A one-to-one call with his majesty (1999)

-When in university, I was a member of a radio club affiliated with the local Students' Society.

Lore had it a member had gotten in contact with JY1 once, and, much like the ham in this article, assumed he hadn't got the call down correctly. -'Please complete your call; I only got the prefix, over'

-'JY1 is my full call; name is Hussein, over'

-'How do you get a callsign like that, over?'

-'Being a king helps, over.'

I was a member of the hang gliding club at Imperial College in London in the early 90s. A member of our club, Yasmin Saudi, organized a hang gliding expedition in Jordan involving a couple of lucky members (not me) and British women's hang gliding champion Judy Leden. King Hussein kindly provided a military escort and had a personal audience with the participants. He also stayed in touch afterwards, and a year or so later when Yasmin was dying of cancer he frequently called the hospital. He stayed friends with Judy Leden and according to an interview of her whose source I can't remember he sometimes visited the UK unofficially and dropped in for a cup of tea. Other things I've heard about him are that he donated one of his official residences for use as an orphanage and sometimes visited the kids to be supportive and give them video games. I have a feeling he may have been one of the good guys as world leaders go.

Related, sorry if it’s not related enough, I’ve been unable to find the one interview the Japanese emperor Hirohito did in 1975/7 with the American journalist Bernard Krisher, Tokyo bureau chief for Newsweek Magazine from 1968 to 1980. It sounds like an interesting but mild meeting but very rarely quoted.

This is a charming story. There is a sad line from the hopeful early years of the internet to today, from a royal ham operator to Trump’s twitter account.

I remember he was supposed to be the AntiChrist, well he doesn't seem like one. Not a good guy either!