DX on 20m

It doesn't take much to liven up the HF bands. An SSN of 14 and a flux of 76 and I heard (and worked) several US stations and an Indonesian.

I was monitoring on 14.070 with KComm's PSK Browser open and saw that I was decoding YC1FWO from Depok in Indonesia. I double-clicked on his call to put myself on his frequency. During the previous contact he mentioned that he was running 50W so I increased my power to match, and when he finished the QSO I called him. He came right back and we had a solid contact, my first on PSK31 with Indonesia. (I worked the country once before, a year ago, on CW during the CQ WW contest.)

Listening again after that contact was over I saw someone's station details scroll by and noted that they were using an Elecraft K3 like I was. It took a little while to get Paul NF8J from Alto, Michigan in the log. The first time I called, he replied to a German station whom I couldn't hear. I waited on frequency but an Italian, who possibly couldn't hear Paul, kept calling CQ on top of him. When he signed with the German I waited a little while for the other station to send his final goodbyes and then called. Another Italian station then called me! I called again and this time Paul came back to me and we had a nice contact that didn't just consist of macro exchanges.

A bit later on I heard Carl K4RH from Murfreesboro, Tennessee calling CQ DX. Again, the first time I called him he returned to someone else. While he was half way through sending their signal report a Spanish station kept calling him! When he finished the contact I called again. Carl heard the signal from my attic dipole and a short but solid contact was completed. I think Tennessee is a fairly rare state so I was pleased to work him.