T32RC Eastern Kiribati

I was checking the 40m CW band around 1230 UTC this morning before work looking for V63XG in Micronesia -- I just barely heard them above the noise yesterday morning, not strong enough for me to feel confident about dropping my call. I doubt I would have heard them come back to me. No sign of them today, however. The hunt goes on.

What I did find, however, was a pileup on 7011. Tuned down 1  to 7010, and there was the T32RC DXpedition on Kiritimati Island (the erstwhile "Christmas Island"), part of the Line Islands in the Republic of Kiribati (better known to WW2 buffs as the Gilbert Islands where the Battle of Tarawa was fought, about 2,000 miles due west along the Equator) and the DXCC entity amateurs know as Eastern Kiribati.

Still half-awake and not yet fully caffeinated, I flipped on the amp and found a clear spot in the pile. Dropped my call once and got him. I think. Lots of electrical QRN this morning. I went about my morning business and came back into the shack about 15 minutes later, when I decided an insurance QSO might not be a bad idea. I generally avoid doing this but I'm not sure I'll have another chance before they go QRT on 10-Dec. Got him on the first call again (how is this even possible, with a screwdriver antenna on 40m? But I digress...). With two QSO's in the log I started to shut down and head to work... but first, I thought, I should check ClubLog just for the hell of it. And there, no more than 30 minutes of my first QSO, T32RC had uploaded their log and I was in it. This is an unbelievably awesome operation.

Did I mention this is another all Elecraft DXpedition? :-)