Connections via the ‘Pulse’ and Ham Radio

Two things converged to create this coincidental connection that stood out among all the submissions we received this week.

First, Connie Judd emailed us about her father, John Enigl Sr., who lives in Sevastopol and is turning 97 on Sept. 23 – the same day this issue of the Peninsula Pulse lands in every mailbox up and down the county. 

She wanted us to run a happy-birthday wish for her father. His call sign for his ham-radio club is K9HJL (Kilo nine Hotel Juliet Lima), and he loves jigsaw puzzles. The email came with the photo of John and his latest puzzle.

We run birthday wishes as paid pieces, and that’s where we would have gone with this one. But then, a few days later, we received another email from a man named Thierry Fricot, who lives 4,168 miles away from Sevastopol in a town in northeastern France called Bertrichamps, about 100 kilometers from the German border. 

Fricot sent us a photo of himself holding the Sept. 2-9 issue of the Peninsula Pulse. How he came to be holding that issue is through his hobby, ham radio.

“You know – these crazy people using electrical wires as antennas to talk to other crazy people living all over the world, using only high-frequency waves propagation properties to achieve these goals,” he said in his email.

Each ham-radio operator has her or his own radio call sign. Thierry’s is F4GVO (Foxtrot four Golf Victor Oscar). A few months ago, he contacted a fellow operator named Arde Nelson, KA9WAR (Kilo Alpha nine Whisky Alpha Romeo), who lives in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. 

Learning that Arde would turn 100 on July 2, Thierry sent him an email to thank him for their radio contact and to tell him it was an honor for Thierry to have Arde on his list of contacted people.

“Quickly, he introduced me to his ham-radio community located in Door County, Wisconsin,” Thierry said. “I received a warm welcome from everyone, and since then, we talk all together several days a week.”

One of the ham-radio operators he met was none other than John K9HJL (Kilo nine Hotel Juliet Lima). 

“John has a daughter named Connie, living in Sturgeon Bay,” Thierry said. “We became friends and exchange points of view about life and other stuff through emails. Recently, she sent me a letter (a true one, you know, old-school handwritten) with a copy of the September edition of the Peninsula Pulse newspaper. So here it is. I decided to share this with your readers if it is, of course, OK for you?”

Yes, Thierry. It’s definitely OK.

Thank you, Connie and Thierry, and we wish you a very happy birthday, John Enigl Sr.