Sunday, 16th April

I arrived at Keith's house at about 9 a.m. and found him already dismantling the mast ready to put the new (in reality 25 years old) rotator in place. Half an hour's efforts got everything sorted out and I went into the shack to see whether there was anything doing on 6m. I was immediately rewarded with a weak CQ. I first thought that it was an LU but on turning the beam east I was amazed to discover that it was ZR5ADQ at s9+! He was quickly followed by another half dozen ZS5s (ZS5DJ and ZS5ID) and in KG and KF50. No ZS6s I'm afraid.

Stanley, as seen through the all-steel (including the masts!) 19th century wreck of 'The Lady Elizabeth'

You could have then knocked me down with a feather when I was called by KP4EIT in Puerto Rico at s9 on the BACK of the beam! I then worked several KP4s, including KP4JN/M at s9, while still listening to the ZSs calling CQ on 110! Then, up pops 9H5IP and quite a few other Europeans, to bring in a third continent. Within a few minutes I was also hearing LUs (LU2FD) and PYs but these were on backscatter with me beaming east not west! I have never heard KP4s, ZSs, Europeans and LUs all calling CQ at the same time on 110 before and I probably never will again! Listen to a recording of this! Was I going to hear VKs I wondered? I have a wonderful recording. In the middle of all this I worked Peter, PY5CC on backscatter. Boy, was he happy to get his umpteenth country as he hadn't worked VP8 before. That says much about the lack of 6m activity from VP8.

Stanley, twinned with Whitby in the UK

To round the morning off, I was called by Andy ZD9BV on Tristan da Cunha at good strength who I had worked a couple of weeks before from the UK. Keith worked him later at s9. It would have been great to work ZD7VC but I didn't hear him. Later in the day, while I was out having Sunday dinner, Keith added K4IS, K2RTH and CN8 to the country list.

When much of the fun was over, we were visited by Neil, VP8AWU,  but you won't believe this bit of the narrative! I asked Neil to go home and call me on 110 so that I could add VP8 to the log. This he promptly did by connecting his rig to an 80m dipole. He was s9 as expected and we nattered for a bit. As soon as our QSO was over, he was called by Jose, EA7KW and they exchanged 55/53 reports. To say that Neil and Keith were taken aback was an understatement! Neil is now putting up a 6m antenna.

Looking at what happened during the day, it's now clear that there was a patch of ionization in the South Atlantic as well as TEP and I think I was perfectly located to catch all the signals entering it! Although the ZSs were calling like mad I don't think they made it into the Caribbean. What a SPECTACULAR day. When I decided to come to the Falklands I never expected anything like this. Thank heavens we got the rotator sorted out in the morning; it got good use today! Added countries CN8, ZS, KP4, PY0, ZD9, VP8 and LU. Listen to KP3AA (hear the ZS in the background?).