I knew I had no chance of winning the 2024 Poisson d'Avril contest, especially
from my Florida condo QTH. But I like to get on the air in as many contests as
I can, and make at least a few QSOs. Plus I've heard that K1DG buys a beer at
Dayton for anybody he works in the PDA.
But in the recent PDA I had a most unusual QSO. I was on 20 CW. It went
something like this:
CQ PDA K8MR K8MR TEST
>>> WA3BGE (Note: Though this came up on my Caller ID, when I later checked,
>>>this callsign was not in service)
WA3BGE 5NN FL
>>> K8MR 5NN OP RACHEL FROM QSLCARDHOLDER SERVICES. DUE TO A NEW GOVERNMENT
>>> PROGRAM CALLED FT8, WE CAN NOW OFFER YOU A LOWER RATE ON YOUR CONTEST QSOS.
>>> SEND AGN? FOR MORE INFO OR SEND DUPE TO BE PUT ON OUR DO NOT CALL
>>> LIST
My rate was already pretty low, but I'd heard something about this "FT8"
program, so I figured I had nothing to lose:
AGN
(After a short pause, in very choppy CW)
>>> K8MR DE VU2XYZ. HW CPY TODAY? ARE U CALLING FOR A LOWER QSO RATE?
R R
>>> HOW MANY QSOS DO YOU MAKE IN A CONTEST NOW?
ABT 100.
>>> FB AND WHAT IS YOUR HIGHEST QSO RATE?
ABT 25 PER HOUR
>>> FB WITH FT8 WE CAN LOWER YOUR RATE TO UNDER SIX PER HOUR AND MAYBE EVEN
>>>TO ZERO
OK
>>> TO MAKE SURE YOU QUALIFY I NEED TO CONFIRM THAT YOUR LICENSE HAS NOT
>>>EXPIRED. WHAT IS THE EXPIRATION DATE OF YOUR LICENSE?
(I was sensing something a bit fishy, so I just made up a date)
JULY 2026
>>> NW PSE NR?
5NN FL
>>> NO UR 16 DIGIT CREDIT CARD NR
OK 5905 7388 0611 1234
>>> SRI UR NR NOT IN SCP FILE AGN ?
At that point I gave up and went QRT.
Has anybody else had such a QSO?
73 & Happy AFD,
Jim K8MR
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