There's One Line I Don't Mind Waiting In. "THE GRAY-LINE or GREY-LINE"
Drive Thru Lines, School pick-up Lines, Bank Lines, Grocery Store Lines, Airport Lines and the lists of lines can seem almost endless. Recently I've come to enjoy standing and waiting in what's called "THE GRAY-LINE" or "GREY-LINE".
Since I'm in the U.S., I'll use the Gray-Line spelling. What is "THE GRAY-LINE"? For those new to Ham Radio or have not move that far along in their journey of the hobby; it can be defined this way. "THE GRAY-LINE" is a band around the Earth which separates daylight from darkness. Propagation along the gray line is very efficient. The main reason is the D layer of the ionosphere, which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the gray line and it has not yet built upon the sunrise side. In the YouTube below Dave Casler explains.
I've worked "The Gray-Line" on many occasions over the years but not in the last few years. Here it is August 2025 and August is typically not the best month to roam around that line as Spring and Fall Equinox are the best times to take advantage of this phenomenon. One of the things I love about our hobby is experimenting. It is the foundation on which Ham Radio is built, It is fun to push the edges of that envelop and in this case I was going to more than pry open those edges by operating QRO, QRP AND QRPp sunrise Parks on the Air activations with several different rigs and antenna to see who hears my callsign across the Pacific and into the Southern Hemisphere.
My August 7, 2025 sunrise POTA setup at US-7956 / Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve - Louisville, KY. USA consisted of my Yaesu FT-891 with a 29.5 foot Speaker Wire Random Wire radiator supported by my 29' Jackite Telescopic Pole, a 17.5 foot Speaker Wire counterpoise with 25' of RG8 coax. The early morning presented itself with some fairly decent HF propagation, so I had my fingers crossed that "The Gray-Line" was going to work in my favor this morning.
As I often do on these sunrise activations I started on 40 meters and within 20 minutes garnered 17 contacts, most east of the Mississippi. The sun was beginning to peak above the horizon so I tuned around the SSB portion of 40 meters. I didn't hear anything significant and feeling antsy I moved up to the 20 meter phone portion. To my surprise there has a JH station calling CQ. Before I could grab my microphone a W6 station answered his CQ. The band was holding steady for the moment and within a couple of minutes these two had completed their exchange and when they signed I pounced with my callsign, BAM. JH1GEX came back with a partial of my call. I repeated my call a few times as the band changed abruptly but with several repeats Komatsu was able to dig out my callsign from my 35 watts into a random wire riding the waves of "The Gray-Line" into Japan. I can't find the words to describe my excitement that morning. Lucky no one was around to see me doing a jig around the table i was setup on. Not one to try and outdo this DX QSO; at 1223 UTC, it was time to savor this moment and go QRT.
Almost a week had gone by with 5 more Early Bird sunrise POTA activations completed which had not produced any non domestic DX contacts. On August 13 2025 it was time for some MAGIC! My Early Bird sunrise setup this day consisted of my QRP Labs 40 meter QCX Mini, my Tufteln 40/20 meter Linked EFHW, 15' of RG316 coax, my CW Mouse paddle 100' of arborist throw line and weight and (2) 9 VOLT / 200 mAh batteries. Yes, you read right. 9 VOLT / 200 mAH batteries. I hadn't done a QRPp in months so no better time than the present.
I threw the line up 35' into a tree, attached one end of the EFHW, sloped it down to the handlebars of my bike (4' off the ground) attached the coax the EFHW and my rig then sat down to begin calling CQ,
I started out calling CQ on 40 meters at 1150 UTC (07:50 local time) and by 1157 UTC I had made that first QSO followed with other contacts from MI, IN and GA. Then, it happened. I faintly, I mean VERY FAINTLY heard what I thought was a VK station replying to my less that a watt CW CQ. I asked for a reply and sure enough after several tries I could make out VK5LA. I was dumbfounded. I thought, NO WAY, NO WAY was this station over 15500 km away was picking up my QRp less than a watt signal. But here I was in Kentucky, USA at 08:00 local time having a QSO with Andy where it is 22:00 local time in Australia.
Talked about excited. I was as excited as that kid during the Christmas holidays of 1955 who was first introduced to Ham Radio when I heard a British operator reply to a "CQ" being called out from western Kentucky. USA all the way across the pond.
My goal that day was to activate this POTA site running less than a watt and maybe, just maybe catch some DX. Within 17 minutes I had achieve both goals. I increased my power to 5 watts and added another eight more contacts and called it a day.
Even after arriving home, looking over Andy's (VK5LA) QRZ page, I was still skeptical about our QSO. It wasn't until I made a post on social media and got responses from Wes / AF0AJ and Steve / K3SLH that all of us had worked VK5LA / Andy on the same day.
It was a great day for all three of us but for me it was "THE QSO of a LIFETIME". Less than a watt riding the Ionospheric Ocean on "THE GRAYLINE" over 15500 km. This is what makes this hobby ..... MAGICAL!
Not only is Amateur Radio magical, so is "THE GRAYLINE". WHY? Because during another Early Bird sunrise POTA activation on August 15, 2025 I worked Andy VK5LA again. This time my setup was my You Kits HB-1B QRP CW Transceiver into a linked 40 - 15 meter EFHW and my QRP Guys Mini-Tuner running 5 watts.
I started out at 1135 UTC on 40 meters and at 1141 UTC with QSO number 5 who could answer my CQ but VK5LA / Andy. Mind bobbling to say the least that in two days I've work the same operator during my early morning grayline from the Midwest of the U.S. into the southern hemisphere.
Moving into late August I continued to do my Early Bird sunrise Parks on the Air activation and still feeling the excitement to have had three greyline DX contacts in this month into Japan and Australia. I am looking forward to the upcoming fall equinox when hopefully HF propagation conditions will provide more opportunities to work "THE GRAY-LINE.
But wait. On August 22, 2025, my plan this day was to operate some digital (FT4/FT8) with my QRP Labs QDX through my Panasonic FZ-G1 Toughpad and Morse Code with my QRP Labs 40 meter QCX Mini both into my 40 - 15 meter linked EFHW and my QRP Guys Mini Tuner from US-7956 Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve, Louisville, KY. USA.
At 1142 UTC I made my 1st CW QSO for the morning. By 1203 UTC I had bagged 18 contacts all up and down the Atlantic coast from eastern Canada to Florida and from the Gulf to the upper Midwest. Then at 1205 UTC right on schedule Andy / VK5LA catches my QRP signal riding Ionospheric Ocean Wave "THE GRAY-LINE" across the Pacific into the Southern Hemisphere.
A couple of the sites I check throughout the day are the Reverse Beacon Network.
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| RBN - Reverse Beacon Network |
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| PSK Reporter |
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| HF DX View |
And finally Ham DX Map - Very colorful with lots of information.
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| Ham DX Map |
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