The art of the "rag chew"

Conversation is an art, not a science.  Amateur radio is a great hobby that brings together people of many diverse backgrounds and lets them enjoy fellowship and the fun of this great adventure.

"Rag chew" is the amateur's term for a casual conversation.  It's much more than just a signal report exchange. 

I used to "rag chew" all the time, before the DXing "bug" bit me.  But sometimes I still find the chance to enjoy a chat with a fellow ham.

Case in point: I worked Peter, VK6APZ, Friday night October 26.  He is located almost at my antipode in western Australia, which gives it some special propagation characteristics (more on that in a separate post).  We confirmed that the propagation was via Long Path, as his signals were arriving from East instead of West (unusual for the signal to travel so far in darkness when there is a daylight path, and it was long after his sunrise so not a gray-line path.

What is really neat is not the propagation, but the 20 minute rag chew we had about dogs.  Peter's best buddy is his blue-heeler mix named Champ.  You already know from my earlier blogs about our three rescued golden retrievers.  So we had another life passion/interest, our canine friends.  It was great to chat with Peter, and I look forward to working him again soon.

Sometimes DX is more than just getting a new one in the log.

73 and Good DX!