GW4VXE's Station Diary

Had the customary go at 3Y0K on 10m FT8 for 20 minutes before lunch. They actually heard me this time, but sadly on the move to the 'Fox' frequency, they didn't and the QSO was not completed. Shortly after, signals started to fade, so despite some more calls, no luck. That might be the last chance to work them on 10m, as they're dismantling the station over the weekend and we're out and about over the weekend. Not to worry - very happy to have worked them 3 times - 10m would have been a bonus!

Well! It seems I was pessimistic. I did some mowing and trimming this afternoon and came in about 1530. Got up to the shack and after a bit of a tune around, I noticed that 3Y0K were on 10m FT8 again. Not so strong, but working more west Europeans, so I thought I'd give it a go. After about 15 minutes of calling they came back to me. The QSO was a bit touch and go and when the TX jumped down to 435Hz I was sure I'd lost it, but to my enormous surprise, the next period they came back with RR73. So, that's something about Fox and Hounds I didn't know about. It looks like if you can't get through on the nominated frequencies, it tries something else. Clever! So I'm delighted. 40m or 30m would make me very happy - but 4 bands is way more than I expected.

Not sure if it was significant, but on my way back in from the mowing, I put the big DX Commander up. Perhaps that helped!

Couple of nice QSOs in the evening; 3B8XF on 17m and N2KW/VP9 on 20m.

And completely unexpected, just turning around one 40m before turning off, found JX7DFA calling CQ DX (I figured I was just about DX to him!) A bit of a patchy QSO, but a new country nevertheless! QRZ.COM says the last activity was in 2002! I'm sure I read something about some upcoming activity from here, so maybe it's ok.