Two new countries in 24 hours - Kuwait and Cuba!!

Last night, very late, I switched on the radio when I saw that 9K2CQ from Kuwait was being spotted on the cluster. I spun up to 7.137 LSB and surely enough I could hear him. Needless to say he was working a bit of a pile-up. But that didn't deter me from calling him and before long, he answered! I have only a half-size G5RV because I don't have room for the full size, but the half-size seems to get me out very well on 40m. His name is Mohammed and at 00:37 (yes, way after midnight!) he became my first Kuwait contact. Thanks Mohammed.

Tonight I worked into Cuba for the first time, on 40 metres. Visitors to the blog might have seen on the live webcam that there were some late, but weak, transatlantic openings on 20 metres tonight. I was hearing CO6LC coming way up and down with QSB on 20m at 14.260 USB. I called a few times when he seemed to come up but he was fading so much with QSB I have no idea whether he heard me or not. Then I saw CO6YI spotted on 40 and he was working quite a pile-up, so I flicked between the two to see if I could work either. Eventually, I heard CO6YI call QRZ during a quiet patch and I shouted "Echo India 8 Golf Hotel Bravo". He said "who is the Echo India 6?" I said "Echo India 8 (with an emphasis on 8!) Germany Hotel Bravo" and he said "Echo India 8 Charlie Hotel Bravo you're 5 9". I thanked him for 59 but said it was "guatemala honolulu bravo" and gave him 59 also. Deadly stuff. First Cuba. Thanks Yulian Gomez (pictured above) in Sancti Spiritus in Cuba!!

On top of all this, I made a nice contact into Scotland tonight and he has just given me an AG eQSL bringing me to 35 AG countries so far !