Last night, hours after local sundown, I decided to try to work a few stations in the NAQP. The juice had already drained from 20 meters and signals were right down in the noise. Slow-tuning, I heard an interesting call, just barely above the noise. You know how it is when the signal is copyable, yet so weak you just assume there’s no way he will hear you, but you call anyway and hear your own call sign come back to you. Maybe I’m amazed.

In this case it was Stan, AH6KO on the Big Island of Hawaii. This was the fifth time I’ve worked him, all CW. Checking to be certain, I found 61 other contacts with the Hawaiian Islands since 2014 so it’s not really rare, but it’s always magical. I imagine RF signals floating high above the ocean from my QTH to a Pacific paradise where palm trees sway.

It never gets old and never ceases to be amazing to me…