Another all time new one - Montserrat, 20m RTTY.
I wasn’t expecting much having decided to give out a few points in the WAE (Worked All Europe) RTTY contest this weekend. Things seemed to be going well with plenty of stations worked on 40m, 20m and 15m (15m in particularly working very well into North America).
Around 16:25 UTC I noticed a spot for VP2MNK on 20m so with this being a potential new one for me I tuned in and listened to see if I could hear him. He was peaking about strength 8 with me but fading badly. I’d need to get lucky if I was to work him, especially as he seemed to be working a run of calling stations, most of which were likely louder than I would be.
I called several times in the next 20 minutes or so, coinciding with his signal peaking at my end, trying to figure out his operating pattern. It struck me he seemed to wait quite a while at times before coming back to a calling station, as if he was waiting for people to make a second call rather than prompting it with a QRZ? or AGN…?
I modified my macro to send my call 4 times rather than my more usual 3 and delayed sending by a few seconds, hoping my call would get some ‘clear air’ when others ended. It seems to have worked because at 16:40 UTC we made the brief contest exchange and he was in the log for country number 169 (and the 94th from this QTH with my compromise antenna).