Went out to the car at lunch today and tuned around on 40. I decided to look around the high end of the CW band for a change, and heard Jim, WJ0C, calling CQ on 7140 KHz (plus or minus eyeball calibration). Gave him a call, and had a short QSO. He is in Waterloo, Iowa, about 720 miles from me. Copy was a little rough on his end but we had a nice exchange despite it.
I usually stay between 7030 and 7070 KHz, so this was a little different. At night, everything above 7100 is pretty well covered up by big broadcast stations, and working anyone up there is a real challenge.
The only challenge today was the mediocre band conditions on 40.