Houston, we've had a problem . . . in fact, two problems

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so here goes . . .

This is my VHF array, sadly damaged by all the recent windstorms. The antennas themselves seem to be fine, but as you can see the stub pole is broke, and I'm pretty sure the rotator is shattered too (it certainly isn't working!) So at the earliest opportunity I will need to get my rescue team up to the QTH for some help to repair the damage. I lowered the array this morning to try to prevent further wind damage. To add insult to injury, two of the wires on my hexbeam are snapped, the 12m wire and the 15m wire. Picture below:

You can see the 15m wire dangling down from the hexbeam here.

The wind storms started on St. Stephen's Day and there's been at least one bad wind storm every week since then. My antennas have taken a heck of a battering. Let's hope the rescue team and I can restore them without too much trouble or expense. Here's hoping . . .

Amsterdam Island has become DXCC #303 in my log

My perseverance has paid off. I have been at the radio on and off for prolonged periods trying to work FT5ZM Amsterdam Island all day. First it was 10m SSB. No joy. Then 12m CW. No success. Then I QSY'd down to 15m SSB, where my friend Don EI6IL worked them but they faded out soon after. I then tried 17m CW, where the pile-up was 20 Khz wide!! No success there either. So finally I hit 20m CW, and long into the darkness they were still a good signal here on my hexbeam.

At long last, just eight minutes ago, I heard what sounded like my callsign coming from FT5ZM. He gave "I2KC 5NN". I replied: "DE EI2KC EI2KC 5NN BK" and he said "EI TU". Brilliant stuff. That's DXCC #303 in my log. Chuffed.

Above is a video showing the signal strength from FT5ZM immediately after I worked them.

Two very nice QSL cards in the post today

These two very nice cards arrived in the post today. They are from VK9CS, Cocos-Keeling Islands, and VK9XS, Christmas Island, which were both brand new DXCCs for me during September, just after I put the hexbeam up here. I worked VK9XS on 17m CW and 15m CW, and VK9CS on 17m and 12m CW. Absolutely thrilled to get these.