I can only offer an incident from personal experience about this topic.
This QSO is etched in my mind for all time.
During the mid-1980s I was just finishing up a serious effort for the CQWW
160M Contest on Sunday morning and I was operating from my previous QTH in
upstate New York.
It was about 10 minutes after sunrise and the main part of the contest was
behind me. At that point I would normally relax and turn on the CQ repeat
machine to pick up the east coast stations that would normally show up
during the daylight hours. But for some reason I decided to tune up around
1900kHz before to see if I could hear any JAs or anything of interest.
Imagine my surprise when I heard a big USA pileup on 1900kHz of midwest
stations. It was the biggest 160M pileup that I (even to today) had even
heard on topband. I listened for a minute and actually heard the station
they were calling. It was H44IA.
I had never heard an H44 on 160M before and though he was weak, I could
copy him fine when he was in the clear. The pileup, however, was like
listening to a beehive and it went on and on even when he was transmitting.
He had a hard time working people because of the continuous calling. He
wasn't working split.
I had nowhere to go and I didn't have much expectation because it was about
15 minutes after sunrise by that time. So I threw my call in a few times
and started listening again. I heard him sending and listening several
times before I could copy what he was sending through the callers. He was
calling me!
I was almost too stunned to reply. But I managed to find the key paddle and
send a quick "5NN NY" and he was in the log as a multiplier and a new
country overall for 160M. I was really excited about the QSO at the time.
I don't recall any other long distance DX QSOs made since then at 15
minutes after sunrise. Just a fluke I suppose.
73, Richard
k5na@texas.net
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