Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Digimode contact to Australia

The PSK31 digimode is obviously good enough for long-distance contacts. I found something peculiar going on in the 17 meter (18.1MHZ) band...the signal seemed to be coming from a long distance ("DX"), so I asked who is calling:
QRZ QRZ QRZ de OH3GGQ OH3GGQ OH3GGQ pse k
I got an answer, that looked very promising, since VK (Country prefixes explained) means Australia:
OH3GGQ OH3GenQ OhVK3XQ VK3XeTU sk
I could not get his call 100%, so I asked:
VK?? VK?? PSE K
He replied:
OH3GGQ OH3GGQ OH3Gpee de oQ VK3XQ VK3XQ BTU sk
Wow, I'm lucky! Now I know his call for sure and send him my station info macro:
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ
Hi DR OM
Report : 599 599
Name : Sauli Sauli
QTH : Lohja Lohja
Loc : KP2ØCG KP2ØCG
Info : qrz.com
How copy?
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ pse kn


He replied:
OH3GGQ de VK 3XQe,Q Ok uli UR RPT 569 569 569 Ta®my cPT 599 9
My Name is Rob Rob Rob My QTH Yea Victoria es e-lea Victoria Australia QF22qx [85.0° 15,217.0km] QF
dU How Copy ? Sauli OH3GGQ de VKt pse sk


Well, not fully clear message, but I got all important information. To finalize the connection, I sent this message:
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ
85% copy 85% copy OK OK
73 Rob and thanks for the QSO.
QSL sure via buro and/or eqsl.cc.
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ sk


For newcomers, 73 means "Best regards". (More ham abbreviations here). Some italian station came with an extremely strong signal and since I have no narrow filters, the non-adjustable AGC of my cheapish receiver made my Australian fellow fade away before I saw his continuation. But I'm happy, since I did my first digimode contact to Australia :)

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