Topband: 9M2AX finally after 15 years

[John Kaufmann]

Congratulations Steve for this epic contact!  As already pointed out, much of the difficulty is the very high level of QRN on Ross's end.  He gets almost daily thunderstorms.  My experience coincides with what Dave, W0FLS, said.  The most favorable conditions to work 9M2AX are around the equinoxes.  Ross has said his noise level is lowest then.  

After 20 years of chasing Ross, I finally worked him right around our spring equinox on March 23, 2007.  From here in W1, the path is a skewed path to the SE, and that path seems to exist (sporadically) only during low sunspot years.  At best, it's a very marginal and difficult path.  I had been hearing 9M2AX throughout that month just after my sunset but he was never able to pull me through.  Finally we got enhanced propagation on March 23 just a few minutes after my sunset and a few minutes before his sunrise.  There were signal bursts almost like meteor scatter pings.  We were able to exchange callsigns and signal reports before he quickly disappeared.  I continued to hear Ross until the first week in April, after which we no longer had any common darkness.

It's good to hear that Ross is active again after several years off the low bands.  It takes a lot of persistence on his end to listen to QRNNN every day and make only an occasional contact.

73, John W1FV

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband <topband-bounces+john.kaufmann=verizon.net at contesting.com> On Behalf Of David Raymond
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2024 4:01 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: 9M2AX finally after 15 years

Congratulations Steve!  I've learned over the years that the best time to work Ross, at least from here in the Midwest (Iowa), is within a month or so of either fall or spring equinoxes.   Ross has always been a reliable, persistent operator and works hard to pull calls through his QRN.

73. . .Dave, W0FLS

On 2/12/2024 1:28 PM, 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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