Topband: The eleventh commandment of 160m DXing?

[Pete Rimmel N8PR]

But, Steve,  they might not have been hearing you, and called since he
had no one else to work.  I hear that allt he time from C6 when I am
there.  

73 and I hope you get him next time...  That is the fun of it all, isn't
it?

Pete N8PR/C6AHR

Steve Ireland wrote:
> 
> In early August some reflectees may remember a posting about P43 being heard
> at VK6VZ on 8/8.  Hearing Zone 9 at any time of year in Western Australia is
> very very rare and no QSOs had ever been made into this zone on 160m then.
> 
> As a result of that posting I made contact with Jacob P43P and skeds were
> set up with myself and Mike VK6HD at Jacob's sunset.  Jacob's signals were
> heard again on 9/8 at RST559, 10/8 at RST439 and then on 11/8 at an amazing
> RST579.
> 
> During the opening on 11/8 Mike VK6HD made the first ever contact from VK6
> with Zone 9, working P43P.  It was terific to hear him do it - and gave me
> some hope I might be able to repeat the feat.
> 
> During this opening, Jacob's signal was being heard throughout the Pacific
> area and after Mike had made the initial contact I found myself competing
> with a few other stations in the area for the next QSO that night.  These
> stations were closer to P43 than me and from parts of the Pacific where Zone
> 9 is relatively easy to work, but as far as I was concerned 'that's life'
> and  so I happily competed with them in the pile-up until the P43's signal
> disappeared.
> 
> Imagine my frustration when I heard via the 160m grapevine some days later
> that two of the stations calling apparently didn't need the P43, let alone
> Zone 9.  Also, although I have heard Jacob a couple of times weakly since
> then, there has been nothing of the same signal strength/duration of the
> first few openings - and it looks like this particular window may have
> closed for the moment.
> 
> Now we pride ourselves on working on 'the gentleman's band'.  I would like
> to see an eleventh 160m commandment added to the ten that Jeff K1ZM came up
> in his book. This would read something like:
> 
> "If it is rare DX, you don't need it and there is someone else calling from
> farther away, don't call it until the pile-up has gone."
> 
> I hope the grapevine was wrong and those blokes really needed P43/Zone 9.
> 
> Vy 73,
> 
> Steve, VK6VZ
> 
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