The Cloak and Dagger Activation
I received a phone call from KK4JS one evening asking me if I could possibly meet him a week from then. “A week from now?” I queried.
He indicated he had something he wanted to discuss with me and when I offered to meet at his residence or mine and before the lapse of a week, he said that the following Thursday evening would be fine.
Now when that sort of cryptic message is received, one’s mind begins to race imagining all sorts of things. Of course, the topic of such a meeting was uppermost in my mind, but I thought if he had wanted me to know then, he’d have told me.
Given my past life as an attorney, municipal court judge, and police officer ( I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to be when I grew up), I thought he may have a legal issue he wished to discuss and may not have all the information he knew I may need to give him an accurate answer at that point.
To add to the clandestine nature of his request, he added that perhaps we could meet at one of our favorite parks rather than at one of our homes. His rationale for that was that he wanted to see the new Wolf River Coil Octophone antenna I’d recently acquired and perhaps activate the park while we were there.
At that point, I began to relax just a bit, but not entirely. Anyone who knows “Sugar” knows that park activations are not to be overshadowed by any sort of a crisis, and if an opportunity presented itself for an activation, it was to be acted upon forthwith. Consequently, I surmised that, whatever the pressing issue was that required a consultation with me, well, it just couldn’t possibly be too earth shattering.
I agreed to the week’s delay and said I’d meet him at the park with the antenna at the agreed upon time.
It so happened we were to have a club board meeting on the following Monday evening of his call. It occurred to me that perhaps he’d like to discuss his issue there after the meeting. I contacted him and offered to stay late after the meeting so we could discuss things, again on neutral turf so to speak, but he declined. I’d even brought the antenna with me, to show it to him and the set up after the meeting, but he seemed disinterested at that point. He did insure I’d bring it later that week to the park. Hmm, the plot thickens.
The date finally arrived and I headed to the park. During the trip there, Sugar calls me and asked where I was and indicated he may be a few minutes late given the traffic he was encountering at that time. No problem, I would wait on him.
As I approached our usual spot for evening operations at the park, I noticed a small vehicle at the usual parking area. That was unusual since there is generally very little activity in that spot in the late evening. I then noticed yet another vehicle backed up close to an area that generally has a closed gate that leads to a boat landing. I guessed it was someone leaving the landing but as I got closer there was no boat attached to the truck. OH JUST GREAT! The place was going to be like Grand Central Station this evening of all evenings.
The truck was occupied by a man and woman. “Ha, if those two are expecting seclusion and privacy this evening for a romantic interlude, are they going to be surprised,” I thought to myself.
I pulled into one of the few remaining spots to park, taking care to leave room to squeeze Sugar into the last little remaining space.
I heard the truck door open and saw the man getting out. I watched as he approached wondering if this might be a mugging or robbery attempt or perhaps worse. As he approached, the woman also got out and started my way.
The guy leaned into my window and said he’d heard there was to be an “activation” there that evening. Huh? How could he have known that, but then I thought perhaps he was either a new member of the club interested in POTA and had been in contact with Sugar about it or simply someone Sugar was trying to recruit. That still wasn’t making a lot of sense at the moment because the main focus of being there was for him to discuss his issue.
The man then said, “I’m John” and as the woman came up, he turned and said, “and this is Diane. At that point, I knew I’d been had! It was John (KN4SWS) and his wife, Diane (KO4FHS) up from Florida on a multi-state rove. Sugar had known about the plan for a week or more and the three decided to keep me in the dark about it until the last possible moment. It had been on Facebook but they know I don’t do face book. Sugar rolled in about that time and we set up the antenna, which worked to perfection, and the four(4)of us activated the park, having one fantastic time in doing it. It was very good being face to face with voices you’d chatted with on multiple occasions doing Parks on the Air.
They are both a delight to be around and great operators. I honestly felt as if I was activating with someone I’d known as family for a long time, despite never having met them.
Pota is a great way to make new friends and who knows some may even wind up being just like family, not to mention you may run into James “SUGAR” Bond in the process.
