[ADXA] Nice JA opening and then KL7 showed up

Fri Jul 16 01:12:19 EDT 2021

Hi ADXA,

Well last night (now) was exciting and fun on 6m!

I texted as many folks as I could while working the huge pileup that W5KI started, hi.  While just sitting here at my desk my beam was pointed SE looking to get YA1AG in the log.  Not sure why as he doesn’t do LOTW?  Anyway that’s when I saw W5KI call CQ AS off the side of the beam.  My screen was pretty blank except for the YA1.  In the past I have learned if Steve is seeing a JA opening it will be just a matter of time before I print them here.  Usually 10-20 minutes later.  Like Earl said yesterday, sometimes a few miles between stations can make a huge difference on 6m propagation!  Tonight wasn’t one of those.  So after seeing W5KI CQ AS on the screen I swung the beam around to 320 degrees and BAM, I had a screen full of JA stations being printed like never before!  Unlike the last JA opening here, this time the propagation stayed around for more than 20 minutes.  Then they came and went for a few hours!  At my QTH this started at 2240 UTC July 15 and the last JA station I saw was JO1PSX at 0231 UTC July 16, 2021!

I know this is nothing like working hundreds of JAs like W5ZN or K5UR did on CW many years ago, but I am only using 50 watts with compromised SteppIR beam!  I am not complaining mind you, I guess what I am trying to say is to get into the game if you not chasing 6m DX!  Like DXing in general wish I had done it sooner!  You are missing out big time if you don’t, IMHO!  Still my BB gun station managed to get 30 plus JA’s into the log!  I Could have worked even more, but needed to do some housekeeping in the DXKeeper log.  I wanted to be sure to get everyone I could in the log.  At times WSJT-X would do some weird stuff like working two stations at once!  I am not sure how this happen?  Probably I somehow misfired the mouse, but wish I knew how I did that for the future openings, hi.  Even one station worked me again that was in my log back in 2019.  That was superstation JA7QVI. Wow 4X7 element array!  See TAC’s station on QRZ.com/lookup/db/JA7QVI  Very cool to see TAC’s station and he seems like a super nice ham!  Usually I love to look over other stations pictures and read their bio on QRZ.com while working FT8.  Tonight there was enough time to do things like reading their bio or look at pictures via JTAlert’s QRZ look up button!  It was mind draining for sure along with be a ton of fun!  

I don’t think I can share screen shots here, but at the peak of the pileup was something.  At times JTAlert was totally full!

Stations I saw here on the western front included K5YCM, W5KI, K5CKS, and W5SJ were doing their best to thin the heard out as well, hi.  I am sure there were others I that I didn’t see on the air that are ADXA members.  This is the first time I sort of quit to take a break from the fast and furious screens.  Many requests from stations saying where they were transmitting on XYZ __Hz “Work Me NOW”!  There just wasn’t enough time to get all of them in the log while 10 or more are calling at the same time!  

Finally, after the big JA pileup I saw KL7NC for the first time on 6m tonight and at my QTH Robert was -03 S/N here!  So I knew I had a chance to get AK in the log for first time, but then he faded super-fast!  That would have been my last state and an ATNO/country for me on 6m.  Still after he faded I let the watchdog timer kick out twice while calling him blind!  Even with that and doing things like changing TX frequency up and down the waterfall I was “Not In The Log” this time.  ☹  Steve W5KI not only saw KL7NC, but also printed KL7HBK.  I never saw KL7HBK even though I saw him on spotted on my bandmap.  I have seen so many stations call CQ AK night after night and had to wonder if they were ALL calling them as well?  The KL7 stations on tonight didn’t seem to work many folks, but the big guns sure got them!  During that time DXmaps had a 50 MHz block over KL7NC and I also had one!  Speaking of which, for the last two days I have seen a few of the red blocks as well.  You guys on 2m and higher know about those.  

Even though I missed getting KL7 in my log this time, it was a great night overall.  Good comradery among many 6m aficionados/friends.  Now it is 0400 UTC and I am still working new grids!  I am not really a grid chaser, but more fun to be had on the 6m band!  I thought this year’s E season blew by me since I missed the May openings, but 6m continues to thrill in the month of July!  I thought 6m was supposed to calm down after the 4th of July, LOL.  

Did you guys down in Central AR see the 6m action tonight?  I hope you had as much fun as we did on the Western Front!  Forgive the typos, I am still pretty pumped up over the above!  73 de w5jay/jay..

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