New Zealand - Twice in One Night!

It started with ZL1AZE. He was down in the noise on the frequency I left the rig on by happenstance (40m). He was calling CQ DX so I called back and worked him. That was cool. I have never worked New Zealand before, at least that I recall. I have worked South Africa and Japan, but nothing that far south in the Pacific.

So then I was scrolling around 40 some more and came across a loud station. I waited for him to finnish his QSO so I could catch his call. ZL1BYZ! Another from Down Under!

I called back but he didn't hear me. I am assuming he is running some power. So I called again. He caught most of my call but missed the last two letters. So I repeated it a few times. He still didn't copy my last two letters, but I did send a signal report. So I called back with my suffix three times and he got it! So I got a 459 and I gave him a 559. The band noise is up and there is some QSB in there. My AGC is set to slow so the QSB was taking him to the noise floor and back up. On peaks he was pretty loud.

We made the QSO and that is all that matters!

CQWW VHF Contest - Wheres the Propagation???

6 METERS STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made some tropo contacts just around Ohio here, some were harder than others... but WOW! No Es. I have been watching VHFDX.net and the map has been eerily clear all day and is still quiet.

Something isn't right. Propagation usually isn't a problem in the evenings on 6m, and I have been making some good contacts in the middle of the day as well. I can't imagine that we have passed up the summer Es season already. I am wondering if there is some kind of solar disturbance or something that is wiping out 6m.

Europe doesn't seem like they are having too much trouble. The map has been showing lots of QSO's (red too - Es).

For this being the CQWW VHF contest - one of the few big contests on VHF of the year - 6m is oddly quiet. Too quiet. I know there are thousands of stations out there, but no one is making it through.

I did work the Csech Republic on 40m CW though. So my night hasn't been wasted!