My friend, Mark, W8MP, is an interesting guy. He’s a Delta pilot, who gets to fly all over the world. When he does he tries to hook up with amateur radio operators there.
His latest assignment has been to fly to Japan. While in Japan, he visited the shack of a ham there, and worked himself! He’s a Remote Ham Radio customer, so he dialed up a station on the West Coast, pointed its beam at Japan and was able to talk to himself.
According to Mark, a good time was had by all. The JA hams were as equally excited about this feat as Mark, and they were all laughing at the stunt.
An SWL QSO
A couple of days ago, I had a nice QSO with K1 JD. As sometimes happens, after we had “dit-ditted” each other, we heard a third “dit dit.” K1JD sent a QRZ? and in reply I heard, “SWL HR” and then another dit-dit.He didn’t send very much, but he did seem to have a decent fist.
I’m always surprised when this kind of thing happens. If the SWL was licensed, I would have loved for them to join the contact. If not, then I’d be happy to help them get licensed.
Straight Key Night 2018
Not being a big party-goer, I stayed home New Year’s Eve and operated Straight Key Night. This year, I used my Bunnel #9 key instead of the J-37 with leg clamp.
There seemed to be more activity this year than years past. I made five contacts total, including contacts with stations I hadn’t worked before.
Like always, the best part of SKN was stopping and putting the straight key back on the shelf. (Just kidding, just kidding)
Bob K0NR says
If I had access to enough remote ham radio stations, can I qualify for DXCC by working only myself?
Dan KB6NU says
I don’t see why not. I think the current rules are that the station you’re transmitting from is in the same country as the other stations you’ve transmitted from. So, for example, you could gain DXCC by travelling to 100 different countries and working yourself in those countries using any of the remote stations located in the U.S. (it may have to be continental U.S.)