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1-10 of 14 messages
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Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by AC4RD on July 3, 2009
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The discussion about entities that haven't been activated recently reminded me of how I managed, just barely, to work the TO4E operation. I never did make it through the regular pileups and thought I wouldn't work them, but then Santa brought me a present. Pasted below is my email to a friend about it:
- - - - - - - - - - -
I left work 3 hours early on Friday, hoping
to work TO4E before they closed the generators
for the evening--I figured the weekend pileups
would be ferocious again and I'd have a better
shot during the day. (I didn't expect the
bands to be so dead on Saturday and Sunday--
hardly heard any DX then.)
I could hear the pileup on 15 driving home,
on the 706, but I couldn't tell where TO4E
was in the band. Got home and hit the
cluster--and there were no spots. Tuned
around 15 and the pileup was gone. Looks
like they may already be QRT.
My next step was to see if they were on
15-meter RTTY, and there was no activity
there. Went on down to the PSK area (21070
and up) and there were a few South Americans
with good signals .. and who is that weak
station talking to a W8?
Turns out it's an FK. I've never SEEN
New Caledonia on, much less worked it, so
I settled in to wait. After a bit of chat,
the two stations clear with each other.
I give it a few seconds to see if the FK
is going to call CQ again; after a bit of
silence I send (PSK) "FK8GN DE AC4RD FK8GN
DE AC4RD AC4RD KN"
WHen the transmitter unkeys, there's a
signal on the waterfall--but it's someone
ELSE calling the FK! "Hey, pal, that FK
is MINE," I think. I watch to see if the
FK is going to come back to the new guy ..
nothing. I'm about to call the FK again,
when the new guy does the same thing--
and he's signing "DE TO4E."
I watch after the call for, oh, all
of 3-4 seconds, and when there's no answer,
I send "I THINK FK IS GONE -- TO4E DE AC4RD
AC4RD KN" And to my enormous joy and relief,
the TO4E op comes back to me. We trade
signal reports and names, and he says "MUST
QRT NOW, TIME TO SHUT DOWN GENERATORS, SRI"
I think I told Jean "TNX" or "TU" about 10
times in the space of a 30-word exchange. :-)
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by KY6R on July 3, 2009
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Great story! Congrats - in my book, those are the absolute best QSO's ever - the chance happenings. . .
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by G3RZP on August 10, 2009
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The last time Navassa, KP1, was on, I was on a business trip. I got back on the last day, and found him. He was for once, working by numbers and he got to number 3. Here goes! pressed the ptt, the power died, and we had no electricity over a wide area for 7 hours. Somebody had come off the road and hit a power pole. Another few minutes.............
To this day, ALL I need for #1 Honor Roll spot is KP1 Navassa!
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by AC4RD on August 14, 2009
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G3RZP: "..pressed the ptt, the power died, and we had no electricity over a wide area for 7 hours."
This is probably why this month's QST is about emergency power. ;-) "No! Stay away from the generator! You can't hook the freezer or grandfather's dialysis machine up to the generator until AFTER I've worked Navassa!" :-)
Having low power and low wire antennas, I've missed a lot more DX than I've really worked, so I am (very sadly) used to it. :-)
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by W7ETA on August 14, 2009
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There was an op at the weather station on Tromelin Island who would occasionally get on after sunrise when I lived in Mass. One morning I aimed my antenna long path and started calling CQ DX on the frequency he generally used.
A USA op answered me from 6 land. My first reaction was along the lines of "Doesn't this turkey know what DX means!?" Since I had been calling CQ DX for a while with no luck, I decide to talk to the lowly 6 land op. His name was Len; we had a nice chat for about 30 minutes or so. I talked with him any times since that time. His was indeed in the 6 area district, Saipan Island, KH6AC.
One night I was on 40 CW calling CQ DX, an easy shot from Mass to EU at night, and a station answered me but I couldn't figure out his call. I was copying it correctly, but it seemed to change whenever I tried to confirm it. Eventually the DX station gave up. A stateside op then called me telling me the DX station's call had 4 letters in the suffix. Of Course! I had read in the DX sheets about this operation but was trying to force his call into a 1X3! No wonder I was confused, S0RASD! That country had been on the air for decades.
Another night, I was beaming towards the Middle East, looking for new DX. I heard a few stations calling someone. The op was sending slow, uneven, awful CW. I called him and when he came back to me I realized he was sending 5A1A. Libya didn't license hams at the time. This op got special permission to operate while he was there installing communications equipment. Turns out Bert had forgotten to bring paddles and was using a 1/4 inch plug to tap out CW.
One of my favorites was when I was hunting for HA5BUS/S2. I saw a report that they had shown up on 10 meters SSB trying to work state side mid morning East Coast time.
I found quite a few state side stations chatting on the mentioned frequency waiting for them. Faintly, I heard HA5BUS/S2 calling the USA. No one was hearing him and I didn't have a workable copy. One a chance, I turned my beam long path and the sig came right up. I called him; the state side ops told me I was just QRMing them while they were trying to listen. The DX op heard me. Thru the state side QRM and insistence that I not QRM them while they were listening for this weak DX station, I worked the DX and heard him say that his antenna was fixed on short path to USA. He'd aim long path the next day and see if he could work USA. I bid him 73, turned my antenna around and explained to the angry crowded to look for him the next morning long path on 10 meters.
Oh. I forgot to mention HA5BUS was a bunch of ops in a bus that drove from Hungry to S2 and only had an antenna bolted to the bus. It was just to low to play well into the states on 20 and 15, so they were trying to work state side on 10 meters. They ran out of funds in S2 land, left the bus and went home.
Best from cool, only 98F today, and humid Tucson
Bob
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by AC4RD on August 15, 2009
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Bob says: "... op answered me from 6 land. My first reaction was along the lines of "Doesn't this turkey know what DX means!?" Since I had been calling CQ DX for a while with no luck, I decide to talk to the lowly 6 land op. His name was Len; we had a nice chat for about 30 minutes or so. I talked with him any times since that time. His was indeed in the 6 area district, Saipan Island, KH6AC."
Now, THAT is a great DX fishing story! :-) You worked the 6-call, had a nice chat, and then found out you'd worked a great one! :-) Congratulations! Heck, if fishermen knew how fun "DX fishing stories" were, they'd convert their fishing rods into phased verticals. ;-)
"Oh. I forgot to mention HA5BUS was a bunch of ops in a bus that drove from Hungry to S2 .."
I remember seeing the bus at Dayton in ... '92? '93? They toured a big chunk of the world in that bus, didn't they? It was a heck of a setup, all that beautiful high-tech ham gear.
Bob, I think the KH6 story makes YOU the current leader in the "DX Fishing Story Derby." :-) Thanks for sharing it!
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by AF3Y on August 15, 2009
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"His was indeed in the 6 area district, Saipan Island, KH6AC."
Am I missing something here? I thought KH6 Was Hawaii. My Saipan, Mariana Islands contact had a call of WH0S, and the DXCC listings I got from ARRL show KH6, KH7 as Hawaii, and KH0 or WH0 as Mariana Islands. Gene
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by W1NK on August 15, 2009
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"His was indeed in the 6 area district, Saipan Island, KH6AC."
Am I missing something here? I thought KH6 Was Hawaii. My Saipan, Mariana Islands contact had a call of WH0S, and the DXCC listings I got from ARRL show KH6, KH7 as Hawaii, and KH0 or WH0 as Mariana Islands. Gene
=========================================================
I'm willing to bet Bob worked KG6AS (or possibly KG6SA). KG6/KG6S is the old prefix for Saipan.
Frank, W1NK
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RE: Old DX fishing tales :-)
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by W1NK on August 15, 2009
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Ooops! I meant KG6AC.... I have no idea where I got that other suffix!
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