The band came alive last night - and many people showed up to the party.
The evening got off to a quick start with SM7BIC in the log at 0151Z - with
plenty of light in the sky - but just after sunset.
R1FJT turns out to be the station that answered me the previous night, and he
peaked up enough for a QSO at 0221. He was on for several hours and I
understand is barefoot. I was unable to hear RA4LW this evening and went
down to dinner after working SM5BFJ at 0240.
After working ZL8R on 20 and 17 meters, DL8LAS showed up with a decent signal.
He did choose 1830, which is a bad frequency for some in the USA (unless you
are EA3JE) - but it wasn't a problem for me. That was at 0324, and then I
started listening to see if I could hear Karel, ZS6WN who was CQing down on
1819. A few minutes before his sunrise, his signal came up well enough to
copy him and we exchanged reports at 0334Z - pretty much his sunrise. He had
thought the bad had died.
I did hear a little of the 5R - but not well enough to call. That was
earlier in the evening obviously.
Some of the standard calls made it in the log during the second half of the
03Z hour - SM5EDX, G3PQA, GM3POI and I even worked NL7Z just to make sure
I had NA. HK3BVD was around on the band, and I finally put him in the log
at 0437. OZ7YY peaked up at 0442 and then I found SM7GIB CQing on 1830.5,
who I don't ever remember working before. ZL8R showed up on 30, so I worked
them, then put PA0CLN, SM4CAN and SM7DLK in the log before the band pretty
much went empty. I did have IV3PRK come back to me, but we didn't quite
get the QSO done, and I heard a few peeps from OM2XW. Just before bed, I
put ZL8R into the log on 40 and then 80 meters.
Woke up at a strange hour - about 1115z and decide to see if anything is
going on the band. W8JI is there, a KL7 and some people trying to hear
some southeast Asian stations. I hook up with Bob, VK3ZL and after not
hearing VK6HD hardly at all - I got back to sleep for an hour or two.
Just before sunrise and leaving for work, I heat up the shack with the
hopes of working an Asian for WAC in one night (always a fun thing to
pull off). N2NL tells me the band is dead - but RA4LW is on 80 meters.
N6FF notices some warbles on the band, which I can hear to - is that the
"dragon"?
But then, about 20 seconds after one of my CQs, Shige, JH2FXK calls in with a
good 569 signal - and the deed is done. A dozen Europeans, all continents -
but no new ones. The ZL8 didn't appear to be on 160 yet, but I did hear them
tell VK9NS "see you on 160" when they worked on 40 meters.
ZL8R did say "see you on EME" when I worked them on 80 - but that is a
different story, for a different day, on a different reflector.
73 Tree N6TR/7
tree@kkn.net
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