JThis was a spur of the moment activation after looking at the beautiful blue sky this morning.
I was determined to work some HF on 15m after two failures.
Anyway, whilst I was setting up at the trig point, I heard Dave, MW0TUB/P calling cq from GW NW-051. Gave him a quick call for a S2S and then switched to 2m ssb. Trade was a bit slow to start with, Paul GW0WTT, was first up and he very kindly spotted me. There followed another 8 calls including Bob G6ODU and a surprised G6LKB Dave from Ulverston who usually has difficulty with Gun.
Switching to fm, I found another 11 takers, before putting up the 6m fishing pole antenna for HF.
I put out a cq on 15m and had zilch response. Had a look up the band and managed to work 7X4AN, Mohamed in Algeria. Put out another cq and again, nothing. I answered RZ3QL call and got a poor signal report. Messed about with the antenna for about 5 minutes, before working CO6LC in Cuba, my old mate Bob, LZ/G3LRM an ex-pat in Bulgaria. I found CU7CG in the Azores and YU7AOP in Serbia. Calls to UA8AA and EW8A were completed.
I then qsy’d to 17m were i stumbled upon FP/N9JZ/M Jim, calling cq. A couple of stations worked him and then he came back to my call, a few valuable seconds before the inevitable pile-up. This was a particularly satisfying contact, not only because St. Pierre & Miquelon is as rare as hens teeth, but that I was the second station to work him on 15m yesterday, before he was involved in what was possibly a world record pile-up!
Feeling particularly pleased, I qsy’d back to 15m were I found JY5MM in Jordan , VE1CHW in Nova Scotia, and Paul HS0ZIN in Thailand. At this point, I pulled the plug, slightly disappointed with the number of qso’s on 15m and popped round to see Dave M3XIE.
Ah well, tomorrows another day…
Many thanks for the 2m contacts and apologies to those UK stations who tried to work me on 15m. The only UK stations I could hear were MM, but were too weak to chase.
73
Mike 2E0YYY
