FT5ZM Amsterdam Island

Well one of the most wanted DXCC entities is finally on the air.  After over a week of travel the team started operations today and the pile-ups were astounding.  I tried for nearly an hour to work them on 20 meters with no success.  The pile-up was nearly 15kHz wide.  One interesting thing I did was to hook up the I/Q output of the KX3 and feed it into CW Skimmer.  Within less than 5 minutes CW Skimmer had captured over 160 call signs.  Even with CW Skimmer running it was still difficult to pick the right spot to call.  I finally decided to try another time.

This evening I saw they were operating on 17m.  I went up to the shack and heard them loud and clear.  There was still a significant pile-up, but it was only about 5 kHz wide.  After about 20 minutes of tuning the pile-up I found a pattern in their operation.  After about 5 tries I finally heard my call sign and a signal report.  It was pretty exciting to work another All Time New One.

Hopefully over the next several days I will be able to work them on some other bands.  Their website is:  http://www.amsterdamdx.org/

Feel free to join the pile-up.  Just be sure to follow the DX Code of Conduct and the pile-up will be fun for all.

73,

Fred, KC9QQ