EI80IRTS anniversary station in St. Patrick's Day contest

Here are a couple of videos showing the EI80IRTS special anniversary station during the CQIR St. Patrick's Day contest. Above is Thos EI2JD on 40 metres SSB and below is Oleg EI7KD on 20m CW.

Video: My first QSO on 50 Mhz in 2012 with OH6NG

The above is a video of my first QSO on the six metre (50 Mhz) band this season. I saw that there was some activity on the band on DX Sherlock so switched on the Icom IC-746 and spun the VFO and suddenly I could hear morse. There were two OH stations (Finland) on different frequencies. I called on this one and he came back to me. He was 569 here on my fixed dipole, which ain't bad at all. Last year my first QSO on 6 metres was on May 1st so perhaps this is a sign of things to come? Well, we can always hope! Below is a map from DX Sherlock showing activity on 6m, including my own QSO, at the time.


Some time before this, earlier in the evening, there were some strange band conditions. I heard EI4KF putting out a CQ but there was no audible tone. I listened as he worked a couple of G stations and they had no tone either. Whatever conditions were present meant the tones were not coming through. Indeed EI4KF was giving the G stations a "441" report indicating an absent tone. I never encountered that in my previous two seasons on 6m. Below is a short (and poor quality) video of EI4KF with the absent tone.

I should also clarify that I worked EI4KF before the OH6 station, so technically EI4KF was my first 6m QSO of the season, but OH6NG was my first "outside Ireland" QSO of the year!

Enjoying a tropo opening on 2m into England

As you can see from the above screenshot from DX Sherlock, there is currently a tropo opening on 2 metres and I am sitting here in a VHF net with some English hams, namely M0ASR Dom in Stoke on Trent and G0NED Eric in the same place. We are on 145.225. Conditions are good.

When ten metres is open, you can hear anything!

This is a short video of VK6LW in West Australia, taking part in the BERU (British Commonwealth) Contest, as heard on my 10m attic dipole and my Yaesu FT-897. As you can see, it clearly demonstrates that when ten metres is open, it is possible to hear very distant stations with very modest equipment. Let's hope this latest opening on 10m improves in the days and weeks ahead.

Finally made it through to 3C0E Annobon Island

This is a video showing the huge pile-up from the USA for 3C0E on 17m CW, at a time when his signal was massive into EI and other parts of Europe. I seem to have been plagued by bad luck during the past week with 3C0E. Every time I sit down at the radio to work them, they either QRX (take a break), QSY (go somewhere else), or start calling for JA or USA ! It has happened countless times this week.

And that is why I count myself extremely fortunate to have made it into their log this evening on 12m CW, thankfully. A while later they came up on 17m CW with a huge signal and after tuning the Acom 1000 and giving them a few calls I could suddenly hear "3C0E USA UP". Damn! What a run of misfortune! Every time they are strong they are not working EU. Or so it seems. The above video gives an idea of the sort of pile-ups these two guys are up against. Annobon is the 32nd most wanted DXCC and there are just two ops on the island. So I am grateful for one band slot. They are QRT (finished) on Sunday.

What's the chances of another slot or two?

I love the sound of CW in the mornings

I haven't been doing a wild lot of radio lately, with one thing or another. Some of you may know I am writing a book about Newgrange, set to be published in the autumn. That project is going to keep me very busy over the next six months, so unfortunately radio time will be limited. However, I will do my best to keep as active as possible nonetheless. I have been trying to make a couple of QSOs in the morning time, before going to work. I generally give a CQ call for a few minutes and try to put at least one or two callsigns into the log before heading down the road to work. Hence the above poster, based on the famous film Apocalypse Now, except I've changed the familiar catchphrase "I love the smell of nepalm in the mornings" to something more suitable for the hobby! Not sure how good Robert Duvall's CW is HI !Anyhow, hopefully I will catch you on the bands approx 08:00 to 08:30 UT on CW.

Pile-up on 30 metres CW for 3C6A Equitorial Guinea - video