9Q50ON Congo was more difficult than Kermadec Islands!

I finally made it into the 9Q50ON log today, on 17m CW, on the last day of the Dxpedition. I cannot tell you how relieved I am. I have been trying for a number of nights without success on 30m and 40m and 20m but never made it through the pile-ups.

The Dxpedition is to celebrate 50 years of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo and was operated by a number of Belgian hams. Hence the callsign 9Q (Congo) 50 (50 years) ON (Belgium). On right is a photo showing the location of the Dxpedition in Kinshasa.

Anyway, this morning he came up on 17m CW and was louder than I'd heard him before. It still took me 30 minutes to make it through.

Ten minutes in, he came back with "2KC?" and I gave him my callsign three times but he came back again with "2KC?" and then after I gave him the call another three times he said "DL2KC?" and I got the impression someone from Germany was QRMing me. Before I knew it, 9Q was working someone else and I was left fuming at the fact that I had missed the boat because of the QRM. What made matters worse was that a few minutes later he appeared to QSY from 17m to another band and disappeared. Needless to say I felt pretty gutted. He could hear me, and was trying to work me, but someone kept calling over me and he had to give up.

Just before I left the house, I gave one more listen around the bands and when I came back to 17 metres, there he was again, calling CQ up 1, and louder than before! Within a couple of minutes I had him in the bag. The relief was palpable. A quick phone call was made to EI2JD (one of the local big gun DXers) and when he answered I gave a big "Yeehaw!" down the phone. His immediate reply was, "you got him!!!". "Yes," I said, "on 17m CW". "Well done," was the reply from the more experienced DXer, who, I might add, has 9Q50ON on SIX band slots!! Well done Thos.

According to the Dxpedition website, they have taken down some antennas and may be active around midnight tonight with a couple of stations. Too late for me, who has to work tomorrow. And because I had to spend most of the day out doing other things, I'm really glad that I got him this morning. Relief and joy!!

PS: I've just checked Clublog and there are 25 EIs in the 9Q log, not as many as got into ZL8X. Of those, 15 only have one QSO, so that's three fifths! I feel better now . . .

PPS: EI7BA has TEN band slots. How does he do it? (Congrats John!)