After being a bit stressed knowing that I only had a partial day to hunt this ATNO I set out with a vengeance last night to work them somewhere. I had checked from time to time earlier in the day and never had a consistent copy if any any copy at all. .
Of course, I gave Mike KB5WBH a shout....or maybe he gave me a shout, as it is a lot more fun, and productive to have a buddy along to assist with spots, and to cheer when you succeed and lament when you fail.
We started at 01:40z and in 30 minutes we both had RI1FJL on 20, 17, and 15. Mike, on 17, got a +4 signal report with 100 watts and a wire! On 30 Mike worked them first. It twas almost an hour before I heard them, but after their signal came up, it only took a few calls to make the contact.
I spent the rest of my time listening to 40 and hoping they would move to there, but it did not happen, at least while I was awake.
I feel mighty lucky to have them on any band since my DXing is done for the next several days.
Equipment used:
Mike, Kenwood TS2000 @ 100 watts output . Antennas were a 160 meter inverted L and a Dipole of some kind.
Me Yaesu ft991a into a home brew amp (aka Jethrine) @400 watts. On 30 driving with .9 watts to give 200 watts PEP output. Antenna was a raised 80 meter inverted L on transmit with the pennant thrown in the mix from time to time on RX to assist with the lightning crashes from the storms.
Good luck, and good DXing.
Randy W5ZJ
______________________________________________________________