So, last night I was tuning around and tried to pull in the Ohio slow code net. They hold muster every evening at 2200 UTC on 3535.35. I did not have much luck and when I did QSB quickly took the signal away so I did not stick around long. Not finding much else going on in the cw area that I could even hope to copy at my current skill level and the fact I needed to complete some paperwork for the Harley class I just taught I decided to just move to voice and tune around and listen while I worked.
As I tuned around 40m and heard the usual evening nets and ragchewers I stumbled across a Spanish station calling DX and requesting North America stations. There were some big power players in there with booming audio and he could not hear me. His signal faded in and out over the twenty minutes or so that I listened and called and finally I heard it. "W9B station, come again." My heart jumped up in speed as I repeated my call sign. "W9BRZ you are 58 into Barcelona, QSL?" W9BRZ? The old heart dropped a bit as I quickly responded with "Correction on the call. Whiskey 9 Bravo Romeo India India India." "Copy W9BR India." I returned his signal report with a 59+ into Indianapolis and we finished our call. It was a great feeling to put my first SSB DX into the books. I have had JT65 DX but never a voice contact. 100 watts and a wire to Spain. Felt pretty good about that one.
Congrats on the DX
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