Mali

Not a  massive distance, but a rare appearance on the band ensures a pileup - and Fredo is not a big gun in terms of power and antenna... so although propagation charts say this is no brainer, it isn't; especially when 20 stations are piling in. No mug-shots of Fredo exist, so instead, here are a few locals...

"My operator name is Fredo.
I'm located somewhere in North Mali. > I will be active from June to October 2017. My equipment is very rustic, here is what i'm using:
- Small chinese modded switching power supply
- Yaesu FT-857 with headset and footpedal
- Tuner LDG Z11 Pro II
- 9/1 UNUN from F4EOH: http://f4eoh.free.fr/ - 15.9 meters of wire
- DELL computer from my friend Alex, with Logger32, and CAT interface to the rig.

 Read more at DXwatch.com

This one has taken a while to land

I was chasing this for hours on Sunday afternoon. I should have waited a day because on Monday evening it was quite straightforward with all the weekend PA over-drivers not around.

The end of another titanic struggle to land a rare catch...

..

Decent signal -5/9

But a lot of contest Qrm...