Chance DX - What's Your Story?

[KE7KUS]

So I sat down at my desk after dinner where the radio was set to the low side of the 30m band from some work I'd been doing last night. I put on the headset and started listening while opening up my email and checking on a few things. In the headset I heard some CW operator calling CQ, but wasn't really processing it as I was focused on sending out some email and checking on a few files I needed to attach. The signal was quite strong...usually the signal strength on 30m that I get from TX stations that time of the evening. As I was searching through some files I kept hearing the station CQ'ing and in the background my brain started processing the CW --"C...Q...C...Q......D...E......5...N..." -- as I was processing the code I thought to myself "Who is that guy in Texas that keeps starting his call with '5'...he's forgetting his prefix!" At this point I stopped surfing my email and stopped to pick up the "back half" of the guy's callsign so I could give him a call and let him know the first part of his callsign wasn't getting out. It was at that point I realized that the station calling CQ was Ivan, 5N7M, calling CQ from Abuja, Nigeria. He was an easy S9+10 and I almost spilled my coffee all over the desk reaching for the paddles to reply. He picked up one station while I was reaching, but answered me on my second call to him. We traded signal reports and 73's and then Ivan's pileup came on strong! Realizing the propagation was above average, I turned on the DX cluster and looked to see who I could pick out of the noise at my QTH. I switched over to 15m and was shocked to faintly hear Alex, RI1ANC, working his own pileup from Vostok Base in Antarctica. QSB was moderate, and it took about 10 minutes of trying to break through the pileup, but much to my own disbelief, I eventually heard Alex come back to my call. We also traded signal reports and 73's and that's when I started laughing. The past few weeks I've sat down at the station each night for an hour or so and attempted to rack up some new DX, with hardly any success. The one night I sit down and put on the headphones more as an afterthought than anything is the night that I score two new DX entities within 15 minutes of each other. The irony is thick. I've been chasing RI1ANC for about six months now hoping that I could find a band, or some conditions, or both, that would help put Antarctica in the log. I'm still laughing to myself.

Nights like this are one of the things I love best about ham radio. Little surprises like these are the nuggets that make radio magic for me. Never in my mind, when I got up from dinner tonight, did I think that within a 15 minute span, I'd be trading CW with a station in West Africa, and then a station in Antarctica. Yet from halfway around and under the world the signals rolled in. It takes another radio operator to appreciate the sublime beauty and excitement of an evening like this, but I know I'm not the only one out there with a story like this. What's your story of making that completely unexpected, but forever memorable contact?

[WB7X]

A few weeks back I worked Namibia on 40M. Everyone was on a pileup of a strong Aruba station. I tuned of about 20kc and heard an S4-5 station calling.

Made it first call. Some days I miss the Alpha, most days not.

[K7NNT]

Good story Kurt. Glad you made the contact. If the pile up was already on do you think you still could have worked him?

[K7DCL]

A few weeks back I worked Namibia on 40M. Everyone was on a pileup of a strong Aruba station. I tuned of about 20kc and heard an S4-5 station calling.

Made it first call. Some days I miss the Alpha, most days not.

I wonder if your contact is a member of the Namibian Amateur Radio League.
http://www.4x4ham.com/showthread.php?278-Namibia

[WB7X]

I wonder if your contact is a member of the Namibian Amateur Radio League.
http://www.4x4ham.com/showthread.php?278-Namibia

Just looked it up. V55V/P

[W6SDM]

Good job, Kurt. Ivan was my first Africa contact after getting back into the hobby. He has a cool QSL card with a picture of a massive boulder on it.

Like most of us, I watch the clusters. Sometimes I will run two or three simultaneously just to make sure I know who's operating where. The problem is that everyone else watches them too, and by the time they show up on a cluster there's a pileup.

So, there is nothing more satisfying than hearing a CQ and getting acknowledged when you go back to it. My new countries this week are Azerbajan, Dijbouti, and Tajikistan. The last one requires the QSL be sent via registered mail - over eleven bucks to get it there.

[W6RE]

I worked phone BY4 Beijing China one night from my mobile in Del Amo mall parking lot. That doesn't sound so impressive until you realize it was 10:30 at night and the Beijing university student, a YL was running 15 watts from a homebrew vacuum tube station as a school radio club project. She spoke good English with a heavy Chinese accent and I was able to chat with her for a couple minutes. I was on my High-Sierra screwdriver running 500 watts from my SUV. I also worked the Falkland Islands on 15M in the middle of the night once. Goes to show you never know when the band is going to open. It was a freak chance I was tuned to 15M that late waiting out in my SUV to be seated at a restaurant with one of those pager devices.

Rick W6RE

[KR6C]

Last Friday night we were driving to our cabin in the town of Big Bear. As we were crossing the desert I called CQ on 14030 at 9PMish local. I was surprised when Mikka, OH2BAD came back. We chatted for about 10 minutes. Fortunately he understood the occasional extra dit or dah from the bumps in the road.

I would say the one that sticks in my mind was several years ago. Similar to Kurt, I had the receiver sitting on 1826 just listening to noise and paying the bills. I started to hear a faint CQ. After about two minutes the signal came up to copy CQ CN8WW. I replied back and worked him for a new one on 160M. He worked three other people after that then was gone again into the abyss. One of the strange, but not uncommon, 5 minute DX openings on that band.

[W6SDM]

I know Mikka - have his QSL card here on my wall. Working mobile CW takes some dedication, my friend. By the way, my family used to have a cabin in the Moon Ridge section of Big Bear, right up the hill from the golf course. That was about 45 years ago.

[W6SDM]

Okay...here's one. Just a few minutes ago I worked H40KJ - that is Temotu. Temotu is the most remote province in the Solomon Islands. The only time there is ham activity is when someone goes there with a radio. Jacek from Poland made a second attempt, this one successful, to activate the island. I happened to be tuning 15, heard someone tuning up, and next thing I know he's calling CQ. Worked him CW and got him on the first shot. I tuned back five minutes later and there was a pileup about 10Khz wide.

[WB7X]

Thanks for the freq. :confused:

Just funnin' ya.

[W6SDM]

21.008 at 02:52 Z - you never know - he may fire it up again. :)

[KT7DAD]

T32C

Nailed him on 10M :)

That was my first split frequency contact

Update, got him on15M also