Tamat Lampoh is a great DX catch - but he had
picked a frequency that was covered by European QRM and thus had
not been spotted on a cluster when I heard him call CQ. I dream of
opportunities like this, and he heard me first call.
... a European web SDR shows that all but 1kHz
of the signal on 14227 was being smothered by a loud Italian on
14228 who
seemed to be able to talk non-stop for 5 minutes at a time (as
they do).
Propagation was OK to here, where the QRM was
much less, and so contact was made. The chances are that Tamat
was not aware of the interloper on his frequency, such can be
the localised characteristics of HF propagation.
A bit of geography wouldn't go amiss here. Most
will have heard of Brunei but few will be able to find it tucked away
on the top left of the island of Borneo.
Brunei is a tiny
Commonwealth nation on the island of Borneo, in 2 distinct sections surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea. It's known for its beaches and biodiverse rainforest, much of it protected within reserves. The capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, is home to the opulent Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque and its 29 golden domes.
The capital's massive Istana Nurul Iman palace is the residence of Brunei’s ruling sultan.
Brunei gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1990s and 2000s, with the GDP increasing 56% from 1999 to 2008, transformed Brunei into an industrialised country. It has developed wealth from extensive petroleum and natural gas fields. Brunei has the second-highest Human Development Index among the Southeast Asian nations, after Singapore, and is classified as a "developed country".
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Brunei is ranked fifth in the world by gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. The IMF estimated in 2011 that Brunei was one of two countries (the other being Libya) with a public debt at 0% of the national GDP. Forbes also ranks Brunei as the fifth-richest nation out of 182, based on its petroleum and natural gas fields.
I recorded this after we made contact so I missed
the magic exchange - I was
surprised to be called first time, having previously struggled
in pileups. This was a session where I probably could not have got
through a pileup, so it was handy to grab the cover of selective
QRM.
... band conditions were not great, but as
with most Far East DX, the QSB tends to
long and shallow..
This was the only picture I could find with v85t
in the credits - it's not
clear is this is v85t.
So let's hope Tamat will email me a better
one.
This appears to be a pic of the airport which Tamat includes in his
address.
