That Time I Contacted the Pride Radio Group in Australia

As things have settled back into more of a “normal” routine in the latter half of January, I’ve been trying to spend a little time each day playing radio. For now that means firing up WSJT-X on my Mac and making 5 or 10 or 20 contacts on FT8.

I tend to do this early in the day, in the hour or so before sunrise. It’s a good time for 40 meters and gray line propagation can be very rewarding. Today was one of those rewarding days.

I noticed VI2024PRIDE calling CQ from Australia. I knew immediately that it is a special event callsign because it does not conform to the standard arrangement of letters and numbers in amateur radio callsigns. I looked them up on QRZ and found it was one of several special event stations being operated this year by the Pride Radio Group.

I couldn’t call them right away because I was right in the middle of another QSO but I made a mental note. After a few minutes when I was again free, I was disappointed that the station was no longer showing up on my display.

I scrolled back in the display to find out what frequency offset they had been transmitting on. I found that a strong domestic station was now transmitting at that very same offset, obliterating the signal of the much more distant Australian station.

I started calling them anyway, with the hope that they’d notice I was not hearing them well and slide over to a different offset. No such luck. After several minutes I gave up.

One peculiarity of FT8 is that transmissions take place in fixed 15-second blocks that are time-synchronized. Transmit for 15 seconds starting at 6:45:00, then receive for 15 seconds at 6:45:15. Transmit again at 6:45:30, then receive for 15 seconds at 6:45:45. And so on.

When I gave up trying, I realized I had been transmitting during the same 15-second blocks as the Aussies! Because they had at some point swapped segments, they were now transmitting when the strong domestic station was receiving, and now I could receive their transmissions.

I called again. This time it only took a few attempts and they came back.

After exchanging signal reports I did a screen grab and posted it to my Mastodon account. A few minutes later, I had a reply from the station operator, Kitty. They also posted a screen grab of their end of the QSO:

Kitty and I communicated—albeit very briefly—at a distance of nearly 10,000 miles with nothing but the atmosphere to carry our messages back and forth. More importantly, two PEOPLE made a connection using radio. That’s why I love this hobby.

Now it’s time to post that QSL card!