Greetings to all,I may have what should be one of the most "footprint stretching" DX QSOs via AO-40. A group of German fellows made a DX-pedition to Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 2003. Their grid locator was NH87 and my grid was DN81. I heard them only once and it was on a day near the end of their operation. I was hearing a few fellows on the West Coast working them but I couldn't hear a "peep" from the DX station. All of the sudden they were there, Q5. I couldn't believe my ears! We exchanged the usual 5NN on CW as with most all expedition signal reports. My Elmer, Joe, K0VTY, and I had often talked of stretching the footprint but it never occured to me that I'd have the opportunity to do just that. As I recall, there were less than 5 degrees, according to InstaTrack, for me to make the contact before LOS at both ends. I always blamed the giant Elm tree just accross the street from me for preventing my hearing much that appeared on the low western horizon. After I collected my senses, I went outside and had a look at that "cursed" tree. To my suprise my antennas were pointed at a "hole" in that tree no bigger than a bushel basket. Obviously that hole provided me the one in a thousand shot I had at working VK9CD on the 20th of Oct., 2003. I have been a DXer for over 50 years and I've had many memorable and lucky DX QSOs but VK9CD ranks right up there near the top of my list. I wish that we still had a bird in orbit that would allow such "thrills" but alas.......73 to everyone and we can continue to hope.... Frank, K0BLT ____________________________________________________________ Groupon™ Official Site 1 ridiculously huge coupon a day. Get 50-90% off your city's best! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d864833bdd43265bb0st06vuc
Hi Frank, K0BLT
If I well remeber is with you that I had many QSO's with AO40 at elevation of -2 or -3 degrees belove my horizon over the sea or am I wrong ?
73" de
i8CVS Domenico
----- Original Message ----- From: k0blt@juno.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2011 7:31 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-40 DX Record...
Greetings to all,I may have what should be one of the most "footprint
stretching" DX QSOs via AO-40. A group of German fellows made a DX-pedition to Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 2003. Their grid locator was NH87 and my grid was DN81. I heard them only once and it was on a day near the end of their operation. I was hearing a few fellows on the West Coast working them but I couldn't hear a "peep" from the DX station. All of the sudden they were there, Q5. I couldn't believe my ears! We exchanged the usual 5NN on CW as with most all expedition signal reports. My Elmer, Joe, K0VTY, and I had often talked of stretching the footprint but it never occured to me that I'd have the opportunity to do just that. As I recall, there were less than 5 degrees, according to InstaTrack, for me to make the contact before LOS at both ends. I always blamed the giant Elm tree just accross the street from me for preventing my hearing much that appeared on the low western horizon. After I!
collected my senses, I went outside and had a look at that "cursed"
tree. To my suprise my antennas were pointed at a "hole" in that tree no bigger than a bushel basket. Obviously that hole provided me the one in a thousand shot I had at working VK9CD on the 20th of Oct., 2003. I have been a DXer for over 50 years and I've had many memorable and lucky DX QSOs but VK9CD ranks right up there near the top of my list. I wish that we still had a bird in orbit that would allow such "thrills" but alas.......73 to everyone and we can continue to hope.... Frank, K0BLT
Groupon™ Official Site 1 ridiculously huge coupon a day. Get 50-90% off your city's best! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d864833bdd43265bb0st06vuc _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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