Finally I had some QSOs over the repeater. I also had one on echolink with somebody in Oregon. Great fun. The only weird this was that the guy I was chatting with here in Houston asked me if I knew that things were going to happen in the next week. I replied that I didn't have a clue. Then I got a lecture about conspiracy theory things like 9/11, the Kennedy assassination, many things I don't remember. I think I got a live one for sure. I decided this was not for me and said I needed to get back to my movie. "This is AB5OX clear." Sheesh, I was not expecting that. A normal QSO involves things like the weather, how long you have been a ham, what bands you use, the equipment you are operating and so forth. I guess I got the one looney ham in the Clear Lake area. Of course, if he was right, I am going to have to change this posting. Today's photo is of me and my trusty Icom IC-W2A HT (handy talkie) which I have had for 30 years. It seems to work great, but I am doing some testing to see if the on-board memory battery back up really does work.