Fiji on 6M

 

The 2024 season for me started in March with a fairly regular amount of South American openings, mostly late afternoons. March 15th was the first in the log with LU8EX, but also heard a few others including CX4DA. 

This pattern has persisted through most of April, with many days having openings down to South America. Looking through my notes, this is a lot more activity here than last year. Here is a sample of what late April looked like:

April 28:

Worked PY2CC, PY2SRB (new grid)

Worked 4 different CEs including CE2SV

April 29:

Heard 2-3 CE stations

worked LU5FF

worked YV5NEA

worked HI8DAR

also heard CO8LY, 9Y4D, P43A

April 30:

Worked 10 different Brazilian stations a number of new grids

Worked CX7BBR

May 1:

Worked a couple of LUs and CE

Things started to taper off, but I noticed some locals working stations in the mid-west, so turned the beam to 270 degress.......and then.....

For a brief moment I thought this was a bad decode, but then I immediately recognized Tony's callsign. I immediately hit TX and he responded right away with a +11. I completely the QSO super fast, as I always use skip TX1, and I just sat there, nearly shaking in my shoes. FIJI on 6m!!!

Tony was in and out for about 20-30 minutes before the path shifted west. It was quite an exciting afternoon.