Being my usual “behind the scenes” self but also wanting to expose my kids to some culture (also an excuse to get them down to New York City for the first time ever,) I volunteered to assist as a ham radio operator during the 2018 Celebrate Israel Parade in the one and only New York City, US of A! It’s a long distance trip for us from where we live, and the offer to volunteer was in response to a broadcast email from a person I have never met. All I had was his name and contact info, including his callsign. Instantly it’s a different feel than some other type of random contact info – immediately you know more about that person, beginning with the fact that they have a common interest and to some extent have been vetted by a high level organization in terms of a skill level (the same FCC as you yourself were vetted by.)
Given the long distance, short timeframe and required background checks, there was no sense of dry run, practice, or even much advance planning (no further comment there.) So needless to say, meeting K2SO along with the other team members in person that day was also the first time we had ever met , nor gone over anything tactical ahead of time other than one or two confidential details by email.
And yet – despite differences – things worked. (Not without a hitch – nothing ever does, no matter how much planning ahead there is. But it worked enough to get the job done!) It worked because:
- there was a set standard of knowledge exhibited by the fact that each person was licensed…
- there was a understanding and trust in that standardized knowledge and capability, with our reputations (and that of the parade) on the line…
K2SO = OSTROVE, STEVEN A
W2MIT = BUCHWALD, GARY
KB2TGR = KOLAT, DAVID H
N2WKS = DARACK, ZEV N
KD2MKQ = MERCZYNSKI-HAIT, ANDREW J (Tsvi)
KD2PLE = (myself)
There was also 1 other “mystery ham” named “Richard, but he is a mystery unlike the others in that because I never got his call sign, I have no way of recalling who he is…
And that’s the point of the whole “unique” call sign system – the fact that worldwide, even if I don’t have your name or any other of 20 different pieces of personal
information necessary to try and locate someone again if need be, with that call sign I can look up and find every other member of the team, even though I barely knew their first names on that day.