Solstices are always interesting times of the year - pagan dancing, crop
circles appearing and the whiff of the old magic. Fittingly, sometimes
topband opens in a really twisted mystic way...
This year the strange emanation was 6W6JX. The first time I heard him was
about 30 minutes before sunrise, around 1834 and RST579, where he worked a
couple of stations and then promptly disappeared - with Mike VK6HD and I
chasing him. He then made magical reappearances on several frequencies
between 1836 and 1830 over the next 15 minutes, casting his signal on the
murky ether for a few minutes at a time.
Eventually, there was some kind of shift in ionospheric karma and Mike
worked him, but a dark shadow had fallen across my signal and there was no
luck for VZ. By now, after sunrise, half demented, I pursued 6W6JX ever
lower and lower in the band, as he engaged in dialog with some of the
powerful EU magicians and his signals slowly faded...
Gathering my cloak around me, I huddle at my desk, focussing on dark dreams
of a pair of 4-1000s and next year's summer solstice...
Steve, VK6VZ
(If you say VZ very quickly, it sounds just like wizard...)
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