On the verge of a heart attack

After staying on 12m till late, getting out of bed this morning was quite a challenge. Too late for Europeans on low band. I found myself on 17m FT4 just in time to snatch SU1SK. Egypt is always a struggle, breaking through European, Japanese and North American pileup is a matter of luck, but surprisingly, I’ve got him after a few calls only. Not a bad way to kick-start the day. A quick check of 10m: another semi-rare one, logged with a bit of a struggle.

Then XYL called. I flicked band switch to 6m with the intention to park on 50.313 and check decoding later in the day. On the way out of the shack – a quick glimpse: a yellow square showing 7Q6M calling CQ.

I almost had a heart attack. Malawi on 6m! And loud! The signal was coming via long path, traveling almost 30,000 km! From South East Africa, over the Atlantic ocean, over the entire North American continent, and over the entire pacific. Clearly, it was one of those super rare multi-ducting E sporadic openings, where the signal gets trapped and ducted between layers, then spat out who knows where. Which is kind of a problem in making a successful 2-way contact: the path travelled from one side is not necessarily a two way path.

For the next few minutes I watched 7Q6M steadily hammering with one CQ after another. He had absolutely no idea that I am calling, and even less, that he should point his antenna in my direction via long path. I kept calling. Eventually, I got -22 back. At that point I was on the edge; the heart was pumping like crazy, and with every next decode he was getting weaker, fading away. It was obvious that the opening won’t last much longer. Every second counts. He gave me -22 one more time, then gave up continuing to call CQ. But I kept calling with signal report. For what felt like an eternity, four minutes later, I got my RR 73 meaning the contact was completed.

And that was it.

If this happens to be my last 6m contact then so be it. I would die a happy man. Surely as we are in the middle of the solar cycle, there could be more openings like this one, but what are the chances that this very path to Malawi will open again? And that I would be in the shack, on the right frequency, at the right time with the antenna pointing in the right direction?

7Q6M is the callsign of Don Jones, who is part of the Embangweni Mission Hospital team. Don is doing a fantastic job both maintaining facilities and educating young Malawians under very challenging circumstances. Leading by example! Check Don’s QRZ page and also, check out the link to the hospital. All the things we take for granted…