"Doug" wrote in
nk.net:

Twenty years ago I used a 2 meter ham handheld running 1 watt to talk
from Portland, OR to China...it was via repeaters in the pacific NW
intertie and then commercial (Boeing Aviation?) satellite link from
Seattle to China and back out on a ham repeater. I must admit it
surprised me greatly at first, but then I figured out what was going
on.


I was talking to a guy riding the train into Helsinki, Finland, through
their local UHF repeater on top of some mountain from Charleston a few
months ago....so there....(sticks tongue out, smiling)

Of course, I was on Echolink on the computer VoIP for ham radio...(c;

My Swiss buddy, Werner, AA4IX, is from Berner Oberland in unbelievably
beautiful countryside of Thun on the Thuner See (lake). There is a
repeater on top of one of the local mountains on Echolink he talks to his
buddies back in HB9-land daily. Of course, an ugly American, I don't speak
German. Other German friends claim Berner Oberland doesn't speak German,
either...(c;