I had heard by the grapevine the VK9LX might be on 160 this morning.
Came down to the shack about 1100z and found no dx activity. Shortly
thereafter at 1131z a spot came through the cluster from K1ZM (tnx!).
Tuned down to 1822 and heard people calling at about 1822.4, but just
barely a hint of the VK9. Since the VK9 was right on 1822, he was hard
to copy with everyone calling so close to his tx freq. Fortunately,
everyone calling started gradually moving up the band a bit which helped
onsiderably. I do not have my west beverage up yet, so I was listening
on the tx ant (quarter wave vertical w/elevated feed and radials).
Fortunately, the band was very quiet this morning so I could hear fairly
well.
I started hearing him well enough to start calling about 1200z. As the
morning wore on and we grew closer to sunrise, his signal gradually
improved. I finally worked him at 1244z but was not sure that I had a
good qso, so worked him (again perhaps) at 1259z which was about when he
eaked. NR0X and N0AV, both also in Iowa, worked him as well.
Not sure who's running this op. . . but he/she's a good operator and
certainly has good ears.
73,
Dave
W0FLS
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