His Trip to a Remote Island Brought Him Closer to People in 140 Countries

Charles (Chip) Margelli of Garden Grove says he had the time of his life visiting an uninhabited island near the Soviet Union, where he and five Soviet and five Finnish ham operators recently made contact with an estimated 41,000 other radio operators in 140 countries.

“It was just plain fun and clearly was the highlight of my life,” Margelli said of his trip to Malyj Vysotskij, which is northwest of Leningrad near the Finnish border. Even despite the primitive accommodations and blustery winds that created havoc with tents and antennas during the weeklong stay.

“I felt like Daniel Boone for part of the time when we had to hack a trail through the forest to our two operating sites,” said Margelli, a veteran ham radio operator who manages a ham radio dealership in Los Angeles.

Margelli said his invitation to participate came through a years-long friendship with the Finnish contingent. The idea behind the trip was to establish relationships with other amateur operators in countries all over the world but especially with those in the Soviet Union, he said.

Ham operators often vie with one another to see who can make the most difficult, most exotic radio contacts, he noted.

“The Russians were especially anxious to have an American on the trip,” said Margelli, who took part in a similar expedition to China in 1980.

In addition to completing the main objective, Margelli said, “We managed to generate a lot of good will. Each night, the Russians wanted to sit down and get in some serious talking and to toast our mission.”

A typical toast would be: “Let’s hope our leaders get their radio licenses and meet like this on an informal basis,” he said. “Programs like this can only help bring good will and help break down the Iron Curtain.”

The men were able to communicate with one another because three of the Russians spoke English and one Finn understood German, Margelli’s second language.

Although the group suffered hardships that included transporting, by land and by water, 5,000 pounds of radio equipment and 900 liters of gas to power generators, there were some light moments too.

“The only inhabitant on the island was a moose, and we dubbed him Mickey Moose,” Margelli said. “He kept moving from one station to another, and one night he came within 50 feet of me. . . . I high-tailed it out of there. I think he was lonely.”

Back at home, it’s easy to see Margelli’s interest in international communications. There is an extensive antenna system on his house so that he can reach other operators who may be halfway around the world.

One day, he said, he hopes to receive a radio call from one of the Russians, particularly from the one who used a clever sign-off during their week together.

“His sign-off signal is UA6HZ,” Margelli said. The HZ stands for “Hot Ziggedy.”

Brenda Miner, figuring that most people never see a million of anything at one time, thought it would be nice if her fifth-grade pupils at Our Lady of Fatima School in San Clemente could actually see a million of something.

So last September, her 28-member class started a drive to collect one million pinto beans.

Keeping the kids interested in the effort, which meant collecting and counting them all, tested her ingenuity, she said, especially after a Mexican restaurant donated a 100-pound bag of the legumes.

To keep them going, Miner offered Honor Dollar rewards that could be redeemed for items such as Frisbees, books, sun visors and the like.

Pupil Stephanie Melton probably spoke for the rest of the class when she said she thought the collecting and the counting would never end.

It all came to a successful close in June, however, when the millionth bean was counted and they all were dumped into one big pile to let everyone see what a million of something looks like.

Now the group wants to do something with them. They’re thinking along the lines of a chili cook-off to raise money or donating them all to charitable organizations.

Acknowledgments--Adrienne Stiefel, 11, a Laguna Hills girl who is a student at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, has won the title role in the Whittier/La Mirada Light Opera production of “Annie,” which opens Friday for a two-week run at the La Mirada Civic Theatre. Adrienne has performed in two productions at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.