Radio magic with DX

This morning when I sat down at my desk to organize my workplan for the day and week, I turned on the radio to just listen. I twiddled the dial on 20 meters and heard nothing but static, so I tried 40 meters. A few stations were on but nothing that interested me, so I went back to 20 meters, and after a bit of hunting, heard a distant (DX) station working North American stations in succession.

Before I go further, let me briefly describe my station so you get a feel for the situation. I have an Icom 706 MkIIG that runs on batteries below my desk (they are heavy!). My feedline snakes out the window (haven't cut a hole in the wall yet) without a tuner and connects to a short feedline for a G5RV antenna. The wire slopes from 40' atop my garage to 30' diagonally across my home (mainly so my wife does not complain about the appearance). Simple station with minimal directivity.

I've learned with experience that when stations sound relatively loud at my location, I have a chance to talk with them. Maybe. John was not loud, but definately readable. As I listened to John work several stations per minute in what sounded like a relaxed manner, the thought crossed my mind that I should at least call him once or twice. Perhaps my signal would be strongest at his end for a brief moment. As John finished with a station, he would then say QRZ (which means who is calling me?). That was my cue.

I said my call sign phonetically but he answered another station. So I tried again on the next round, and he said MY callsign! We exchanged brief pleasantries and signal reports at 1014 Z May 15, 2011. The magic part is how a thin wire hung between metal poles about 75 feet apart allowed me to talk briefly with a station 7300 miles around the world. John, 9M6JC, was speaking from Borneo Island in Malaysia just 5° north of the equator and I live slightly north of halfway to the pole. So far this is the longest distance I've talked. I sure like ham radio as a hobby. Now I need to figure out the island identifier for IOTA (Islands on the Air).

I have a number of friends who have talked with nearly all entities (countries and country segments) around the world. Currently there are 337 recognized "ham countries". To put this contact into perspective, Borneo is my 12th ham country. I doubt I will ever have all of the countries confirmed, but certainly will not unless I get on the radio, listen, and try. Yesterday I heard a station from Croatia for the first time, so I'll keep listening. There is magic in the ether!