Late last night, after seeing an entry on another DX Cluster, I found the e-mail address of the strong 5 station (W5JAY) who worked this station just before me. Indeed (and I'm grateful he noted this on the cluster entry) UR5FA/MM was transmitting from grid square GK57 which is just above South America and about midway between it and Africa.
This explains (perfectly) why I was able to work him at a mere 2500 miles. It also explains why I've found only three entries for this station. Hihi
While a disappointment for me, I seem to be the most distant station to make the contact. Brazil was fairly close for him, one station was in the gulf coast, and another was in North Carolina.
I'm sure this QRP station will be an interesting contact for a few more fellows here in the United States as he steams towards Africa. He's worth listening for and will probably transmit again on the 14.060 frequency. I worked him at 22:25 GMT.
I think the ship is MV Anni S. It's listed on the E-QSL site as an alternate operating site.
This morning I'm having crow for breakfast.
3 comments:
John,
Still the fact is a QRP to QRP contact to a boat in the middle of the Atlantic is amazing.
Truly a great prize catch non-the-less. Nice job.
I agree with RCT. Very nice 2x QRP contact. 73 Dick
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the encouraging words.
After giving this a little more thought, it's quite possible he is heading "towards" the Caribbean and might be on the air for several more days. If it's a freighter, and moors in port, or docks, it will take several days to re-supply.
Hopefully, he will be strong enough for me to hear the "grid square" this time. Hihi
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