#6m Haiti worked

 

This was just on the edge from what is possible on FT8. But we managed to make a QSO. New band DXCC for me. It was a very warm day with excellent propagation on 6m. In the morning plenty of Japan and South Korea, some China seen. Others saw northern Australia and Hong Kong. I've seen some in the Netherlands making a QSO with Alaska. I "only" managed to work AA7A from New Mexico.

#6m St.Martin worked

 

Was chasing this station for a while and noticed that some PA Hams had seen him this evening. And just at the greyline John appeared with 2 streams and worked some European stations. The contact was made second  try. I didn't catch the RR73 the first time due to QSB.

#6m ZL1RS received?

Spot on 075745 GMT

    My initial thought was that this has to be a pirate. There was no evidence of any propagation in the direction of New Zealand here. However my antenna was pointed into the direction of ZL and I was not the only one that saw ZL1RS. Checking PSK reporter, ZL1RS was active. However, what made this suspicious is the time ZL1RS was only receiving stations in Europe at around 05:45 GMT. Now, PSKreporter does not plot everything, so it is still possible this was the real ZL1RS.

Received by ZL1RS

ZL1RS received by

Above ZL1RS antennas with free sight over sea into the direction of Europe. More info can be found on his website: https://www.qsl.net/zl1rs/index.html

Update 16 June 2026: After other HAMs did e-mail ZL1RS about this "issue" we definitely know now this was a pirate station joking. Location probabely south part of the Netherlands or north part of Belgium.