The December Doldrums are officially over.
For the second day we had good long path/skewed path conditions in the
pre-dawn hours.
This morning's excitement started with VK3IO (579) calling in at 1018z
and VK3ZL (599!) at 1037z. Often when the VK's are this loud it's a sign
the band will be poor to the tougher paths in Asia and the Pacific, so I
didn't get my hopes up.
But then KH2/N2NL came through nicely on the direct path at 1100z.
And a few minutes later, Hiro, DU1/JJ5GMJ, showed up on 1811.5 and was
being heard in New England. And I could copy him here in Delaware! DU
has been a long, hard chase for me, having heard my first (a US station
portable there) around 1980 when I was in Connecticut. I heard a few
others over the years, including a 5-year pursuit of DU9/N0NM, who I
heard many, many times with no QSO. And I've heard DU1IST both in our
morning and LP in the evening the past two years.
But unlike some of the others, Hiro manages to hear stations quite well.
And his 300 watts and inverted L put out a good signal. I was fortunate
to get him in the log at 1110z (no. 314) and numerous others also had
success. Thanks Hiro for your persistence!
About this time BU2AQ also started coming through, peaking due south
though later shifting sometimes to SSW. I was copying him up till 1200z.
No prize for me today but Allison did work several East Coast stations.
DU1IST also started CQ'ing, and while his signal was stronger than
Hiro's, he has difficulty hearing and no QSO's were observed though he
had many callers from the USA East Coast.
Peter, XU7ACY, has had a strong signal here on the long path the past
two days, and he gave many a new one today.
Ross, 9M2AX, also was coming through again today but had some trouble
with local thunderstorms there.
In other years with these long and skewed path openings, as sunrise
approached the Asian signals often would shift around to the short path.
But that hasn't happened this week.
73/Jon AA1K
Felton, Delaware
www.aa1k.us
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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