QSY on 40m to VK7AC Norman in Tasmania

I was sitting listening to ST0R (Southern Sudan) on 40m CW this evening and thought I might give them a try but pretty soon there were a couple of Italians who started CQing on his frequency. I kid you not. They were both CQing at the same time, seemingly oblivious to each other and the DX. I couldn't stand to listen to it, so I QSY'd to 7.156 LSB where Roger ON7TQ was running his regular DX net. Roger is always a pleasure to speak to and handles the traffic very well.

My nested inverted V dipoles for 30m and 40m

I could hear Norman VK7AC on the frequency, speaking from his home in Tasmania, south of Australia, and had him at 5 and 7 on the signal meter. I switched over to the Butternut and he was 5 and 3 at best. Despite having had a QSO with him in June of this year, I decided to give him another shout to see how he was picking me up on the 40m inverted V which Pat EI2HX and myself put up three weeks ago. He gave me a 5 and 7 report and he peaked at 5 and 8 when speaking to me. It was a good QSO. I was really thrilled to have a chat with him. It was less than an hour to sunrise on his side while it was around sunset on this side, so a good grey line contact.

I am delighted with how the inverted V has worked out since it was installed. I have found myself CQing on 40m SSB most nights and having a great chat with my neighbours in G land and Europe. It's amazing what can be done with a simple wire antenna and 100 watts.