I figured what a great way to check out my new K3 Sub-receiver than joining in the NH8S pileup. Since I’ve had my K3 apart for about a week (too much going on to finish it quickly), I’ve missed all the early fun (other than noting some big pileups during the day yet never actually hearing NH8S). I decided to get up at 4 AM this morning and see if I could work the Swains Island DXpedition since their propagation tools predicted peak signal strength to the New England area on 40 meters between 4 AM and 6 AM.
Sure enough, they were running split SSB on 40 meters when I turned the rig on, but NOBODY was working them. The poor op was calling CQ over and over again. One call and he was in the log, weak, but there.
I then shifted to 30 meters, which provided a booming split CW signal from NH8S, but I was unable to hear any responders, so I just picked a spot and made a contact after 20 minutes of trying.
My final attempt was on 20 meters. NH8S was booming on CW there, transmitting just below the Extra segment. The crowd was hammering away a few KHz into the General segment. I spent about 30 minutes listening in that mess but I never found anyone working him using the sub. However, when I eventually started listening in the Extra class segment, it quickly became apparent that he was listening there. Sure enough I found a responder, and made my call on that frequency, and was rewarded with NH8S on the third band. Not bad for an hours effort.
Moral of the story — sometimes being a night-owl isn’t great for DX into Asia and Oceania. You need to get up before the sun to find that Secret DX World.
Followup to the story: About 10 hours later the QSOs appeared in their online log. Thanks to the NH8S crew for putting up with 110 degree heat, sand everywhere, and huge pileups.
