FT5ZM Amsterdam Island DXpedition Starting

[N1API]

I FINALLY got a solid contact this morning on 12 M CW. It took almost 4 hours of work. I purposely got up early and turned the radio on right away to see what would be the best band to concentrate on. He had a fair signal starting up on 10 meters but I know that band doesn't last long. They are +10 hours ahead of us and 10 meters is the first band to drop out. 9 AM here is 7 PM there so you probably only have 3 or 4 hours of good signal to work them on 10 meters. Watch the DX Cluster spots and you will see who is hearing them the best and on what bands.

The signal on 12 was a little better so I decided to concentrate there. I was getting a little frustrated because I kept chasing him up and down the band by about 20 kHz. They got a wide split and no matter where you go your still jammed in among a hundred others on the same frequency, there seems to be no "dead spots" to sit in. He took a few 10 minute breaks and after the second one I planted myself 3 kHz up and just started calling. When he came back he started answering two or three other calls and then heard what sounded like mine among the QRM and carrier chuckers on his transmit frequencies. I threw in a couple of IMIs then my call and he came back with my call. We exchanged reports and he answered with TU so I logged it.

They put their first log online and my 17 meter call is "busted". They logged N1AP rather than N1API. I emailed, (the real), N1AP and Tony said that he was not working them. So if I can't get an insurance contact on 17 meters I'll appeal it to the QSL Manager as a busted call. (Which has to be done after the DXpedition is done).

The last time I had this much problem working a DXpedition was Scarborough Reef for my last country. But that was the very lowest year of the solar cycle and I never heard him off of 20 meters, (as I remember). And I only managed one SSB contact in fact if I remember correctly I thought I worked him on CW but that call was NG.

This DXpedition reminds me of the first Heard Island DXpedition. With the exception of some very few contacts made by the very first team to visit the island Heard had never been on and the pileups were massive. This was the DXpedition that took up the whole 20 meter phone band on the last night of it operation and set up the criteria and standards for all future DXpeditions after they were highly criticized for their operating style by the ARRL, the FCC and many DX organizations.