RE: Jack N6XQ SK
VK6RO > 24-03-2022, 10:48 AM
Yes i met jack here in Perth in 2001 before he went up north vk6 where he worked EY8CQ on 6 metres with a 1 watt handheld and 1/4 wave whip attached to the handheld
he wrote a story about his VK visit and it was published in a ham magazine.
see below for part of the story
vale Jack N6XQ
Note the use of a 1 watt output 6 metre handheld from up north
So I decided on
the AEA DX-Handy 6 meter SSB/CW hand-held (no longer
sold in the US) as my main rig. It puts out 1 W and the receiver is sensitive enough, but it has limited frequency cover age. Still, it would do.
The Journey Begins
We flew into Sydney, New South Wales. After sightseeing
for a few days, my traveling companion and I departed on the
Indian-Pacific Railway to Perth, more than 2,000 miles across
the continent, where our real adventure would begin. The rails
provided a comfortable way for us to see the southern portion
of Australia. We enjoyed making many Aussie friends on the
three-and-a-half day train ride.
Coming into Perth, we had a 2-meter train mobile contact
with Wally Howse, VK6KZ. Wally is a fellow microwave enthusiast and until recently, he was co-holder of the 10 GHz
world’s distance record, made across Australia’s Great Southern Bight in 1994.
Wally picked us up at the train station and
gave us the Cook’s tour of beautiful Perth.
The ocean-side city of Perth reminded me a lot of my hometown, San Diego. Wally hosted a barbecue so we could meet
some of the locals (no shrimps on the barbie, but there were a
few prawns sizzling for show, I think).
We shared sea and radio
stories with Perth’s finest VHF operators, including Don Graham, VK6HK, David Minchin, VK5KK (visiting from Adelaide),
Graham Rogers, VK6RO, Cec Andrews, VK6AO, Bruce Douglas, VK6BMD and Al Edgar, VK6ZAY. We spent a few more
days viewing the sights around the city and vicinity before departing on the coach tour across the state of Western Australia
The next opportunity to operate was from Exmouth (OG78)
on the northwest cape. Here, I stood on the second-story balcony of the motel and used a 1/4-wave whip on the hand-held.
I had my biggest pileup. The hand-held would not operate split,
so I requested the JAs call by prefix.
I worked 56 Japanese during the next half hour and then was called by a ??8CQ. I
thought to myself, “This JA can’t send his prefix correctly or
his transmitter is not initially keying right.” It then sunk in
that this was not a JA, but rather EY8CQ in Tajikistan. What a
thrill it was to work someplace I had no idea where it was, but
knowing it was exotic DX.