ZK3OU, new country on Saturday morning

I had a nice start to the weekend. I turned the radio on 40 meters and heard a bunch of people calling someone around 7030. I tuned down a little and heard ZK3OU. I assumed it was South Pacific because of the ZK call, since New Zealand is ZL. I set the K3 to split and watched the action on the panadapter and listed with my transmitting frequency in the right ear, and ZK3OU in my left ear.
I soon figured out where he was listening, and listened to him work a W3. I called immediately on that frequency, he came back to K9OG (a common mistake as he missed the last dit on the Z) so I sent K9OZ again and his report. He came back to K9OZ, and I had him the the log.
Then I looked him up. ZK3OU is a mini-dxpedition, tw guys from the West Coast operating down there for a few weeks. They were operating from the Tokelau Islands, which are a territory of New Zealand. It is also a new one for me, a DX entity I've never worked before.
So that was a nice start to a Saturday morning. It all happened the old-fashioned way as well, with me tuning around the band and happening across DX. There's something to be said for that in this Internet age.
After that I slowed things down and tuned to 3885 and listened to the Midwest Classic Radio Net at 7:30. I always enjoy listening to the old AM gear on this net.

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Anonymous said…
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Bill Albrant said…
Congrats on the new one! ZK3 is a little easier to work from the west coast, hihi

Bill, K6CU
k6cu@hotmail.com