It's looking a bit CHILEer now...

Actually it is here in Blighty, still it is the middle of September, but I'm not going to talk about the weather, as you may have guessed.

I have two antennas for HF, the end fed long wire and the Sirio 827. The long wire does a grand job from 17m to 80m, but it's pretty rubbish on 12m and 10m, the 827 however is king on 10 and 12m.

I dont know about you guys, but when I fire up the station, I have one laptop I use just for the internet and one I use for controlling the radio, it's not that I'm flash, it's because I'm too tight to buy one decent machine, when two old lappys do the job.

The internet machine runs QRZ.com, Dx watch, PSKreporter and DX sherlock, with the latter usually on the 10m Europe page.

Anyway last night around 2100 UTC I was shocked to see lots of sporadic 'e' lines between Europe and S. America on DX Sherlock, so time to get the 827 earning it's keep, and so without too much effort, CE2WZ, David, in La Serena, Chile, was in the log with a nice 55 both ways, followed by LU7HW, Gustavo, again 55's.

Pretty much as soon as I said 73, the band closed, and I didnt hear another thing.

Here is David, pic from QRZ.com.

What was really nice is that I hadnt had a HF contact for like 10 days, not without trying, just couldnt seem to get through, yet 10m opens and two contacts that easy, I was beginning to think I had maybe some sort of audio issue, so this 'sanity check' came at just the right time.

Oh and Chile was a new DXCC for me, makes 53 now.