Friday, January 1, 2010

First contact of 2010 is a new country - Oman! Ringing in the new year with OOs!

Oh man Oman!!

2009 was ushered out last night with just a minute and a half to go with a DX contact into Louisiana. I worked N8OO at 23:58:34 and wished him a happy new year.

This morning, I am delighted to report that the first contact of 2010 in my logbook is a DX one - and a nice one at that. A41OO Khalid was calling CQ on 14.333 USB. He is based near Muscat, capital of Oman. There was nobody coming back to him so I gave a shout. He initally thought I was Echo India 8 Charlie Hotel Bravo and then Echo Alpha 8 but he got it right after I shouted myself hoarse!! A nice one for the new year!

The Butternut HF vertical is definitely doing the trick. I got into Oman on it, and am now hearing things that would previously have been "in the muck" on other antennae. For instance, I am hearing a weak Australia station right now on 18.150 that I cannot hear on my other vertical or the wire. He is VK6LC. Very low but I can hear what he's saying a lot of the time.

It was only later today that I realised I have seen out 2009 (two zeros) and ushered in 2010 (also with two zeros) with callsigns that have two Os in them. The last of 2009 was N8OO and the first was A41OO. Coincidence . . .

At this time, I have worked 30 countries as confirmed by Authenticity Guaranteed eQSL.

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