Sorry you feel so frustrated about "Talking to strangers in other places.
Personally I have had rather pleasant conversations with
Tom Christian....on Pitcairn Island in the sourth pacific...yep...relative of the Mr Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty."
Sevreal very nice people at the South pole...of all nationalities.
Worked Pacific Maritine Net for years and aided a blind young man on his voyage from the USA to Austrailia...yes, he made it,...yes he was really blind.
Chatted with a couple of Koreans who were to bring a boat from Korea to San Francisco...they had NO sailing experience...were sighted south of Midway Island and wound up in Marina Del Rey, CA...Los Angeles..just a mere 295 miles off target.
Kurt Carlsen, the famous sea captian whose ship was going down in the north sea...he was rescued....later talked to him when he was in port in India.
Mirko in Yugoslavia who could not get tubes...sent him an 813 and he sent back one of the most beautiful silver necklace I have ever seen.
K7CJ...Crackers Jack...an old, old friend...we started together...he was on an ol tanker from Prudoe Bay to San Fransicso.
Gen Curtis Le May and Gen "Butch" Griswold on the test run for SSB for the U S Airforce....they flew a KC-97 from Omaha to Europe and back on the test run...it was successful and SSB became the new method of transmitting.
Was aware of it but did not participate in the initial ham radio coast to coast 2-Meter Repeater trial...it worked.
Yep, talking with "Strangers" can be interesting and entertaining.
Perhpaps your frustration was that you "Bro" could not get his illegal rig to work?
. Ham is not for everyone, and some get into it more than others. I like the emergency communications aspect of it. Plus, I have watched too many movies from the 70's and 80's.
