Yep, 100 miles west of Tokyo, Japan on 40 meters this morning at 05:24 a.m. CST or 1024 UTC, I turn on the FT950 tied to a 40 meter dipole running barefoot, and out of a dead silence I hear this faint CQ; CQ fading in and out. After lilstening at a few calls, I figure out his callsign. I thought, "that's not a US call", (since it hasn't been that long since I've tested and received my license, so I knew the legal call letters for the U.S.). No one was responding to his CQ, so I answered him ~ ~ "Juliet Oscar ONE Delta Zulu Alpha; Kelo Foxtrot FIVE Bravo Romeo India; over. He came right back with a partial on my callsign, and we worked it back and forth to get it right. Now I have a hard time getting Texas from here in Oklahoma, so when he gave his location I was astonished. Our contact was deteriorating quickly, so we ended the QSO with 73's, and signed off.
Now that was fun and I hope it gets better.
73's Larry KF5BRI
