Band conditions have slipped a bit, but still some good ones on these days.
The VU7AG gang continues to be elusive and frustrating to find at times, I did work them on twenty meters, but did not need it on cw, or ssb. I am still trying to find either propagation, or a chance on 15. It seems when they do show up on this band, by the time they are spotted they do the vanishing act. On 40 virtually a wall of noise and again not on long. Bits of information flowing indicates storms may limit the operation, perhaps that is the reason, or some of the ops are so overwhelmed with callers they just give up the effort.
This operation will continue until mid December, so we still may have chance on 15, we shall see what happens?
Other stations listed T32TM 14.262 0700Z and also grabbed on ten meters 28.486 2130Z signal was pretty weak on ten at that time, but we managed to pull him through the qsb. Station runs simplex so be prepared for some qrm of callers on the frequency.
ZD8W 21.286 2130Z good signal from these islands just about anytime, if you need this one of course jump on it.
NOTE NOTE, EARTH SHAKING NEWS. Yesterday received in the mail a qsl card in one of my SASE from Canada, well I could not recall I had sent anyone that was a qsl manager to Canada. I opened the envelope and wonders never cease in this hobby.
Three years ago, yes three years ago I had worked BY1RX on 40 meters manned by a couple of Canadian ops. After searching for a qsl route and during this operation it was finally published to send cards and requests to VO1AU. Well, after a year I contacted this fellow on E mail, he did not seem concerned a bit about at least giving some satisfaction of sending out the qsl card request. I had really given up on this one.
Thing is, I do question a few things, it does not take three years to have cards printed, as far as logs, well they should have been copied and taken with the guest ops. Normally, after major expeditions you receive a qsl card with in a six month bracket, sometimes even quicker.
Well, I nearly fainted from the shock, this one was as rewarding as my qsl card from YA1AH worked on twenty way back in the 70's after much pursuit we found out the operator was a Swedish ham, had all the logs, had qsl cards to mail. Yet, his information was never published in QST or CQ until 13 years later. Yes, this card took 13 years to run down, then one day from Sweden here my long awaited qsl card arrived. Since that time, I have worked a few stations using the T6 prefix and received cards, but a YA1AH is indeed a rare one.
When this card is sent to ARRL in February I will grin once I see it credited to my listings... Nice catch on 40 CW. As I have mentioned the Chinese ops are elusive and never stay on the air long. With this one down, got others to pursue for band endorsements and hope they respond quickly.
