Subtitle - It pays to know your prefixes!
My lunchtime QRP session today looked like it was going to be no big deal. 15 Meters seemed to be dead as a doornail. I heard some activity on 20 Meters, but not much to write home about.
So I popped on over to 17 Meters, where there seemed to be some activity. The first station that I heard and worked was EC7CW from Seville, Spain. After I nabbed him, I tuned around the band and heard a huge pileup.
Lots of times when you hear a pileup, the station that is the quarry is very weak. Today that was not the case. The station that everyone was chasing was JW/LY2KW, and he was very loud. A quick look at the IARU prefix list told me that JW is Norway, but something didn't seem quite right. Such a huge pileup for Norway?
Well, since the DX was loud, and I had time to kill, I figured, "Why not?" I figured out the split rather quickly, and this time, luck and the good ears of JW/LY2KW were on my side. After about a half dozen calls or so, the DX station came back to W2LJ.
I always feel great when a DX station comes back to me, but it's even more special when I'm using the KX3 and Buddistick at lunchtime. And it's even better when that combination helps me bust a pileup. So I went back to work a very happy camper, knowing that I got Spain and Norway in the log.
But as I was walking back in, I was wondering..... why the massive pileup? It's not like Norway is the rarest of the rare DX, after all. So I decided a Google search was in order. Unbeknownst to me, JW is indeed issued to Norway, but for Svalbard. Holy cow, this was a brandy new DXCC entity via QRP for me! I am constantly amazed by the performance of the Buddistick on the top of my Jeep. A compromise antenna for sure, but a compromise that I can seem to live with.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Great job Larry! I got skunked today. I knew my battery was low but it only lasted 20 minutes. I did hear a Rome station on 17 meters with a big pile up. He was working split. So I brought up the kx3 manual on my ipad to figure out how to use dual watch. The callers were spread pretty wide and I never did figure out exactly where he was listening. This is something I need more practice with!
ReplyDeleteI did hear a SOTA station but as I was calling him the rig ran out of juice and shut down. I am using the internal batteries, so right now it is on the charger getting ready for tomorrow!
The right source to find out the DXCC location of a station is not the Allocation of the International Prefixes, but the ARRL DXCC List.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I was operating portable and did not have it with me. HamLog, which I have loaded in my Nexus 7, only has the IARU list. That is a good thought, though. I will download the list, convert it to a .pdf and load it into my tablet and phone. Or maybe there's an app for that? ;)
ReplyDeleteLarry W2LJ