Fostering Goodwill...

[ae2ny]

Tonight I was thinking about how I could go about finding the origins of my father's last name (I was adopted so I never knew my father) but I knew his last name, and subsequently found out he passed away in the mid 80's.

But I've still wanted to know where the name came from. Thinking it was a Russian or Polish name, I hopped onto Echolink and connected to a Russian 2M Repeater and got a hold of RA0AN from Siberia.

He was able to confirm for me that my father's last name is indeed Russian. He gave me a starting point for finding out where my family line comes from and what kind of family history I have. That was EXTREMELY appreciated.

Then he asked me for a favor in return.

He has a friend who lives in Davenport, FL but has been unable to contact him via EMail for the last 3 weeks. Now bear in mind that RA0AN only knows very broken English, a few words here and there. But this friend in Davenport is also Russian and an Amateur Operator.

I immediately called 411 Connect and found that his friend was listed in the phone book and I now have his phone number. RA0AN has been very worried about him since the hurricanes and not answering emails.

The least I can do is to call this person and say "Hey you're friend's very worried about you, can I send him an email telling him you're OK?"

Fostering Global Goodwill is one of the facets of Amateur Radio. And I'm happy to say it's the least I can do for someone who knows only 50 words max of the English language who helped me out so much.

They say wars are about government and politics. After talking to this Russian gentleman, I can see what they say about war is absolutely correct. Maybe, JUST MAYBE... The citizens aren't our enemies... only the politicians are.

I should know... I just made a friend for life because I told him I would do the best I could to locate his friend here in the states.


Anthony - KI4VPR

[N7AAO]

Great way to help out a fellow ham.

The way I look at it, your contact was a ham who happened to live in Russia... we are all one big brotherhood, right?

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/unclesam.gif

[K0RGR]

Yes, you did a good thing here. Now, I just want to point out something. If you did this on the air, and the foreign ham asked you to give a message to his friend in the States, you would have to check first to see if we have a 3rd party agreement with that country. We don't have one with Russia.

However, in this case, the recipient was also a ham - in that case, there is an exemption for messages going to licensed hams. Also, you used Echolink. If there was no radio involved, then the 3rd party rules don't come into play, anyway.

You did a good thing!

I had a German ham come up on Echolink and our local repeater hoping to set up an autopatch schedule with his son who is an exchange student in a nearby city. I told him that his son should just study for our Tech license - you do not have to be a U.S. citizen to get a U.S. license - and then he can get on Echolink. But he can't use it otherwise, because the 3rd party rules won't allow it - at least not over RF.