Through some miracle my 100 watt 6 Meter CW signal, powered by a 2-element moxon, made it all the way to New Zealand. Of course, it helped a great deal that the guy on the other end was using a 7 element beam and a fair bit of power from the northern tip of the North Island. Even so, a 7,450 mile QSO on 6 meters is a bit unusual to say the least.
One thing I liked about it was that even though ZL1RS was spotted on the various DX clusters, I heard very few other signals. Mostly I listened — and couldn’t hear a thing. But I decided to continue to listen and at first heard just barely a peep. Then the signal rose a bit, but I still couldn’t make out the call. Finally, as the signal rose enough to make out the call, I shot off my call sign and sure enough, he came back to me. I shared a 549 signal report and he responded with a 559.
Looking at the write ups in QST’s The World Above 50 MHz, Jim Kennedy, K6MIO/KH6, who’s an expert in this type of propagation, states that it is Es into a TEP path. That’s sporadic E layer skip into Transequatorial Propagation. You’ll recall that I’d experienced TEP before into Argentina and Uruguay. But, this is simply amazing to me.
I hope you get a chance to work this type of extraordinary propagation. What a hoot!
Great achievement Jim! Looking on the map New Zealand seems a bit more do-able from your part of the world then from mine.
BTW I’m back online: http://blog.pa1jim.nl
73 de PA1JIM, Jim
Hi Jim,
Great to hear from you. Glad you’re back to blogging. Looks like a nice HT for your bicycle commute. I have a Icom ID-31 here, but don’t use it very much at all. It’s only 70cm but does have GPS and D-Star. Yes, New Zealand is a different trip from the USA than from PA. However, I hear of TEP into Africa from Europe — that sounds pretty exciting! Take care and happy holidays.
73 and 55 de Jim, K5ND