The early bird catches the worm

Sometimes I have to do some extra work from home. Early on a Monday morning I often find myself at the shack desk around 7.30am. This morning was no exception. It can be a great time to be on the bands too. This morning I worked HU2DX, a new dxpedition to El Salvador, on 80m CW followed by 40m CW, a  new country on both of those bands. This was followed by two further QSOs with HK0NA, Malpelo Island, on 80m SSB and 40m SSB for two new slots, bringing my total to 14 band slots so far.

But by far the greatest highlight of the morning was VP6T, Pitcairn Island, on 80m CW. This is a brand new country for me, never worked before, and to get it on 80m was a real pleasure. For a short time he was 579 and it only took me a couple of calls to get into the log. That was around 8.30am, with EI just coming out of the grey line. VP6T's signal faded fairly quickly after that such that I would not have been able to work them 10 minutes after I did. Great job. To make it even better, I am in their online log, so the QSO is solid. Thanks guys.