The time that I was a member of the Russian Ballot on Ice

 In 1990 the Russian Ballot On Ice were on a world tour and they were in Oklahoma City and suddenly their country no longer existed. The Soviet Union had collapsed. So the ice skaters were in a foreign country with no place to go, no way to get back home, no money for food or lodging.  They were in a bad place. At some point they connected with the Nazarene Church and the church took care of them. Fast forward to March 1995, the Nazarene Church had raised enough money for them to do some shows at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, and these shows would raise enough money for all of the ice skaters could go back home to their families.   

Of course they were ecstatic. As a way to say thanks to the Nazarene Church they had members of the churches from all across the OKC Metro and the members of  the Nazarene Church would sit in the audience and at certain times during the show we would get up and sing different songs. It was such a wonderful event to be a part of. 

On the last night of the show we were allowed to go back stage and meet all of the ice skaters. They were so happy that they were walking on air. All of the shows was a success and soon they would be in a plane heading home. We all went to back stage area and started meeting these wonderful people. After a while me and my brother in law at the time decided to go outside for a smoke break. Before we made it outside a group of three people saw us and guessed that I was a skater and my brother in law was my bodyguard. So they came up and asked for my autograph! My brother in law was going to say now but I whispered, lets roll with this. So I signed autographs for these people and before I could finish more people wanted autographs. Pretty soon we had a group of 10-15 people all standing around us. They gave me flower and balloons, the ladies with their lipstick on were kissing me on the cheek. They took a bunch of pictures. It was so funny and I was doing everything I could not to bust up laughing. My brother in law just rolled his eyes cause he had known me long enough to know of the stuff I would do. 

After about 30 minutes we finally made it outside to have our smoke. By this time the people that I was with (my sister, my future wife [we weren't dating at this time], and future mother in law, came outside to check on us and saw that we had a bunch of flowers and balloons and my face covered in lipstick kisses. I also had a pocket full of phone numbers. Me and my brother in law were laughing so hard that we had trouble telling everyone what happend, they didn't want to believe us cause it was so ridiculous, yet we had the flowers, balloons, phone numbers. 

Please follow this blog to read more stories as I share them. Feel free to leave comments in the comments section below. As always you can contact me at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Kilo Five Aaron The Great

     Hello everyone and welcome to the greatest blog ever put together in the history of humanity. Not buying that uh? Ok then welcome to my blog which is the greatest blog ever put together on this side of Turner Dr in Midwest City. I'm assuming that since it is probably the only blog done by anyone on this side of my street. Now let me introduce myself. My name is Ed but I go by Aaron for short. 

    I have been doing one blog or another since I got my amateur radio license in 2013 and I decided to start a new one with a clean slate, and with a custom domain, www.k5atg.com! I'm official now. 

    To be honest I was never really interested in ham radio. My love had always been astronomy. I saved up for over a decade, I got the telescope of my dreams and life was good. Then along came 2010 and I found out that I had damaged my back (bone spurs in my spinal cord, spinal stenosis, bulging disk, herniated disk) So hauling around my 150 lb telescope was out of the question. Eventually, I had surgery done on my lower back, and the surgeon discovered the damage to my spinal cord and sciatica nerve was a lot more than had been expected. Worse of all, it could not be repaired. So I fought it like hell until 2016 and I was forced to stop working and go on disability. 

    In 2013 my mother-in-law asked me if I would take a ham radio class with her. She had tried several times in the past but life had always gotten in the way and she had to stop the classes. She was hoping that I would keep her motivated and she would complete the class and get her ham radio license. We both completed the class and she became KF5VBU and I became KF5VBV. 

    In 2014 I upgraded to the General Class. I took a gamble on my call sign when I upgraded by requesting a new call sign. I got one that sucked KG5EYK. Enough said about that call sign. A new vanity call sign was a must-have now. My wife and kids agreed that my new call sign shall be K5ATG. My initials are EAS so how did we come up with ATG? Good story. 

    Back in the late 1990s my wife and I were walking around in a mall when one of those survey people came up and wanted me to take a survey. I didn't want to but the wife said I would when she heard that we could win something. I don't even remember what I could have won. My argument was that they would sell my information and we would be hammered by junk mail and credit card approvals. Mr. Survey dude said that they never sell information or the people that do the surveys. It would never ever happen. Yeah freaking right. 

    I did the damn survey but I added my own twist. Instead of using my actual name, I use one of my own creation. For the first name I put in Aaron and for the last name, I used The Great. I became Aaron The Great. I showed my wife what I had done and for some reason, she was not as amused. 

    We forgot all about it and about a month later my wife was checking the mail and all of a sudden she started yelling at me and started throwing envelopes at me. Yup Aaron The Great got approved for a Visa and American Express. Within a month, there were approvals for new car loans (I wasn't even working at the time 😁) coupons, and about a hundred charities wanting money. The icing on the cake was I started getting hundreds and hundreds of free address labels for Aaron the Great. I never got any of those using my real name. I used the name, Aaron the Great just that one time for that survey that would never sell my information. A decade and a half later I was still getting mail addressed to Aaron the Great. When I was applying for a new vanity call sign my initials were already taken so it was decided that since Aaron the Great got more mail at my house than I did, my call sign should be K5ATG for Kilo Five Aaron The Great. 

    At this time I have been hamming it up since 2013. When I was able to get an HF radio I decided to get an Elecraft K2. I picked the K2 because others who had one simply loved it and if they ever sold it, they regretted selling it from day one. Also, I was new into HF and did not want to buy a radio that came fully loaded with all of the bells and whistles when I did not know how to use all of those bells and whistles. Why buy options that I would never use. 

    I started out my adventures into the HF bands doing only QRP. They say don't do that, but that is what I did and I do not regret it one bit. 

    Well, that is my story and I'm sticking to it. If you would like updates as I stumble along, then please subscribe. Feel free to leave any comments in the comments section below. You can contact me via email at Aaron@K5ATG.com

'72

Aaron K5ATG