5R8AL Alain

 Tonight, we had a thunderstorm or rather a rainfall with a bit of thunder, which has left much static noise on 40m. I found old friends of mine, Don WB6BEE and Jack WA7HJV, on 40m like old days. That noise and some QRM made it a bit tough for me to read. How long has it been since such I often listened to such a QSO? Very rare for now. I could not be patient enough to stay there until they finish their chat. 

I have moved to 20m, much less noisy but scant activities. A few Europeans came through without making S meter move. There was a station working in an old style. Not rushing and talking something different from the so called rubber stamp. He signed as something 8AL. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to copy his whole call. Staying on the same frequency for a while, luckily, I have heard him calling CQ there.

It was 5R8AL Alain. Surprised and of course turned the beam to him. I asked him if he was the same 5R8AL which I used to hear or even worked in '80s. He answered affirmative and told me he had been on with this call since 1975. Yes, it was him. In '80s, 5R was a pretty rare entity. I can't remember if he was my first 5R. But I still remembered of his call very well.

He started radio as F6ACT at age 13 years, as he told me. Then, as stated above, he has moved to 5R and got this present call. He also told me there had been more active stations in his area but nowadays rarely on CW. I have visited his page at G3SWH, his QSL manager, web site. A neatly arranged gears on photos. At a corner, there were a lot of old boat anchors. He said he had been enjoying restoring those old radios. Now he is 77 years old. But his fist won't tell that at all. It was not a long ragchew in fact. But in the end, the condition was dropping. Saying au revoir, we promised seeing again on this old mode. I sure wished him good health and good activity on this mode.

There is always a pipe line path to southern Africa from here what band it might be. The path is over the Indian Ocean and the propagation is always secured. Back even in '60s, I often heard a lot of ZS working the West Coast through long path. It was a spectacle for me to listen to a number of big guns in W6 or W7 working Africa through long path. As told elsewhere in the past post, I used to break in W6ULS Merle, later K6DC, working with ZS2MI in Marion Island on 40m at our midnight. Merle was kind enough to let me work that pretty rare DX for me running homebrew 6146 transmitter with a wire antenna. What an excitement it was! ZS5KI, ZS6QU or ZS1AAX were other regulars. There might be others logged in the old log book. In '80s, when I came back on the radio after a decade absence, I was again thrilled to work a few Africans like ZS6BCR, later ZS6EZ, same ZS6QU, 9J2BO or ZE1FN, later Z21FN etc. Sadly, most of them went SK or inactive any more. The only exception is Brian 9J2BO who often shows up on 20m. But not so often as before.   

Surely this QSO with Alain has brought me back to those days. I am afraid those good days have gone and won't return to us any longer. Alain and myself are the remnants from the good old days. 

No JA has called him after we finished the QSO. 5R is not a rare one for them? Or they are watching only the display?