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

[Pat Patterson]

Congrats Joel.  Early bird gets the DX?
73,
Pat, W5VY

On Thu, Jan 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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