Shawn Dodds, N1CVO

My two favorite things in ham radio are delivering radiograms and ragchewing. Both are social interactions for me.

I started handling traffic in 1970, as a teen MARS member, relaying messages between military bases in the Midwest and their families in the Tulsa area where I lived. Of course, nearly all the traffic was family-related, there was one telephone in the house, and if it rang, somebody answered. I got a kick out of it and people appreciated it. Some "repeat customers" knew me by name. Ah, the good old days….

I got back into traffic handling in 2023 after a 30-year hiatus from ham radio. Much of the traffic nowadays seems to be bulk "welcome" messages and it is great practice. I’ve read in some forums that some hams won’t take them for delivery because phone numbers are sometimes incorrect. I look at it a bit like fishing: I might throw my line in the water a few times and get nothing, but when I get a bite, it’s rewarding and sometimes entertaining. I would like to thank VE1AQF, NX9K, N9VC, NØJAR, DL4FN, N1IQI, and others for providing me with a “fishing hole.” Nowadays, message delivery can be fulfilling and rewarding, or frustrating, or saddening.

The Gratitude

In my very first delivery since the 1970s, I said “Hi I’m….”, and the woman said loudly, “Who is this, what do you want!?” I explained, and she was excited by the welcome message and my offer to help her with advice. Later, on the air, she told me that I was literally her first contact with a ham after getting her license and considered me her first Elmer since I gave her some tips. I was hooked again.

Many express their deep gratitude that anybody would even bother to send or deliver something to them. Many are lost as to how to get started, and I help them as much as can, telling them about repeaters and clubs in their area. This gives me a good feeling and makes me feel like an ambassador of goodwill for amateur radio.

One wanted a copy of the radiogram to post on his wall. I had it in a PDF and emailed it to him. In another case, the guy was standing in a field in Kentucky which he had inherited, but he received my call and answered. He told me later that after getting that call, he knew he was in the right hobby, where a lot of people care. He was at an exam session to upgrade, and I was one of the VEs. Seeing my ballcap with N1CVO on it, he immediately remembered my call sign — even after a year — and he thanked me in person for the first call I made to him. In a delivery to a 10-year-old, I reached the father who pulled to the side of the road and gave it to his son. In a delivery to a local 85-year-old, he offered to buy me a beer.

The Entertainment

The following exchange was probably the most entertaining. I called one recipient on his smartphone.

Him: Hello?

Me: Hi, I’m Shawn, amateur call N1CVO. Am I speaking with <name> <callsign>?

Him: How did you know I was on?

Me: What?

Him: How did you get ahold of me?

Me: Um, I called your phone from my phone, and you answered.

Him: Yeah, but how did you know I was on?

Me: I just called your phone.

Him: Isn’t this over radio?

Me: Well, cellular radio, but not ham radio.

Him: Well, I just installed and finished configuring Echolink on my phone; the phone rang and I assumed that you knew that I was here and online.

Me: Um, no. That’s not the way Echolink works.

After some more explanation on my part, I delivered the message.

Although handling instructions are almost always HXG, I send a letter or postcard if I cannot connect by phone. Some reply, some don’t. Again, it’s like fishing.

I met one ham on-air to whom I had delivered a message. We chatted about traffic handling and now he’s doing traffic handling, including digital.

I mentioned to one new ham that if I hadn’t contacted him on the phone, I would have sent him a postcard. He asked for a postcard anyway and I sent it. When he upgraded to General, I heard traffic for him on a net and grabbed it. I called him, and he asked for another postcard, and the same thing happened when he upgraded to Extra. He calls them his first QSL cards.

I always ask what got them into the hobby. I’m amazed at the reasons, many of which intermingle their other hobbies with ham radio. A drone operator wanted to use amateur frequency drones. A person whose main hobby was astronomy built an observatory on a hill behind his house, and he wanted to build a gigahertz system to control the telescope and view what it was pointed at. In another case, three students who wanted to launch their own weather balloon were licensed so they could put APRS and a repeater on the balloon. The list goes on.

The Frustration

There are also multiple sources of frustration, such as the “disconnected” numbers and unreturned voicemails (often due to the onslaught of telemarketing/scam calls). I called one new ham who answered, and after introducing myself as a fellow ham, he kept trying to find out what my “angle” was. “Okay, what are you trying to sell me?” “Okay then, what are you advertising?” By the time he upgraded, and I had called him with a congratulatory message, he had turned around.

Some Sadness

I deliver the “your license is expiring” messages from Loren, N1IQI, with a sense of urgency. Some say “thanks, already did it,” and others thank Loren and me for reminding them. There is sadness, however, when delivering one of these messages one finds that the recipient is now a Silent Key. I always research before dialing a phone number.

And That’s My Emotional Journey

I find it mostly rewarding to deliver the messages, to answer their questions (if any) and to have a good, friendly discussion over the phone. As a VE, I pass out a “help” sheet to passing applicants, and one of the items on that sheet is the possibility of them receiving a radiogram. I’m retired, live in a condo and don’t really contest or chase DX. Traffic handling and delivery keeps me quite busy, reasonably prepared to handle Welfare traffic if necessary, and happy to be helping others out.