Nigel Coleman (G7CNF's) 4m Band First to Germany

DI2AL QSO

England - Germany 4m First

Sometime in June 2007 I think it was, Joe, CT1HZE dropped this little beauty on to KST chat; if all went well, he was going to activate a new country for 4m. Beyond those scant details he would not elucidate further save to say that it would be a 'country not activated previously.' Needless to say, speculation was soon rife and Joe remained firm in his resolve not to 'let the cat out of the bag'.

Well sure enough the cat was very well behaved and remained in the bag save for a small handful of friends and contacts who were given some advance notice. I was not fortunate enough to be in that category and so watched and waited with considerable intrigue.

Keeping my ear to the ground I found out many weeks before the event that Joe was going to activate Germany. This was a superb choice of country and I remained vigilant because although I knew where he would be, I did not know when he would be active and what call he would be using. Ironically, at a time during the intervening weeks, Joe put up a listing on qrz.com outlining the extent and limitations of his activity, of course I still did not know his call and thus was completely unaware this had been done! During this period I was also going to many medical appointments and my activity on the radio was significantly reduced.

Tuesday 7th August 2007. I went into the shack as normal and powered up. Logging in to KST chat I was immediately aware of an atmosphere of nervous excitement, something was happening... Observation over the next minutes revealed that Joe had been on KST chat the evening before and announced that he would be QRV as DI2AL on MS during the following morning of the 7th. Of course, I wasn't in the shack when Joe made this announcement so I was not privy to this.

In due course DI2AL logged in to chat. The moment of truth was upon us. Joe announced his operating frequencies as 69995 TX and 70175 RX. The following minutes were atypically a mass of hysteria. All those that are passionate either about 4m or about obtaining that particular First were in the mix, calling. I could see the tactics, as Joe was not exactly on frequency, some opted to detune their transmission by the same amount as DI2AL, hoping that Joe was running with narrow filters. Others simply fired their RF off into the ethers hoping to be heard.

During this confusion, I saw Keith's call (G4FUF) appear. Since DI2AL was working split, quite obviously it was Joe calling Keith. My transmission was silenced and my resolve broken. The supposition was that Keith had broken through the pile although there was a nagging thought in my head as to why Joe should be TX'ing with calls and not reports...

While DI2AL continued to call G4FUF I resigned myself to watching the 4m DL-G "First" sail past me, carried on the tail of one of those meteorites I was pinning my hopes so fervently upon. The fact that Joe was sending a call didn't seem to bother some of the other operators also calling. A period of silence ensued; MS conditions were mediocre so I wasn't necessarily hearing DI2AL every period and I preferred to listen to the MS from Germany than the cacophony emanating from the UK.

Catching me completely off-guard, Joe issued a message on KST to the effect that he was changing his listening frequency to 70100. I forget now if he explained why, possibly not; what was clear is that his advice was not directed at anyone but rather it was issued in a more general way. In an instant I was there and calling. In the next instant I was being called back with a report! The exchange was over almost before I had time to draw breath!

It would seem on reflection (pun intended) that somehow I appeared to be the only one who noticed that Joe had altered his receive frequency. My second receiver was still set to 70175 and after the QSO had ended and I stopped transmitting, there was still a hive of activity on Joe's original frequency. Maybe I benefitted from a second PC monitor which allowed me to run KST chat in Web and Telnet along with WSJT all immediately visible.

I recall thinking to myself "Can this be true? Is it possible that no one else saw that Joe had shifted his receiver?" For a moment I felt that I may have somehow stolen the contact from under G4FUF's nose for I am convinced he was under the impression that he was locked into a QSO. Later any misguided feelings of guilt were dispelled when DI2AL confirmed that myself and a Scottish station were the only stations Joe had been able to make out through an almost impossible wall of QRN.

Needless to say, the direct QSL was in the post box before the ink had time to dry; and I was equally thrilled by Joe's prompt reply. I am pleased that over the following weeks DI2AL was able to make countless contacts with many, many operators from most of the countries with a 4m allocation and my congratulation is extended to all who have been able to complete a contact.