Moonrise today was in a very favourable position for this location, in a direction I know from past experience provides good ground gain. It was also at a conveniently sociable time, which is always a bonus!

I saw on the N0UK EME chat that Bob, ZL3TY (RE57om) was active and he was kind enough to set up a sked for 07z, at which point my Moon was just starting to rise and his was setting: We had a little over ten minutes of common window.

Almost exactly on cue, Bob’s signal appeared and the QSO ended up being quite easy. I had a nervous moment when Bob continued to send “RO” after I’d sent a period of “RRR”, but signals were back up in the next period and all was ok.

So that’s my longest distance QSO (ODX) on 2m, at 18956km (or 18984km, it depends on how it’s calculated?) – many thanks to Bob for making my day. It’s going to be a difficult one to beat!

Transcript of JT65B sequences:

065700  Transmitting: JT65B   ZL3TY EI3KD IO51                         
070400  2  -24  1.9  100  3 *      EI3KD ZL3TY RE57          0  10 
070500  Transmitting: JT65B   ZL3TY EI3KD IO51 OOO                     
070600 10  -25       102  4   RO                                   
070700  Transmitting: JT65B   RRR                           (Shorthand)
070800  2  -30       103  3   RO                                   
071000 10  -24       104  1   73                                   
071100  Transmitting: JT65B   73                            (Shorthand)
071400  2  -26  2.1  108  4 *      CQ ZL3TY RE57             1  10