I was in the pileup to work W1AW/0 in South Dakota today. I already have them in the log, but I can't seem to resist a good pileup these days. Anyway, after I worked them, instead of the normal "TU 73", I got "W2LJ QRP?"
I answered "YES QRP 73 DE W2LJ" and I got a dit dit in reply.
I guess it was somebody who knows of me. The only other time that happened was when I worked W1AW/1 in New Hampshire, but I knew going in that Dave N1IX was the operator. Dave is a superb op and fellow Fox hunter.
It would be interesting to know who was behind the key. It sure makes you do a double take when you work a station and the operator is familiar with you, but yet you have no idea as to whom you may have worked.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least.
I've been trying to work each of the operations on every possible band/mode since March. Lots of fun chasing them. SD hasn't been horribly bad, although conditions above 20m have not been great.
ReplyDeleteKY is another story. In the NW corner of Georgia, I'm too close for most bands. 40, 80, 160m, no problem. But I haven't been able to work them backscatter on 20m and above, and they don't seem to like 30m at all.
Oh well, it is the chase that is fun.
As a contester that does a lot of RTTY, you don't usually get to "talk" with the operators you make a contact with in many contests over the course of a year. When 2 contesters end up on SSB contact, usually in a phone contest, everyone does take a moment to say something personal. It happens with me for US/CA as well as DX stations whenever it's a SSB contact or a non-contest contact.
ReplyDeleteLike you noted in your post, a very minor gesture can make a memorable impact.
I had one of the South Dakota ops call me by name. Not that unusual these days, with computer logs pulling up qrz.com or the equivalent, but in this case I'd been listening for a while before I worked him and never heard him call anyone else by name, and he didn't do so for the few minutes after I worked him either. I wish he didn't have a pileup going at the time, I would have loved to have known who he was. As K2DSL said, those things do make a contact more memorable!
ReplyDeleteHello Larry, yes it's great fun to get a personal response.
ReplyDeleteI often work with very low power, 50 mW or lower, when the propagation is extremely good. I was knocked of my of socks, when an operator of a special station asked me what power I used in a CW QSO. hi. 73, Bert PA1B
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