Great signals coming from Clipperton Island

Above are two videos showing the signal strength from TX5K Clipperton on 15m CW and 30m CW here on my hexbeam and my inverted v. Incredible stuff. The first video was takenlast night after 9.30pm local time, while the 30m video was 9.24am this morning. Really great signals from Clipperton and they're proving quite workable here in EI. 

The early bird does indeed catch the worm!

This is my QSO with TX5K, Clipperton Island, on 80 metres CW at shortly after 6am this morning! I started recording just as I started calling them, and as you can see from this very short video, I got through after just three calls!!

Although his signal doesn't seem to be very strong, bear in mind that I was using my old Butternut vertical antenna! I was giving him 400 watts from the Acom 1000. He was calling EU only. I am absolutely delighted to get this rare one into the log on the low bands. That brings my total number of slots up to eight.

I had heard them on 80 CW at 8.30am yesterday, but it was bright here and it was too late. However, Ark EI9KC had told me to try around 5-6am so that's what I did. Thanks Ark !

And here it is . . . the DXA online log system for TX5K confirms
that I have worked them on 80m CW, among others!

Clipperton Island in the log - twice! DXCC #285

I am delighted to report that I have worked TX5K, Clipperton Island. I managed to nab them after about 20 minutes of trying on Sunday on 17 metres CW. They had a big signal, but of course the European pile-up was huge. I had tried for ten minutes before dinner but didn't get through. Immediately after dinner I was back at the rig again and figured out his listening pattern. After about ten minutes I heard the magic "EI2KC 5NN" coming through, and confirmed the QSO with "RR EI2KC 5NN TU".

This morning, Monday, I was trying on 40m CW. This operator had a different pattern. He kept going up, by about half a KC each time, until he was about 10kc up, and then he would come back down again, in increments. I had just about figured out his pattern when it was time to go to work. I switched everything off and went to wait for my lift. However, I got a text message saying he was running 15 minutes late, so I went straight back into the shack and switched on the radio and the linear and went back to calling him again. After about five minutes the magic was happening again . . . "EI2KC 5NN". I was delighted to get through, particularly because of the width of the pile-up and the number of EU ops calling him.

TX5K is an international dxpedition to Clipperton Island (official DXCC designator FO-C). It's my 285th DXCC worked. I am particularly delighted because tomorrow, Tuesday, will be the third anniversary of receiving my EI2KC callsign.

The next target - Clipperton Island !

The next big target for DXers around the globe (excuse the pun!) is highlighted above, on my shack globe. Clipperton Island is due to come on air on Thursday, thanks to an international team which will use the callsign TX5K. Clipperton Island is the 40th most wanted DXCC according to Clublog's updated most wanted list. If I can work it, it will be a new country for me. The official DXCC designator for Clipperton is FO-C. According to the team's website, they are on schedule to land on February 27th and to begin operations as planned on 28th.

You can read more about Clipperton, an uninhabited coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean, at this link.

To all those who intend to try to work this rare entity, best of luck. See you in the pile-ups!!