September started off quite well for me, with two contacts with St’ Paul Island (CY9C) off the Canadian coast. The first week brought in W0IL (OIL) from South Dakota, and Bob from the battleship New Jersey (NJ2BB). Thanks Bob for calling in to the lunch-time net. It was my first contact with the NJ and the propagation held for over half an hour. Bob was using the ship’s radio room and a floating 6,000 ton ground-plane!
In the middle of the month was the annual celebration of Route 66 across the USA. This time there were 23 stations on the air, but I could only get through to three of them. Better luck next year.
This time of year brings in the African stations. I started to get a couple, and with them I managed to hit my next target of 195 for the year. On the 19th I was monitoring 15m FT8 and heard what can only be described as a 'Didgeridoo' sound. It was an African island that I needed, working at the very lowest end of the audio band using 'Fox & Hounds' sub-mode of FT8. That evening a low-level signal popped up, so I worked him. After getting the '73' I checked his location, only to find he was on Midway Atoll, a very rare one for me to hear and another 'ATNO' for the logbook. Now all I need to do is get confirmation; however, I’m not holding my breath! A few days later I managed another African - Zambia, and Guernsey. Not DX, but not easy on 15m.
As I have mentioned before, when things get quiet, I leave the FT8 program running in CQ mode. This brought some great surprises. I was called by a YB7 for another rare Oceania Island, and FK8 for New Caledonia - another ATNO. Sometimes FT8 can be a bit boring but still needs watching carefully. One evening I saw a Z81 appear, and thinking it was Macedonia I jumped in and got the contact first time. It was only when I was filling in the log that I realised that it was South Sudan! I kept an eye on his activity, and he worked for over 3 hours without the need to call CQ again!
With the equinoctial change in propagation, Barry SA7GDB has returned to the lunch time net. On the other hand, the wet weather has kept me in, so I have managed to get the LOTW loaded on my new(ish) computer. A quick update and some housekeeping bought loads of confirmations for DXCC and my IOTA score. While sorting my QSL cards I found this little bit of rare history. A card from Monk Apollo, now silent key.
As I write this the centenary activation has started with GB2NZ, I got him on day 1, and am now waiting for the other stations!
More next month (I hope)
Cheers
Chris, G4ZCS