I managed to get on 160 CW starting at 05:30 UT and figured I might
catch a few early risers on the "Continent". I was quite surprised at
the level of activity. I did not hear many stateside callers, but I was
busy for a few hours up until just about Sunrise in Europe. No exotic DX
worked, but I managed a number of contacts with new stations for me. As
I was getting close to EU Sunrise, I also got a call from ZL1AZ. He was
good copy on my Europe beverage wire, and was 579 when I picked a wire
that was aimed the other way. He peaked at 290 degrees, so the path was
skewed northward a bit.
I tried a little FT8 near EU Sunrise and set power at 5 watts. I worked
two stations in Spain. That was not much fun, so back on CW after only a
few minutes, and worked a few more in Britain, Norway and Sweden as
daylight was spreading across the mainland. I managed to not work
G3YRO, but I wanted to let him know that I did make an appearance on the
Wednesday Activity Night! I had lots of QRN nearby, which made copy
poor as I would miss several letters at a time. I am also finding that
my CW is getting worse as my hands suffer from tremors. It is starting
to ruin my already bad fist!!
73
Dave K1WHS
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