear VX8X at all when I returned to my car after helping unload at my friend's new duplex.

I think some events in life are very much like this transitory contact with a station far to the north on a remote island. Opportunities such as this appear and then disappear. If we fail to recognize and act on the opportunity, the chance is lost.

I looked for VX8X on the web earlier today, and found more information on the DX-pedition on his blog (http://ve8ev.blogspot.com/). I feel fortunate to be among the 2,228 contacts (QSOs) he made from Ellice Island (IOTA NA-192). Guess I need to start looking for other islands on the air one of these days. The official site for islands worldwide is at http://www.rsgbiota.org/.