[ADXA] Some Mornings are OK, Some are good, very few are GREAT!!!

[w5zn at w5zn.org]

Congrats on the 80 meter Zone 26 Earl !!!!!

ZN


On 2023-01-26 06:50, Earl wrote:
> Congrats Joel on the new one.
> 
> I am waiting on a card from Eddie for 80m that should arrive any day.
> It will be my first zone 26 confirmed on that band.
> 
> 73, Earl N5ZM..
> ------------------------
> 
> On 1/26/2023 7:32 AM, w5zn at w5zn.org wrote:
>> 
>> During the fall and winter when I am home at W5ZN I have a morning 
>> routine. I'm up early, usually by 4 AM, I check the 160 meter spots, 
>> check email and scan the news headlines (I'm not sure why I do that 
>> last thing). I just have an intense love of listening for early 
>> morning DX to SE Asia and the Pacific on 160 meter CW more so than 
>> lsning to EU and AF.
>> 
>> During a fall/winter 160 meter season I would routinely pick up 3 to 5 
>> new ones on 160 meter CW. When COVID hit, things went dead and as I 
>> have noted here previously I feared I may be stuck at 282 and never 
>> reach the magic 300 number on 160. Of course, being at 282 on a band 
>> like 160 meters leaves some very tough ones left to work.
>> 
>> As we all know from the number of DXpeditions this fall/winter, DX 
>> activity is back to normal. As a result I picked up J28MD and T33T for 
>> new ones on 160. I assume I could nab Bouvet which would make this 160 
>> meter season a win with 3 new ones......BUT WAIT!!!!
>> 
>> This morning I quickly checked 160 spots, email, and the headlines as 
>> I normally do. Nothing of interest going on so I went over to the 
>> "work desk" to take care of some IARU business and review a document 
>> for WRC-23. After a bit, around 1200 UTC I needed to clear my head and 
>> thought I would take a peek at the 160 spots and I saw Eddie, XV1X, 
>> spotted on 1822 KHz CW. JC, N4IS in south Florida and Jon, AA1K (BIG 
>> GUN 160 guy) in Delaware were hearing Eddie. I quickly fired things up 
>> after violated K5UR Rule #1 earlier (The first thing you turn on when 
>> you walk in the shack is the AMPLIFIER!!) and did not hear Eddie via 
>> the direct path to the NW. Then I thought "HEY!!!! check the skewed 
>> path to the SW along the grey line" and there he was, weak but Q5 
>> calling CQ!! He was lsning Up 1 so I dropped my call in three times 
>> and he came back to me!!!
>> 
>> So, the happy ending to this story is some mornings that appear to be 
>> dull and mundane can be REALLY GREAT! Not only was it fantastic to 
>> work a new one.......a very difficult new one on 160, it was great to 
>> hear signals from that region coming in along the skewed grey line 
>> path! Its been about 15 years since I last heard and worked a station 
>> via that path (9M2AX).
>> 
>> For you FT8 Lizards, Eddie later moved up to 1840 KHz FT8. I decoded 
>> him at -14 via the same path.
>> 
>> Now to try to clear the excitement in my head and get back to 
>> reviewing technical documents!!!!
>> 
>> 73 Joel W5ZN
>> 
>> 
>> 
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