Missed # 95 !!!!

Nuts!

The kids were on the new computer playing games at Nick.com; so I headed down the basement to hear what I could hear on the bands. There's obviously some kind of contest going on, as I heard a lot of Baltic stations on 20 Meters. I did work Latvia, thinking I didn't have them in the QRP log, only to find that country already worked QRP.

I bopped on over to 30 Meters and heard Sardinia IS0/I9JX (or something like that, I don't have my shack notepad right in front of me at the moment). He was in and out, loud and weak as the QSB was up and down. I tried working Tony for the better part of half an hour with no luck. Antenna didn't seem to matter, whether it was the G5RV, Zepp or Butternut HF9V - I couldn't raise him with 5 Watts; and I tried about every trick I had up my sleeve (with the exception of raising the power level!).

This was pretty frustrating as European stations are generally pretty easy to work from New Jersey. But for whatever reason, today it was not meant to be. I'll try and get downstairs for a little bit more radio time this evening. Maybe I'll run into another Sardinian station on 40 Meters, if I'm lucky enough.

Just goes to show that propagation isn't always reciprocal. Just because you're hearing a station 599 doesn't mean they're going to hear you (especially if you're QRP, I guess!).

Better luck next time - there WILL be a next time - there always is!

73 de Larry w2LJ