Congratulations, Steve! I bet he was nearly as elated to complete the
QSO as you were! That's almost exactly what it was like when I finally
snagged him back on 1/14, right down to the moments before sunrise.
Now to collect the card... and I presume we have to go direct...
Steve, K0XP
On 2/12/2024 11:28 AM, ve6wz@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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