Hello Jim and Merv: I thought I might share with you an email I wrote to Brooke Allen after reading his wonderful article on Father Moran.
73 and Happy DXing, Mike Schatzberg W2AJI Hello Brooke: I particularly enjoyed your article about Moran, as he called himself on the air. Everyone knew he was Father Moran, but when asked, he would just say "my name is Moran". While you may remember him from the pile-ups on 15 or 20 meters, I remember hearing his "BREAK" while chatting with local stations on 15 meters, way back in the sixties. "Standby breaking station," said I. I then finished my last thought, and said, "breaker go ahead please". Then I heard, "This is 9N2 Mickey Mouse", said the voice. "This is Moran in Katmandu". I was really stunned, here he was, the best known DX station in the entire world, breaking into my QSO. I swallowed hard, and said, "hello Father, how are you today?" Moran said, "Mike, (God he knew my name from reading the mail), have you got the newspaper there with the scores from the weekend football?" "Sure Father, let me see where it is". "Tell me how Notre Dame made out on Saturday please". Well, that was the beginning of many contacts with Father Moran. I often read the scores to him, and he always broke in when he heard my signals. My callsign for 42 years was WB2AJI, and I was operating from West Orange, New Jersey in the sixties. To avoid creating pile ups, I always mumbled his callsign. His signal wasn't very strong as I remember, and I could almost keep a contact with him a secret for a while, until the anxious tuner uppers would finally bury Moran's little signal. Thanks for putting a smile on my face tonight as I read your article. I remain an active DXer to this day, but those contacts with Father Moran were really special. 73, Mike Schatzberg W2AJI http://home.earthlink.net/~cherokeehillfarm/ ---------------------------------------------------------- Archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] THE DXR is sponsored by the North Jersey DX Association. Please visit our website: http://www.njdxa.org/index.php scroll to bottom for subscribe/unsubscribe options ----------------------------------------------------------
