Dear friends and fellow radio amateurs,
We keep receiving messages through our pilots telling us that many of you can hear us and are following our activity… but we can’t hear you! And, we must admit, this is becoming quite a mystery.
Could it be the deafening noise of the generator pounding away in our ears? A shortage of operators listening at the right moment? Or perhaps someone is intercepting your signals before they even reach our antennas? At this point, we wouldn’t even rule out some mysterious force of propagation!
Jokes aside, this is a phenomenon we are really struggling to explain. After all, considering that we are operating from a country where grounding is practically an abstract concept, our QRM isn’t actually that bad!
As for antennas, we are certainly not short of listening equipment on the low bands: we have two Beverage-on-Ground antennas, one aimed towards Europe and the other towards the USA, an Aziloop, and a K9. So, we do have ears to listen with, and quite a few of them!
We are genuinely sorry for everyone who tries to work us without success. We would love to answer every single call, really, but if we don’t respond, it’s not because we lack enthusiasm or are ignoring you. It’s simply because your signal isn’t making it through to us. And unfortunately, in radio, even the greatest enthusiasm in the world cannot make up for a few missing dB!
Meanwhile, however, we have some great news: we have just passed the 70,000 QSO mark! Considering all the hours we’ve lost waiting for the electricity to come back on, we think this is already an incredible achievement. To be honest, when we started this adventure, we never imagined we would reach such a milestone.
That’s why we want to thank all of you who call us, listen for us, support us, and patiently keep trying, even when our antennas seem to have decided to become a little too selective!
As for us, we will keep doing our very best until the very last minute, trying to put as many friends as possible in the log.
So don’t give up — keep calling us! We’ll keep listening and battling propagation, the generator, and, whenever necessary, the mysterious disappearance of your signals.
Because, after all, that’s what makes amateur radio so special: you never quite know what will happen when you call CQ next!
A big hug to everyone, and… hope to hear you on the bands — fingers crossed!
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