Admittedly, I didn't start on the radio too early in the day. We had a party with the teenagers here at the Masaka site and it went a little late. But I did listen in starting mid-morning. There was lots of traffic, much of it in and out of Europe. Mid-morning here is midnight on the west coast of the US and 3 or 4 in the morning on the east coast. For some reason I had a hard time being heard. I answered several calls for cq, but no one could hear me.

I was beginning to suspect something had gone wrong with my rig. To be fair, most of those I heard were running 300 watts or more into tall antennas more sophisticated than my somewhat the worse-for-wear vertical. I inspected the cables, checked the ground system, watched the meters on the tuner as I transmitted. Everything seemed to be in order. So, I kept trying.

I found a station calling cq from southern Italy. During one of his contacts he said he was running 100 watts into a 6 band vertical mounted on the roof of his house. So at his next cq, I fired up and sent out a signal. He answered immediately. We had a nice rag chew. His name is John spelled Gion, call sign IZ8PNF located about 500 kilometers south of Rome. I was his FIRST QSO ever in Uganda!

Later in the afternoon, about 1445 UTC, I heard a strong cq call from DL2AZ, a German station. So, I answered and he responded. We had a great rag chew.

Let me say here one of the things I enjoy about ham radio is rag chewing. I know there are lots of operators who like contesting (although according to a survey done by ARRL, only 25% of hams participate in contests) but I have never participated in one and never answer contesters calls. I hate getting a terse reply, "No, I don't want to talk to you. I want only Slovenia." or some such answer.)

Well, Gerhard, DL2AZ is located about 100 kilometers north of Frankfurt and was running one of my favorite rigs - a Kenwood TS820S. Feeding it through a Heathkit amplifier he was transmitting 300 watts through a homebrew quad antenna. I learned he is 67 years old, has lived in his community all his life, has been to the States 4 times to visit friends and relatives of his wife who live in Savannah and Nebraska. He laments that there are no jobs in his community so young people are abandoning the smaller communities for the cities.

The band seemed to be opening up but unfortunately I had a dinner engagement and had to leave.

All in all, what little time I have had on the air has been quite enjoyable. I've worked Indonesia, Belgium, Malta, Zimbabwe, Italy, and Germany.