VP6DX

There's nothing like waiting until the next to the last minute! With less than a week to go; W2LJ finally managed to work the Ducie Island DXpedition.

Wow, those guys have great ears! They have to; or I highly doubt they could have otherwise have plucked my 5 Watt signal out of the air.

I understand that the rig of choice for this DXpedition is the Elecraft K3; so from my results, I guess K3's enjoy talking to K2's and visa-versa!

Hopefully, all you folks have had ample opportunities to work the Ducie Island team many times on many bands. Since I'm not a "hard core" DX'er, I'm satisfied with the one QSO on the one band. Although, you never know ..... maybe if I hear them decently on 20 Meters at some point over the weekend .....

My G5RV did the job for me once again; but as I looked up at it while I was outside today, it is showing its age. UV radiation is causing hunks of insulation to peel off from the wire. I think this summer I will replace it with a Doublet of some form or another.

According to Win-EQF, Ducie Island is 5,543 miles from me. At 5 Watts out, that works out to 1,108.6 miles per Watt. Not my best effort; but not bad, either. I am consistently and constantly amazed at what QRP can accomplish - especially at the bottom trough of two sunspot cycles!

Thank you Ducie Island DXpedition Team of 2008 - you made my day!

73 de Larry W2LJ