Topband: 9M2AX finally after 15 years

[wb6rse1 at mac.com]

Steve - Congrats!

It's the early days of my chasing DXCC on 160M. I'm listening everyday just before sunrise to catch anything in the Pacific while also having stayed up late hoping for an opening as sunrise moved across Europe.

It's March 6, 2004 around my sunrise. No signals on 160 CW as was typical. I call CQ DX. 1400Z. 9M6AX calls me. The report per Ross' card: "479 QRNN." My log says he was 559.

I figuratively fell out of my chair.

73 - Steve WB6RSE

(10 minutes later I call CQ DX again. This time VK6DXI calls.)

> On Feb 12, 2024, at 11:28 AM, ve6wz at shaw.ca wrote:
> 
> For at least 15 years (perhaps more) I have been chasing Ross 9M2AX for a new one on 160m.
> For some reason, a QSO has eluded us.
> 
> From VE6 Ross is 13,000km at 320 degrees AZ, and the path is usually skewed southward.
> Every morning this winter season I have been at the radio RX for Ross, but in spite of fair-good reports from ops down south in AZ and CA, I have never copied him.
> 
> For some reason, this morning his signal peaked up just before my sunrise.
> My tower was cranked down, so I had to wait for it to get to full height and the amp to warm up.
> 
> After many calls and a few QRZ? Ross gave a 6 ?.  A few more calls and he had my call, but gave me a VE6WZ ?? without a report.
> I responded with ONLY his report and made sure NOT to send my call again.  I was getting quite concerned that I might lose the contact after I sent my report many times.
> Finally, Ross came back with a 339 and we completed the QSO.
> Our QSO was at 1452z, 10min before my sunrise at 1502z.
> 
> Ross struggles with very high QRN in 9M2 so I am very grateful he was able to pull me out.
> Because I have waited so many years for this QSO, I wanted it to be as "pure" as possible, so I avoided any packet cluster "hints" that I was calling, and I did not acknowledge I was even QRV in the KST chat room.
> 
> I must say that Ross is a true QRN-warrior to persevere through what must be painful RX conditions!
> 
> I was TX with the 2 el Parasitic array, and listening in diversity.
> 
> Here is a recording of our QSO.  If you listen, you will understand why I was quite worried I was going to lose the QSO.
> This morning his signal seemed almost equal on the direct path, and the skew west path.
> In the left ear is the west 4 element BSEF Beverage (BOG) array, and the right ear is the Asia 2 el Beverage (BOG) broadside phased pair.
> (the clicking is poor internet packet dropouts on my connection to my remote 100km north of my home)
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ot1RhA1Gim1VoHEw6u0QA3T7QShf9bCE/view?usp=sharing
> 
> 73, de steve, ve6wz
> https://www.youtube.com/@ve6wz/videos
> 
> 
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