The Catch of the Day

Or rather “The Catch of the Night”!

Awaiting the ARRL DX CW writeup, here’s something else. Before I take down the 160 antenna (no need for that next weekend in the UBA contest) and resume my WARC chase for 9U4U, I wanted to take a shot at them on Top Band. It’s been years since I last was QRV on an ordinary working day, let alone staying up too late for a DXpedition. It’s even more strange when being very tired after a wild forty eight hour contest weekend. If it weren’t for my friends hammering out contacts from Burundi, I’d just wouldn’t care. But I want to try to work them on Top Band and ClubLog tells me after 23.00 utc should be the right time. Granted: these statistics are based on a mere 6 Top Band contacts with Belgium, but it’s better than nothing.

They weren’t around so I waited. Worked a 9H… Worked some locals with weird prefixes for the UBA PFX Hunt… Oh my a C3 on 160! Probably new, need to check the log. 9U4U was spotted on 160 working JA but I couldn’t hear them. A brief jump to 80 for some contacts and then back to 160. What’s that weak signal? A9… A92… Nothing on the cluster. A92IO! WOW!!!! What’s he sending? Q…13? QSX 13! He’s listening on 1813. Quickly engage split mode and call. He comes back with a partial – it’s for me! YES and a new one in the log on Top Band! And soon after I work 9U4U on 80 CW. So I decided to quit and go to bed. Enough new ones for one ordinary working day. Tomorrow another shot at 9U4U @160…