How about a sked?

For those of you that don't know, a sked is a scheduled attempt at making a ham radio contact. 

You know who you are. You are the ham that lives about 8 time zones away. So how about a sked?

Let's seen now. Its 1900 local time where I live and that means it's 0300 where you live. However, the VOCAP predictions say that's the best time to try making a contact.

So how about a sked?

How about if you stumble out of bed in the middle of the night half in a daze and all gummy-eyed. Then you stub your toe on the dresser and let out a groan and wake your wife.

Then you step on your cat's tail and the resulting screech wakes up the baby and gets it crying.

With an angry wife, a crying baby, an injured cat creating a terrible din you rub the sleep out of your eyes and head over to your radio and fire it up in the middle of the night.

You're going to go on the air on the off chance that you can make a ten second contact half a world away with some clown you have never met.

You are doing this so he can make an entry in a logbook that nobody else but him will ever see.

Yeah. Let's make a sked.

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Interestingly enough, a couple of months ago I emailed a Japanese ham in the middle of the Marianas a while back asking him what times he was planning on being on the air. I simply asked him to keep his ear open for my call sign.

He sent me back a reply that he had run a VOCAP propagation prediction and had ascertained that at 1600 my time, 2100Z was our best chance and he'd meet me on 17 meters at 2100Z.

When I mentioned he would be getting up in the middle of the night, he replied "No problem. I'm on vacation.".

I don't have a clue as to what time it was in the Marianas but I'm sure it was sometime pretty early in the morning. 

I went on the air on the agreed on frequency and in a few seconds I had him in my logbook.  

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Anyway, I am going to email a ham in North Africa and see what we can work out. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what he says.



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