K1N: Navassa 2015

02-Feb: Game On

K1N went QRV and the expected bedlam ensued. Big Brother KB2YAN called me to gloat about working them on 40m CW; I told him I was going to wait a few days for things to calm down. 

But no... around 1130 or so local time (0430 UTC) I succumbed to the lure of an all-time new one and went down to the shack and found K1N on 7023 listening up. By "up" the barbarian horde took to mean from 7024 all the way up to, and probably past, 7050. I had no luck at all finding where John W2GD (who I believe was at the key for the initial 40m CW stint) was listening so I hopped around switching from XIT to RIT in hopes of hearing a "TU 599" from someone. No luck with that. Cluster spots were announcing QSX frequencies all over the place. 

Finally after about 20 minutes of calling blind I found a cluster of callers around 7030, tuned a bit past the lower edge and sat there for a few calls. At 0459, just one minute before local midnight, K1N sent the magic call: "WW2PT 599". I dropped my call again twice just to make sure, and John came back "WW2PT WW2PT 599". The Happy Dance  commenced, DXCC #207 worked and in the log! My QSX was up 6.4 on 7029.4.

So the pressure of working an ATNO is over. Now for 30-10m.

03-Feb: 30m Done!

Almost the same as last night: came into shack around 11:20pm (0420 UTC), checked 30m and found K1N fairly strong on 10109.5 kHz. After some 20 minutes of searching I put them in the log at 0441 UTC, QSX 10126.2 (up 16.7).

04-Feb: 20m, 17m, and First Upload to ClubLog

Put 20m in the log on the first call at 1211 UTC, wkg 14023.0 (QSX 14027.4, up 4.4). This happened with FT5ZM on 20m -- dropped my call once and got an instant reply. Maybe 20m is my lucky band.

Not quite so lucky on 17m. Took three separate shots at it during the day, each no more than 30 minutes long. Very frustrating. Then a fourth shot after returning from a run into town and got 'em after only a dozen or so calls. Four bands down.

QSOs through 03-Feb, 1631 UTC have been uploaded to ClubLog; no LOTW yet.

05-Feb: Second K1N Upload to ClubLog is in!

WHOOP! There it is!!!

06-Feb: VOACAP Predictions for K1N
I know I've used the VOACAP Online site before but I forgot how excellent it is. According to the results my best shot at working K1N on 10m and 12m all be late afternoon/early evening; 15m should be workable anytime during the day from 1400-2300 UTC.

I decided to give 80m a try around 0715 and found K1N on 3523 kHz. I spotted his QSX frequency about 4 kHz up and guessed moving down. He was. The next call was a bit lower, and the one after than. I parked 3 up on 3526 and sent my call about a half dozen times until I got a "WW2?" A few more calls and got the rest. Band #5 in the log.

At 1945 I broke down and dug out the hand mic to get 'em on 15m for Band #6. The CW Gods may frown upon me but hey,  ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Very easy contact, just two calls. K1N was on 21206.5 listening on 21350.0 with practically no bedlam.