13JUN24 23:51z 7.031.03 Mhz
CQ CQ CQ CQ DE KD2W CQ CQ CQ DE KD2W
He was coming in rather well, a 559 signal and there was the sound of a keyer being used. Well formed letters in the Farnsworth spacing with some mistakes but mostly there.
KD2W DE N2QFD N2QFD KN
Pause....
D1FD K MU? H ?
I think he got some of it so I sent again. I was using a QRP radio and while I regularly make contacts with no issues you never know.
KD2W DE N2QFD N2QFD, UR RST 559 559, OTH ELMIRA, NY ELMIRA, NY SO HW CPY? DE N2QFD KN
There was another pause....
DE KD2W K Y UO AA T AT SS Y
Pause....
I replied KD2W DE N2QFD R R R I CPY U FB BUT I CANNOT UNDERSTAND. BST 73 ES HPE TO CU LATER KD2W DE N2QFD AR SK..
It was something my brain told me from my teen years working in the nursing home. It was like a ham radio operator who was a wiz on morse code still having the muscle memory of years gone by but unable to make the words flow from his mind into his hand anymore. It sounded like dementia at the key...
I found his local club and asked if anyone who knew the call sign via email would put some eyes on the man. His call sign had expired last year after looking into it and his address was listed for sale... They were too far away and not linked for a VHF call from here.
...they were sure I was incorrect with my copy of the call sign, but hadn't confirmed the man was ok either. I was sure I'd copied it several times as sent, and expect my local club would blow off a call to come check on me as well.
We're licensed to operate radios, and that gets confused and conflated with being good at communication. We are as a whole after 31 years of observations, awful communicators with great technical skills.
Look after each other.
DE N2QFD AR SK ..