Another milestone - 200 countries confirmed on eQSL

I've reached another milestone tonight. I just checked eQSL and I have reached 200 countries confirmed. Fantastic. It's taken a while, but I got there eventually! Below are some of the new cards I've received via eQSL for some nice DX contacts:

Mali on 80 metres.

Reunion island, worked on 80 metres SSB with 100 watts!

Galapagos on 80 metres CW.

DXing on the edge . . . longest QSO attempt in history!

Most of you have normal lives, and normal hobbies, like football and fishing. Me, I do ham radio, euphonium playing and other geeky stuff like taking photos of stones in the middle of the night. Here's how I spend some of my nights. This is an example of how difficult it can be to log that "new one" on a band. In this case, PW0F on Fernando de Noronha, on 80 metres, the only HF band I hadn't worked this rare one on. He kept busting my call. It took me several minutes to make him get it right. In all fairness, he stuck with me, despite my exclamations of despair. This is cutting edge ham radio - working DX from a small garden. Quote of the video - "this will be the QSO of the decade if it happens".

By the way, you have to go to 3:23 in the video to hear the "start" of the QSO. From there, it gets interesting and my exasperated expressions get more colourful!!

VK9MT Mellish Reef - my three QSOs are in the log!

Delighted to see my three QSOs with VK9MT Mellish Reef in their online log. My 15m QSO had been missing due to a technical glitch, but I got word today that it was in there. I consider myself lucky to have worked this ATNO (All-Time New One) on three slots, especially considering they went QRT early due to stormy weather. Congratulations to all the EI ops, and indeed everyone else, who made it into the log. Job well done! VK9/M Mellish Reef is currently the 22nd most wanted DXCC, according to Clublog.

5J0R San Andres on 17 RTTY makes it 15 slots!

This is a short video showing my Icom IC-756PRO decoding 5J0R on 18 Mhz RTTY just after I had worked this wonderful dxpedition for a 15th band slot.

As an addendum to yesterday's rather excited post, I have found that in the latest T33A Clublog upload, my callsign is not in their log. However, on investigation I find that the callsign EA2KC is in there for both 20m SSB and 20m CW. I am familiar with Jose EA2KC and as far as I know he operates exclusively on phone, and does not do CW. All the cluster spots for him for the past two years have been SSB only. So I suspect that Banaba have busted my call, by one character. Ah well. I will try to work them again, but if not, it's not the end of the world. I'm sure they will correct it for me.

Dipping in and out of CQWW contest

I spent a bit of time in the CQWW Phone contest over the weekend, but not in a major competitive way because there were other things to be done HI HI! But I enjoyed my time on the bands, where I managed to chalk up 575 QSOs over four bands. I spent about two hours on Saturday and a good deal more on Sunday notching up contacts. I concentrated on 10 metres, where I reckon I also nabbed a few new DXCC. There were some nice ones to be worked, including VP9, VP5, HI, TI, YN HK and more. Nabbed Australia on 10 metres too which is always nice.

The Icom IC-756PRO is very handy for contesting because I can record four different snatches of audio for use in CQWW. Slot 1 was "Echo India Two Kilo Charlie" for calling DX stations. Slot 2 was "Five Nine One Four" for the exchange, while slots 3 and 4 were CQ slots for when I was sitting on a frequency. 10 metres was very lively over the weekend and it was great to hear it in such good condition. Long may it last!

A quick update on the DX

Since my last posting I have had more success working DX, and the more I use it the more I become convinced that the hexbeam is a great antenna. Here is a brief summary of the DX in the log:

My hexbeam (pluys 2m/6m beams and Butternut) under the stars.

I worked VK9CS (Cocos Keeling) again, this time on 17m CW, with just two calls.
This was followed by T8XX (Palau) on 15m SSB for a new country on that band.
The same day, I worked T8XX on 20m CW.

3D2GC in Fiji provided a brand new DXCC for me when I worked him on 15m CW. He was very, very light and to be perfectly honest it's possible I am not in the log, or have a busted call.
However, when I later worked him on 17m CW, I was definitely in his log this time.

T8XX made it into the log again, this time on 12m CW, giving me a new DXCC on that band. VK9CS got into the log on a third band, this time on 20m CW.

Just this morning, I worked VK7CW, Steve in Tasmania, on 17m CW using just 100 watts. This was followed a short time later by T8XX again, this time on 15m CW, also with 100 watts.

Later, I worked BD7IS in China on 15m SSB using just 100 watts for a new slot, and then YB0ETC in Indonesia on 10m CW for a new slot there. Glad to hear 10 metres in good shape!