Emily had control of the radio, being most familiar with the military unit. She spent the first ten minutes instructing Joe and Jack on the use of it. The crowd was growing impatient by that point.
“Get on with it already, dad!” Christine called out from the back of the room, to a murmur of agreement. Joe cast an annoyed look at his daughter and turned back to the radio with a slight shake of his head. They started scanning radio bands accompanied by the sounds of static.
It went painfully slow to the inexperienced, and the impatience only grew.
Patrick was both impatient and inexperienced. His experience was with the internet, not radio. In his opinion, radio was generations removed from this day and age on the evolutionary scale.
Patrick crept closer and tried to see what the radio operators were doing. Looking over Joe’s shoulder, he could see Emily turn a knob, and saying ‘CQ, CQ, CQ. Romeo Echo November One, listening, over.’ She would wait for about ten seconds, listening to her headset, before repeating the process once more. If she got no response that second time, she would move the dial to the next frequency.
Following Emily’s hand, Patrick noted that the numbers corresponding to the dial consisted of six numbers. Every frequency change only bumped the number by ten.
Patrick poked Joe in the back. “Hey, Joe.” He whispered. Joe turned away from the radio to face Patrick. The big man seemed put off by the interruption but let Patrick know he could ask his question with a ‘uh-huh?’
Patrick didn’t want to piss the guy off, but curiosity got the better of him. “What’s with the numbers? How many stations does she have to scan before she reaches the end of the dial?” He kept his voice low so as not to interfere with Emily.
Joe licked his lips and turned back to the radio with a longing look before turning back to Patrick with a bit of a frown.
“Alright.” He said with a sigh.
It’s not like you’re doing anything, asshole. This guy was literally giving Patrick a headache.
“Are you familiar with FM radio. Like in your car?” Joe started.
“Yeah.”
“Well, that radio range goes from about 88 to 108. Most stations stick to one more digit after the decimal.”
“Hmm. Like that rock station 91.2.”
Joe nodded. “But the signal actually goes to two more digits. So, 91.2 is actually 91,200.”
“Ok, that makes sense.” Patrick said with an impatient nod. “You mentioned range – what kind of range do you have to listen to for a possible signal?
Joe pouted, slightly perturbed. He was enjoying his own lecture. After a moment, he continued. “There are bands that are reserved for certain things. Like I mentioned, your car radio goes from 88 to 108. Any of the frequencies can be used, but generally speaking you will find things like air traffic anywhere between 108 and 140. Most private ham operators will broadcast from the 144 to 148 range, while higher bands will have law enforcement, weather, military etcetera. The top of the range is 174. A couple of things that she will be looking for is MARS and ARES.”
“MARS stands for Military Auxiliary Radio System, and ARES stands for Amateur Radio Emergency Service.” He continued before Patrick could ask.
“Ok. So ... That sounds like a daunting task, scanning all those frequencies one at a time.”
“Yep. And I haven’t even told you about the lower frequencies!” Joe frowned as he tried to recall. “I think you can find the National Guard emergency communications around 35, its 50 for the Red Cross, and 52 has ham radio operators in FM, on a six-meter band.”
Patrick raised his hands. “Whoa. Too much information.” He glanced at Emily as she continued her search. “Can’t she just turn the dial until she picks something up?”
“She could, but then there would be a big chance that she would miss signals.” Joe shook his head disapprovingly. “Besides, it’s not like everybody is broadcasting all the time. That’s why she is initiating contact and allowing time for a response.”
“and I guess this ‘CQ’ is a greeting of some kind?”
“CQ comes from Morse code. It basically stands for ‘calling all stations’. Romeo Echo November One is the callsign we agreed on.” Joe smiled slyly “That stands for REN, which is this school!” He stated with a pleased expression.
So that must have been your idea. What, you want a medal for it?
Joe continued, ignorant of Patrick’s slight. “Then she states: ‘Listening’. Well that’s probably self-explanatory. I would have used ‘Read’ though, which is short for do you read me.”
It looked like Joe was really getting into his lecture. Patrick had no interest in learning any more though. “So, this is going to take a while.” Patrick said, changing the subject.
“Erm... Yeah. It’ll take a bit.”
Just then Patrick felt a small but sharp flash of pain between his eyes. Joe noticed something was off and frowned suspiciously. Patrick changed his grimace of pain to one of displeasure.
“Alright. Well, I think I’ll just take the wife and head off to bed. Let us know if you hear anything?” Patrick turned and walked away before the bristling big man could think of a reply.
“Let’s go, baby.” He said to Rosa and pulled her away. “This is gonna take a while.”
He firmly pulled Rosa with him out the door. She only resisted marginally.
“What’s the rush, Patrick?”
He regarded her as they walked towards their room. “Oh no rush, baby. I just figured while all these folks are busy ...” He smiled his most winning, mischievous grin.
“Really?” Rosa said. “Now?”
“Yeah, why not? It’s been a few days baby. I got needs – you know that!”
Rosa allowed herself to be led along. The couple walked into their room and Rosa closed the door behind them. She stopped and turned.
“Can we ... just go to sleep? I’m not really in the mood.” She knew it was a mistake as soon as she’d said
