TopBand: Nice surprise

[Raymond Dave-CSUS04]

Last night, about 2340z, I (and a lot of others) was calling 8Q7IO on 80
mtrs with no results.  I had worked the 8Q before on 80 mtrs, but for some
reason, am not in their log.  Condx were not very good and, as a result, his
QSO rate was very slow.  I decided to drop down to 160 mtrs and tune around
a bit.  I had just installed a preamp on my 2-wire beverages and was curious
to see what the noise level was like, how it was working, etc.  

As I tune cross 1828 I hear a CQ (at 0000z) which sounds like a DX signal.
It's the only thing I hear in that part of the band.  I listen for a moment
and about fell of ot the chair as I copy D68BW.  He had apparently just
started calling CQ, had not yet been spotted on the cluster, and had no
takers.  He said he was listening up 3.  So I quickly tuned the amp up on
160 and gave him a call.  He came right back and we easily completed the
QSO.  I spotted him on the cluster but our cluster network was temporarily
not connected east of Iowa.  It took a couple of minute for someones else to
discover him as he continued to call CQ with no takers.  He had a very nice
signal and was 559 to 569 here in Iowa.  A few minutes later when the
cluster connection eastbound had been re-made, I spotted him again.  

A nice non-political surprise for election day.

73. .. Dave
W0FLS

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