The phone rang before dawn this morning for my wife, who is a midwife,
and off she went to her laboring woman. That ended any chance of more
sleep, so it was off to 160 for me. Finding little, I went to 80 and
found a pileup on HS1AZ (Dan, KL7Y operating?)
When my number came up I of course asked the op about 160, and the reply
was "1831 in 20 min"--1430Z. I replied that my sunrise was about then
and he came back with "15 min." That was just FB for me, but this
exchange garnered catcalls and insults from some curmudgeon who did not
want him to QSY. Other topbanders--N6TR and W6PBI--asked about 160 and
got the same answer, without the accompanying insults. HS1AZ QSY'd at
about 1427. I called blind once or twice and was annoyed by the same
curmudgeon, who apparently felt I had no right to call the DX, in
addition to not having the right to move him. HS1AZ was then heard
tuning and had a decent signal. I and others called.
Amazingly, he came back to me first and we concluded a QSO, which I
logged two minutes after sunrise. Thereafter, his signal improved for a
rew minutes. Many tried and a few succeeded, but he did NOT appear to
hear well, frequently CQing into the pileup. Not surprisingly, the
northwesterners were the last to give up. I was surprised (shocked,
actually) not to hear my cousin N6TR in the pile.
This was, as they say, an unexpected gift from the Propagation Gods.
Good hunting!
--
Garry Shapiro, NI6T
Editor, The DXer
newsletter of the Northern California DX Club
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