Last night, unable to sleep, I wound up in front of the radio at 2AM. I got on 40m, but the band was almost dead, with an S5 QRN level. I figured something was up, propagation-wise, but was too tired to check the propagation sites, so I went down to 80m. Again, the band was pretty much dead, with just one or two QSOs, very local/regional, going on in the bottom 30 kHz. So I punched the button to go to 30m. The QRN was S1 there, but two scans up and down from 10.1 to 10.125 revealed nothing.
Then I slowed down my scan, narrowed the bandwidth to under 500 Hz, and listened harder. A faint signal around 10.107 turned out to be VK2GWK, who gradually got louder until he was a full S5. Then I tuned up the band a couple of kHz and found a ZL4 station as well. Both were not only working into the US, but the VK2 station worked an EA5, and I could hear both of them clearly (S5 or so), indicating a probable long path connection.
None of them could hear my 5 watts, unfortunately, and I didn't feel like cranking up to my full 100 watts (plus, I really needed to be asleep). But considering that I have only heard ZL and VK a couple of times in the past year, probably because of my low and minimal antenna systems, it was remarkable propagation. And I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't slowed down my dial spinning and listened carefully.
So, when the bands seem dead, slow down your scan and listen carefully. The station in the noise level may be some pretty good DX, and there's a good chance the path may improve, too. Patience and perseverence can really pay off.
73 & best rx de kt8k - Tim
