EI9FBB is the first EI ever to attain 10 band DXCC

Warmest congratulations to EI9FBB, Dave Deane, who has become the first EI to attain 10 band DXCC. A remarkable aspect to Dave's achievement is that he was only licenced in 2004, and therefore achieved in six years what many hams will struggle to do in a lifetime.

Even more remarkable is the fact that he worked his 100 countries on both 17 metres and 12 metres using an Antron 99 - an 11 metres (CB) antenna. Needless to say I'm greatly heartened by this because I too use an Antron for some of my contacts.

Dave features on the front cover of this month's Echo Ireland magazine, the publication of the Irish Radio Transmitters' Society (IRTS). He has made history in amateur radio in Ireland. The first is the first and nobody will ever beat that.

I have sent congrats to Dave by email. He deserves all the praise and all the glory he is getting right now, because attaining 10-band DXCC from a modest property is not an easy achievement. He worked some of his 160m top band contacts portable, and this summer had a fantastic season on 6 metres, working 91 countries (well beating my total of 53 hi hi !!!). You can read all about Dave's fantastic achievement on page 5 of this month's Echo Ireland.

Congrats again Dave.

PS: You might be interested to know that EI9FBB will be one of two Irish hams, the other being Paul EI5DI, who will be part of the huge T32C DXpedition to Christmas Island in September/October 2011. Another nice accolade. All I can hope is that somewhere among the huge pile-ups which no doubt will be encountered from Christmas Island, Dave will hear my puny little EI2KC signal in there in the muck!