I was really looking forward to the Perseids, even though I had zero experience with this operation. It is completely different to read about meteor scatter and experience it. I caught the first signal already during the weekend, but only tropo - OM3KDX. I hung up on them and watched how FSK441 connections were made. It helped me a lot in the following days.
It was already clear in advance that I would not sleep from Tuesday to Wednesday, the night when the maximum was expected. I monitored the SSB random frequency only sporadically and heard nothing apart from a few pings. I spent most of my time on FSK441 and it paid off…
I wasn't going to broadcast, I was only monitoring other stations, so I directed the antenna (9el. Cue Dee) to "Lomničák", which is a proven direction for reflection almost anywhere. When I got tired of hearing the noise at 144.200 I retuned it to 144.370 and soon I had a beautiful bounce ON4AVJ (click on the tag to listen or download the WAV file). I didn't need a better awakening and encouragement...
For most of the night, HA5KDQ was on the nerves, constantly chirping and chirping exactly on the calling frequency. However, most stations used QSY capabilities. One such station was Zdeněk OK1DFC (click on the mark to listen or download a WAV file). I still "saw" OK2WC from OK, nobody from OM except OM3KDX.
I caught the most powerful bounce at 2.12 seconds, about six seconds long. He was DJ9YE (click on the tag to listen or download the WAV file). I lasted until half past three because I had to go to work in the morning…. I caught about two dozen different warblers (DL, HA, LZ, ON, SM, OZ, I, UR, UA and OK). However, I am extremely satisfied and will do my best to make KN09 available to interested parties as soon as possible.