It takes two to tango

This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it is pure magic.

An hour after sunrise, ZD7CTO has shown up on 18.100 MHz. Faint, but steady. Which was rather a massive surprise: ZD7 St Helena Island is a super rare DX from Norfolk – and indeed, from anywhere on the Australian East coast. Incidentally, Derek was also looking for Norfolk Island, as a new one, so I immediately started calling him. However, after 45 minutes of calling it was obvious that we had slim chances on an overcrowded band.

I sent him a message suggesting that we move to a clear frequency, away from chasers. And we did – it only took a minute complete the contact. Plenty of excitement on both sides! I suggested to quickly move to 21 MHz to see if we could make it there as well. Again, it was a breeze. How about 28 MHz? Well, not only did we make it on 10m but the signals were actually the strongest on this band. Let’s hop on 14MHz?

Unfortunately four bands in ten minutes would be too good to be true, the propagations rarely cover four bands at once, but I did hear him on 20m as well. ZD7CTO runs 50 Watts into a spider beam, which covers 5 bands.

Absolutely amazing. This is what sunspot maximum looks like! If you are lucky to find a keen and knowledgeable correspondent, magic justs happen.

By the way, Derek runs an accommodation house on St. Helena, and amateurs are welcome!

Check him out:  https://www.islandimages.co.sh/zd7-ham-radio/