KX0R chased 100 times by EA2IF in over 5 years

Awards Celebrations
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George @KX0R has been my top chased activator for several years now.
Today, 20/09/2019, we’ve made our 100th SOTA QSO, more than 5 years and a half since I first chased him back in January 2014.
All of our QSOs have been CW and most of them on 20m, however, we’ve got a good number of them on 15m, just 1 on 17m and also 1 only on 30m.
Sometimes I chased him with 1KW and a 3 element yagi, but many others with 100 watts, some others with 50 watts and an endfed wire in the balcony of my rental appartment, some few others even in QRP 5 watts into my 3 elements yagi and also S2S while I was activating with 5 watts into an endfed wire on 20m.
Making QSOs with George has always been a thrill and a big pleasure.
Thanks George/Carey for being so active, for having one of the most if not the most efficient SOTA stations in NA and also for having the good ears to always hear and pick my callsign up.
I have prepared this special card to conmemorate and remember this milestone.

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I’ll be looking forward to chasing you many, many more times in the future.
Happy SOTA and thank you very much George!

73,

Guru

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Hi Guru

It seems that you have the ability to make something special of any thing resp. anything – keep that, it will come back on you.

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

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It’s very exciting !!!

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I too was curious as to how many times I have worked KX0R. I was shocked! 274. NA6MG is second with 246. I find George every morning so it seems on one or two summits while I am having my second cup of coffee. Started chasing summits in late 2013.

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Have to do a better count but well over 100 here with George. Usually hear him on 20, 18, and 40 every now and then. Try to work him each time I hear him so he knows I am hearing him. After I work the Europeans I listen for George and others to make the start of the day. de John Paul // AB4PP

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Kaixo Guru
Super. Nice to read that sota tale You are at the right place because I nerver meet George on the air.
Best 73 and take care.
Agur
André f5ukl

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George is a regular in our parts, and is no doubt an inspiration for those of us who know the difficult peaks he puts on the air. In fact, KX0R is on the air as I type this. I look forward to working him each time - he’s a very good op!!

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Yes, I saw when he was on 40m. He he is now on 30m and I’m sitting on 14.063 waiting for him to show up while typing the log of the activation I carried out today…
I hope conditions will be good enough for us to make our 101 QSO :slight_smile:
73,

Guru

P.D. Geo KX0R has made it to my log again 2 minutes ago. 101 chases and counting…

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Congrats Guru!
Admirable work.
keep it up!!

73 de iw2obx Roberto

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Kaixo André,
Yes, there’s no doubt that my QTH where I now have my remote station is in a very good location for DX with Northamerica. It’s on top of a little hill and that helps a lot, but having a wide-spaced 3 elements yagi about 15m above the ground is the key factor.
I can switch between different antennas and all the American activators I usually copy and work with my yagi on 20m are simply not copied at all with my inverted vee broadband folded dipole.
My station is pretty good at receiving signals from NA and my ears are also well trained on copying QRP signals. I have worked many times QRP on 14.060 just for the pleasure of making DX with only 5 watts. I have also participated in the ARCI QRP contest and I was the 1st in the World in the high bands category over 2 consecutive years.
However, in a 2 way QSO, both parties have to do the job and I want to highlight the fact that Geo KX0R is a very good operator and he manages to always put an impresive good signal from central USA. I’ve often found that other activators in the same area and even in the same summit and the same day as Geo KX0R are not getting here while Geo is putting a workable signal. Sometimes it’s a very weak signal but it’s good enough to make a 2 way QSO possible, while other activators are not even copied at all. That tells something about George’s skills at preparing and setting up his SOTA portable station.
73,

Guru

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Exactly, you are in the same Country, a big one in terms of size, but the distance between any of you chasers in NA and Geo is such that you will normally have several bands to hear and chase him any day.
In the case of Geo’s QSOs with me, we are more than 8000 Km appart and 20m is usually the only chance we’ll have to copy each other. I remember some days where 15m was better than 20m but this situation didn’t last too long, it was just over a few days some years ago. It’s important that Geo seems to be often choosing the right time to be on air on 20m for the favourable conditions for us two to cross the Pond in good conditions.
73,

Guru

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Guru,

Thank you for posting this nice QSL picture, along with many good words. Yes, we did your SOTA QSO 101 today, you were 549 on my KX2, and you were EASY to copy today. Your yagi is working very well, and your signals have improved! I was on a quiet summit in the National Forest, right on the top, and the mountain sloped slightly down to the east and west. Band conditions were excellent, even with the low solar flux.

I also made solid contacts with ON4VT and ZL2IFB on 20M. There were lots of chasers on 40, 30, and 20 CW, partly because it was Saturday!

I usually run 10W out with my KX2. This is a wonderful small radio, and I really like it, both for CW and SSB. My antenna is usually 66 feet of #24 teflon wire, supported by a light carbon fiber pole at 6M. The wire is fed near the bottom of the pole, at ground level, where I sit. Today the far end of the inverted-L was also about 6M high. The wire ran from south to north. I always use my own tuner, which I wrote about here on the reflector months ago, and it’s been printed elsewhere now. I almost never use a counterpoise, except when I want to operate on 60M. There are no traps in the wire, and no broadband or ferrite transformers are used. On 20M the wire is a full wave, and the impedance is high. The only coax is a short piece of RG-316, 0.7M long, between the radio and the tuner. I do not have the Elecraft auto-tuner. This wire can be tuned to the 40-30-20-17-15 meter bands, using my tuner, in a few seconds. It is very simple and easy.

I think you have excellent operator skills, and your experience shows on the air! Your timing is perfect, often near the end of my run - but today you jumped in near the beginning, before the other chasers knew I was on 20M!

Thank you for being there so many times! We seem to share the love of radio. It is always surprising, magical, and every contact is unique.

Thank you - 73!

George
KX0R

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Propagation was a bit harder today and I couldn’t copy any of the activators from W7 or W6.
I worked one from W4, one from W3 and finally… one from W0. Do you guess who?
KX0R of course. I’ve just checked the totals and see what nice numbers I found:
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Position 1 and Count 111. You are even four times number 1 today :wink:
Cheers,

Guru

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Congrats Guru, nice transatlantic achievement! KXOR George/Carey is my top chased activator also, so far 222. Definitely a fine FB operator to say the least. :goat::slightly_smiling_face: 73 Karen

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Hi Karen,
You’ve got a nice number of KX0R chases too:
222 → imagen

Well done!
73,

Guru.

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I tried chasing George yesterday several times and could not make contact but will keep chasing! Congratulations on all of those contacts.
Rich, KB5EDR

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Yes, I’ll have to say Geo is a great op and has a great signal to California. 78 QSOs in about 6 months.
(Of course I’m a lot closer than Spain!). I’ve only been chasing for 6 months but it’s a great activity.
73,
John K6YK

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I just checked my log and I see I have exactly 500 SOTA QSO’s with George KX0R. Most of them were on 40m (CW of course). Anytime I see George spotted on Sotawatch, I know it’s a sure thing to get him in the log. Thanks for all the fun, Geo.

73/Tommy W7RV

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Tommy,

That is amazing! I think chasing is harder than activating, because it requires more patience and more time - you really do a great job, especially on 40M.

Unfortunately, our local weather has turned very cold and snowy, so fast, with two arctic systems in a one-two punch, with the second system still coming down tomorrow. The first system was more extreme than what we usually have in October. Our daytime temperatures have dropped 50 degrees F, and our night temps are in the teens and may go near zero in two days, and the mountains are much colder and even more snowy than down here. I don’t plan to activate for a long time, and the best I’ll do is to join with all of you and chase whoever lives where the weather is still OK! At best, we’ll be on snowshoes if we go up high at all…

Maybe you can catch WA6MM when things improve here - he likes snowy peaks!

73

George
KX0R

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George,
With all the reports of Guru, Tommy, et al chasing you, thought I would look up my top activator chased.
It’s you, (no surprise) and the number is 620! Who would have thought…?
Yes, looks like it’s getting to be time for layered clothes, bacalavas, etc. up there!
All Best, Ken