My First "Real" Contact

I got my Technician ticket about three months ago (December 18). Other than a couple of net check-ins, etc., I've mostly just been listening.

On February 1, I made what I consider my first "contact" (non-repeater, non-ragchew). I have the 2-meter, 1.25-meter, and 70-cm FM simplex calling channels programmed into my handheld and scan them along with the various repeater frequencies. I was startled to hear someone on 146.520 for the first time since I got my license. It turned out to be a ham on Mt. Diablo looking for Summits-on-the-Air (SOTA) contacts. On top of that, he was KK6ZLY--the next sequential callsign after mine! I exchanged information with him, then he moved on to his next contact. After making my first real log entry, I went to the SOTA website, registered, and got my first two SOTA points. By the way, we were both using 5-watt handhelds (indoors, in my case).

Although we were less than 40 miles apart, it felt great responding to a real "CQ" and making a direct (simplex) contact over the airwaves; that, to me, is the essence of what I'm looking for in amateur radio.