Some nice DX action on 12 metres using just my Antron-99 and 100 watts

I caught some nice action on 12 metres when there was a morning opening into Japan. In this video I was running just 100 watts into an Antron-99 vertical. It was a great opening. Hope you enjoy.

Very strong QRM/interference on the 12 metre band

I recorded this awful noise on 12 metres this morning. It was obliterating all but the strongest signals in the CW portion of the 24 Mhz band. I wonder does anyone know what the likely source of this interference is? I have heard/seen it before, I think on 17 metres. It is not local. I have brought the interference to the attention of the Irish representative for the IARU Monitoring Service.

Update: I had a quick reply from the IARUMS. Apparently this interference is Over The Horizon (OTH) radar. 

Working Bob on the Falkland Islands on 12 metres SSB

This is a short video showing me making a QSO with VP8LP, Bob, on the Falkland Islands, on 12m SSB. Band conditions have been really excellent of late, as this video demonstrates. 12m and 10m are often open after dark to North America, the Caribbean and South America. Bob is one of the gentlemen of the hobby, always a pleasure to work.

Hexbeam repair completed - back up and running

I fixed the SP7IDX hexbeam today - all by myself. I probably should have asked for help putting it back in the air, but most of the work could be done solo. It took about two and a half hours in total. I had to reconnect some of the ropes that hold the spreaders apart. Also I had to remove the snapped 12 metre and 15 metre wires and replace them. The hexbeam has taken a heck of a battering from storm after storm over the winter. The whole thing needed to be tightened up and the wires replaced. It now looks good as new again and is working great, as demonstrated in this video showing the signal strength of a YL special event station:

Below is a short video I made this afternoon of the newly-fixed hexbeam. It looks much tidier now than before. It had begun to look very forlorn, and was practically unusable. The weather this morning was very pleasant - bright and dry - although it has clouded over somewhat this afternoon.

Here is a photo which was taken during the repair work while I was on the shack roof:

The hexbeam leans over nicely onto the shack roof for easy access for repair./

Sometimes the clock is against you in ham radio

There are times when the clock is against you in ham radio. Imagine the following scenario. There is a dxpedition on a Pacific Island that you need as a new DXCC. They are there for just over a week in total. Propagation is poor and they might be using small antennas and low power. Despite seeing other Europeans spotting them on the cluster, you are unable to hear them on any band or mode. You are fast approaching the weekend, when they will be winding the station down, and all of Europe will be on, calling them, and you won't be in the shack. And, with just minutes to go before you leave the shack to go to work on Friday morning, you finally hear them for the first time . . .

That, my dear friends, is the scenario that faced me this morning. I could finally hear VK9NT on Norfolk Island, on 12 metres CW  - the first time I had heard a decent signal from them all week. Many mornings they were either QRX or unhearable. Conditions were not great all week.

Norfolk Island, from which I could finally hear VK9NT this morning.

I saw them spotted on several slots, including 20m CW, 17m SSB and 12m CW. As it happened, I could only hear them on 12m CW. They were too weak on 20m CW to make out. It was 9.05am. I would have to leave the shack for work at 9.15am. I had TEN MINUTES in which to try to work them!!

The op was relatively slow, and was working a mixture of JA stations and EU. I knew I had a challenge on my hands! I had the beam pointing the right direction, the linear was on, and the split was set at up 2. However, on listening to the op's pattern, it became clear that he or she was moving up about 500 hz at a time and then, upon getting to about 4kc up, coming back down again. I heard "5NN TU" on the split, and moved down about 500 hz. I also slowed my keying speed to match the DX speed. Within a minute or so I could hear "2KC ?" I gave the call twice. Again I could hear "2KC?" - obviously I was being QRMed. Another couple of calls with "EI2KC" and I could heard "EI2KC 5NN" and I gave something like "QSL EI2KC 5NN 5NN TU" and I was in the log . . .

I didn't have time to celebrate. I had to switch off all the equipment, get my coat, and run to the car. It was 9.15am and I needed to be at the desk in Dublin at 10am!! However, I felt I could relax a bit. DXCC #290 was in the log, and I had all but despaired of working them. VK9NT on Norfolk Island - thank you. I am off to another island tomorrow, Inis Mór (EU-006) with the EJ7NET dxpedition. I hope conditions are good for that . . . both weather conditions, and band conditions!

VK9XM Christmas Island worked on 12m SSB

This is a short video showing VK9XM on Christmas Island booming in on 12 metres SSB just after I had worked him with my first call on the hexbeam. As you can see, he was very strong here. Although Christmas Island is not a new DXCC for me, having recently bagged it as a new one, it was new for me on 12 metres.

I was delighted to break a huge pile-up this afternoon on 20m SSB to work EP3PK, Pooyan in Tehran, Iran, to get a brand new DXCC into the log, number 276!! The hexbeam is working wonders!!