The first signal arrived at 03:14 UTC, a faint carrier on 14.230 MHz. It rose from the noise floor like a needle through cloth — thin, insistent, almost deliberate. I noted the time, the frequency, the perceived strength, and waited.

Over the following hours the band opened gradually. Signals stacked upon signals, each logged in turn. There is a discipline to this work that resists urgency. You listen. You write. You do not interpret until the log is full.

By morning the band had closed again, and the notebook held seven entries. None of them meant anything in isolation. Together they described a shape — the day's propagation as a contour, drawn in frequency and time.