Even with the solar cycle humming along nicely it can feel like a long time between elusive ATNO’s, though sometimes serendipity lends a hand when you least expect it. Such was the case when I decided to toss a line in the water on 40 meters this morning. Mind you, my current antenna is seriously compromised on that band and I was only running 50 watts because of it.

Scanning the waterfall while sipping the first cup of the day, I saw C21TS call “CQ”. I hesitated a moment while considering how unlikely it would be for Phill to copy me at all, but the nothing ventured, nothing gained axiom convinced me to jump in and just like that, he was in the log.

Nauru is an island country and microstate in Micronesia, part of Oceania in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba of Kiribati, about 300 km to the east. It lies northwest of Tuvalu, 1,300 km northeast of the Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands.

More importantly, it’s an all-time-new-one for me and number 77 on the Most Wanted List. It was also the first new entity I’ve recorded on 40 meters in two years. Life on 20-10 with a vertical has been so good lately I’ve successfully ignored the lower bands. That will change with the approaching new season as I want things ready to roll on 80, 40, and 30 in time for what I hope will be a long winter season.

FYI ⁍  an hour or so after working C21TS the Daily DX news arrived in my inbox. In it, Bernie detailed plans for a larger operation that will be coming soon to Nauru. And since C21TS has been there over a year now, and has operated a lot of FT8, the upcoming operation will focus more on the traditional modes.

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