Yesterday morning I woke up and fired up the shack. There were plenty spots for DX on 20. Even some loud Left Coasties. And beyond. KH6MB was ‘like a local’ but since I just got out of bed, my brain-to-finger coordination lagged and apart from a 589 I sent some gibberish in stead of complementing him on his signal, as intended.
At the same time, an Italian reported a loud KH6 beacon on 17m. Italy is not Belgium and I only have a simple inverted V. What if the Italian has gain galore? Still I hate being on a regular band outside of the contests so I went to seventeen to check it out. Not much beacons to be heard. Except the W6 beacon. Not loud and barely any movement on the S meter but I copied the callsign. So I fired up the relentless CQ machine. It took a while for the first reply to be copied. A Ukrainian? Hey I copy W6 so I won’t settle for less! A couple more rounds of CQ ammo fired into the ionosphere. Then I hear WH7 but fear it’s a WS7. Too good to be true? But I’m sure I heard an H and not an S. So I reply to WH7W who kicks the S meter’s butt up seven notches or more. Wow! A true KH6 and very loud, out of the blue. We complete the QSO and I wonder what his setup is but I don’t want to risk sending another batch of early morning rubbish so I finish the contact. Another Belgian station is spotted on 20 by a plain W6 but I smile: I just got called by KH6 on 17 with a simple inverted V about one wavelength high. The rest of my CQ only yields local EU stuff or a close UA9.
Philosophical note: suppose WH7W calls CQ on 17 and then gets spotted, he can work a big fat messy EU pile up for at least an hour. But I don’t get to work a big pile of Hawaiians. Not even a bunch. Not even two. Nevertheless: Mahalo WH7W for making my day!
This morning V31PA/P was on a noisy 40. I logged him and soon after he complained about QRN on the band so he said he’s QSY to 14007. I awaited him but that band was noisy too and he wasn’t loud at all. To say the least. No wonder: /P in Belize… JY9FC was there too and loud. ‘There’ being the same band but another beam heading of course. After a couple of shots he asked for USA only. USAUSA PSE EU LATER. Some SP9 didn’t quite get it. After a few minutes I went back and he was working EU again. Soon I logged him. After checking it turns out I already have JY confirmed on seven bands CW. And 38 QSO with JY in total. Who would have guessed? JY9NX was very active a decade ago.
Time to try 12m. Two or three loud EU, some medium-loud UA/UR. MJ0CTR didn’t hear me. Let’s try 17 again. Same situation, except for a lonely JA. Back to 12. Wow, an E4 spotted. Loud and working EU. But I ran out of time for this one. More DX later? Let’s hope!