Very Poor Propagation

Bad solar propagation today makes it tuff for QRP ops. The A index is 7 and stable, but the K index is 4 and still rising. The forecast for the entire radio spectrum is "very poor", "poor", and "poor". I had thought my daily DX contacts might end today but I "squeaked" by with "one" contact; just before sunrise.

Not hearing anything previously, I had decided to send my call from the "memory keyer" on the rig. I used the 30 meter QRP frequency of 10.106 MHz. After 15 minutes or so, I heard a familiar "question mark" and I made an attempt to follow up with a the contact.

I was very lucky when  Bolmar (HK1MW) answered me from Columbia South America.  

I'm not sure what antenna he was using this morning, but I thought he had an interesting 3 element- have wave- vertical Yagi. This antenna is in a field about three miles from the ocean.

This isn't the first time I've had my DX run "rescued" from a South American station. Since the beginning of the year, I've also found familiar stations in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

I worked other stations earlier in the GMT day, with contacts into Bulgaria (ON8VP), the Slovak Republic (OM3SX), and Germany (DL7RKK) .