I was off from work today and made a few contacts throughout the day to Europe, Italy, Bulgaria and Brazil. Just before 22:00z I saw a VK station in a PSK31 QSO on 40m. After the QSO ended, I tried to make a contact but wasn’t able to. I then needed to pick up my daughter from practice. When I got back from getting my daughter, the same VK station was in another QSO. When they were done, I cranked up the power and this time he came back to me. It was my first contact with any Australia station!

VK6WB (Gus) and I had a nice QSO. He was pleased to be my first VK contact. You have to love digital modes as a way to communicate on low power and a wire antenna. I will be sending a QSL card out tomorrow to his QSL Manager (W4UHF) who is stateside.

Based on the grid squares, we’re 11,608 miles (18,681 km) from each other. Previously, my longest contact was in Mauritus at around 9,290 miles.  Just fantastic stuff!!

Thanks Gus for making a day off from work extra special!

73,
K2DSL