I finally worked EP6T on 17 Meter CW yesterday. I probably spent about 3 hours trying to work them, and another 9 hours of listening. Since the pileups were horrible and the ham behavior even worse, I don’t know why I spent so much time listening, but I guess the bad behavior sort of fascinated me (sort of like a train wreck — you don’t want to look, but you just can’t help it).
I noticed that after a few days of abusive interference with EP6T, they would simply go off the air without fanfare, sometimes coming back on after 20 minutes, and sometimes changing bands or modes. Yesterday the abuse was continuing on top of the SSB signal, when they went off the air. I quickly tuned down to the CW segment, and sure enough EP6T was there. Within a couple of minutes I had snagged a contact. Were it not for that changeover resulting in fewer stations calling, I don’t know if I ever would have gotten through, but perhaps things have gotten easier as I’ve notice several RI friends have made one or more contacts.
I can’t say that I am motivated to make another contact given the grief of making just one, and I feel horrible for all the hams involved in the DXpedition — the poor behavior and abuse they have taken must be very discouraging. I am thankful that they have worked so hard to bring Iran back on the air (and to grow new Iranian hams for the future).
Edited: I was shocked to see that a LotW confirmation had also arrived this morning.
