T32C

Kiritimati^[1] or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands, and part of the Republic of Kiribati.

(From Wikipedia)

Yesterday, October 24, 2011, I was pleasantly surprised when I connected my HTX-10 from my summer shack to my Hustler 4BTV in the "inside" shack.  I was tuning up the band on 10 meters, when I heard..."Tango Three-Two Charlie, Tango Three-Two Charlie...up 5".  T32C, the Christmas Island DXpedition, had been going on for nearly a month...and I had seen the postings from my friends on Twitter, but I hadn't considered trying to work them.  I have a defeatist attitude as it applies to pile-ups.  I don't own an amplifier or a beam...my Hustler is the BEST antenna I have ever had.  But, T32C was calling CQ with no takers.  

The HTX-10 is a spartan radio to be exact, but truth be known...it has a better set of ears than my Yaesu does.  But, it doesn't allow a 5 KHz split.  10 it can do, but 5 required me to manually turn (click) the VFO knob from 28.494 to 28.499 to transmit, and then QSY back to .494.  Sure, I could have loaded the TX frequency in my "Home" button, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

I heard him...I QSY...I call...Kilo-Bravo-Two-Hotel-Sierra-Hotel.  QSY back REALLY fast.  

"Sierra Hotel, Five Nine."

Thank you, you're also Five-Nine.

"Thank you, 73."

WOW...and it was in the log...confirmed by T32C.com showing my call in the Online Log.

The best part is...I was one of the LAST QSOs made before they ALL went QRT.  Mere minutes after my QSO, all stations shut down...and that's after 213,000+ QSOs made in one month's time.

I'm hooked now.

Gonna go look for ZF2OE's DXpedition now....