I just made the LONGEST Contact ever!

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

I make my usual scroll through the radio freqs. about every other day or so on HF. This morning these guys were talking in a heavy Dutch accent. One guy was saying Costa Rica, cool I thought. Then the other one says Amsterdam Island, Hmmmm? Dutch Antilles? I'm thinking Caribbean right? OK so I give it a go and give up my call sign and get a good QSO report. Meaning we got a proper voice connection/communication report. Cool I got the Islands.........Hell NO! The Amsterdam Island is in the middle of the Indian Ocean! Parallel from the tip of South Africa and Western Australia. Turns out it's an 18 day ham radio expedition. I caught them on their first day on the 20 meter band! Of course I'm all new to this shit and imagine my surprise. With the little rig I built I'm fuckin world wide! Some of you might find this interesting. Here's the link.

http://www.amsterdamdx.org/about-dxpedition/

Time for another "Snoopy Dance"


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/690/d03p.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/j6d03pj)

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

As a matter of fact they are talking right now on 20 meters Single side Band 14.185.............. Just way to cool!

[ElevenBravo]

My vertical is laying on the dirt... wind.... or Id tune them in!

Congrats on your HF contact, you can now see.. why HF...is a gizillion times more fun than 2m!!

EB

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Yeh, I was really surprised. I just got off the phone with Bacpacker, he hasn't got his new antenna up yet. Otherwise he'd be all over it. Did you check the link out? They are on CW as well so you could've double tapped them. I'm just amazed my little rig could do that. I guess I can still read and follow directions. Him sweep good, him swab good, him good sailor.......that's the rig in my EMP box by the way.

[bacpacker]

Really nice hit on the DXpedition. Those don't come around everyday. Glad to see you making some good contacts. That is super cool for a newer ham. Hell that contact is excellent for anyone. Just makes me want to get my antenna up that much sooner.
Good talkin to you tonight. It's been too long.

[Taz Baby]

woo hoo you go bro

[ElevenBravo]

For anyone not sure what a DXpedition is, check some of these videos, they are pretty neat!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=DXpedition&search_sort=relevance&search_category=0&page=

EB


BWRR, post a link to your radio please, I know you told me in the past... but I forget.


Here is mine:

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=ten+tec+440&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#channel=fs&q=ten+tec+544


I had the Icom 718, nice rig... even had it setup on computer interface, but I like the TT much better for some reason.

EB

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Roger Sir,
I'm Currently running a Yaesu FT-857D

http://www.gigaparts.com/Yaesu-FT-857D.html

with a G5RV Lite antenna for HF 80-10 meter bands and a Jetstream JTB1B 2m/70cm Dual Band Antenna .

I know I showed the picture before but I made my rig mobile and "hardened" but here it is again anyway. Connected to an external power supply. It is set up to run off of a 12v gel cell that fits inside now. The radio flips over and is secured, remove the 2 antenna wires, ground wire, latch cover on and done.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/545/2qi0.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/f52qi0j)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/545/2qi0.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/f52qi0j)

[greg48]

Who the heck put Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean?