Isle of Spice

The island of Grenada, located just north of South America, is listed 155th on the most wanted list of countries. Not really that rare – yet catching Grenada from the East coast of Australia is kind of tricky: breaking through the wall of North American callers requires not just a strong signal but plenty of patience. And then, things just happen, unexpectedly: yesterday, J35X showed up on 10 metres band. Loud and lonely, desperately calling CQ with no takers. It only took one call with 50 Watts (ICOM 7300)  into a wire antenna to get him in the log. Easy catch – probably – too easy.

Thank you Cycle 25.

And that very day, a couple of hours after sunset, a quick check of 160m band found another not-so-busy caller: 9M6NA.

Satoshi “Saty” Nakamura, Labuan Island, East Malaysia. To my surprise, got him on the first call. 100 Watts into 160m wire vertical in an inverted L configuration. Saty is actually no one else but a famous contestman, JE1JKL operating from his Malaysian contest location and a multiple record holder in bothCQWW CW and phone.

His setup consists of two IC-7610: contest winning grade radios!

Yes, juicy DX’s are everywhere for those who look for them.