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It was around 1900 UTC when I turned on the radio last night. The antenna was still setup for 30m from the night before so I tuned around the CW portion of the band. I found Bodo working stations around 10.125MHz listening up between 1 and 2KHz.
Conditions weren’t great but I set my split for 1KHz and set about waiting for his signal to peak (assuming that this would give best reciprocal propagation). Having sent my callsign a few times it was around 1913 UTC when I heard my call coming back through the noise - a quick ‘tu 599 73′ later and he was in the log!
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my QSO confirmed in online log
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Dean Amateur Radio 5N0OCH, CW, propagation
Just a quick update to the previous post. Within a few hours of making that post I had 5N0HQ in the log, 20m CW. As luck would have it I was tuning around the 20m band sometime after dinner and I noticed a not-too-strong signal up around 14.054MHz - it was 5N0HQ and he wasn’t under a huge pile-up. I sent my callsign a few times and on the thrid or fourth call he came back to me at 19:01UTC for a new one on CW!
I’ll keep on trying for a RTTY contact with Bodo in his 5N0OCH guise but it was nice to get this one on CW following the earlier realisation and fix of the computer keying issue.
Dean Amateur Radio 5N0HQ, 5N0OCH, CW, RTTY
curtain antenna in use by 5N0OCH
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Bodo (DL3OCH) is in Nigeria involved in the construction of a new shortwave broadcast facility for the ‘Voice Of Nigeria’. While there he is QRV as 5N0OCH until October 2009. He currently has a great signal into Europe by virtue of his being able to use the huge curtain antenna at the radio station (an array of 16 dipoles aiming north - see picture).
I hadn’t paid much attention until recently because I already have a QSO with 5N47NDP from 2008 but a few nights ago I spotted his RTTY signal and thought I’d try for a QSO, since when I have tried (without success) on 20m RTTY and 12, 30 and 40m CW!
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Despite the fact that Bodo is in Nigeria until October and is active most evenings, the pile-ups are still huge and there are many stations working him time and time again, much to his dismay. He is now shaming the guilty parties with a ‘599 dupe’ report. He is also making repeated requests both on his web page and on air that people don’t dupe, hopefully allowing weaker signals to be heard amongst the pile.
I will persevere to get a QSO with Bodo because I figure the pile-ups will eventually abate and it’d be a new one for me on both CW and RTTY should I get either or both of them in the log.
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Pictures 5N0OCH, CW, DL3OCH, RTTY