A week of firsts…
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Well… this week for me has been a week of firsts for me.
Last Sunday, I managed to make contact with Jason ZL2FT on the North Island of New Zealand. We were communicating using SSB on 40m — this is the first time I’ve successfully heard and contacted an overseas station.
Okay, New Zealand isn’t exactly a great distance away, but it’s a great start. 
Tuesday, I was listening on 40m, when Rolf DK2MH came crackling in from Germany. I didn’t try to make contact this time, but there was an abundance of stations trying to work him locally — mostly eastern VK.
Today, I made my first PSK31 contact … once again, on 40m. I chatted with Laurie VK3AMA for a few minutes. Nice to be able to put all the theory I had learned at uni regarding PSK to practical use. I was using BPSK31, and transmitting up to 80W at one point. (Overkill I know, I did trim it back a little.)
Guess now it’s time to actually get some work done. 