CQWW CW contest 2015 - a great effort by EI2KM

I had the pleasure of taking part in the CQWW CQ contest 2015 with the EI2KM team. We were based at Doug EI2CN's QTH in County Louth. We used one transmitter only. Our final QSO count was over 4,100, with a claimed score 4.8 million points.

Operators were Alain F8FUA, Stephane F5UOW, Doug EI2CN, Declan EI6FR, Anthony EI2KC and Don EI6IL. Our best band was 40 metres, with over 1,000 QSOs.  Next best was 80 metres, with 919 QSOs, we had 938 while 15m. We made 452 QSOs on top band. We had the pleasure of using a four square receive antenna on the low bands. Equipment was an Elecraft K3 and contest software was Win-Test.

Rates were good a lot of the time, with nice pipelines to North America at times on 15m and some great action on 40m. Declan EI6FR ran through the night from midnight Saturday until around 6am Sunday morning on the low bands.

I have to say it was a real pleasure to hear the likes of HS0 Thailand, YB Indonesia and such far away places calling me on 40 metres. 

But it was a very sociable occasion and in addition to the contest activity there was plenty of chat among radio friends.

EJ7NET makes over 4,000 QSOs in three days

It's official. EJ7NET's Gola activation has logged over 4,000 QSOs in less than 72 hours. The station tear-down takes place this evening at around 18:00 local time. We might get a couple of hundred more by then. There was another opening to Japan on 17 metres this afternoon, with about two dozen or so JAs logged.

Rolf operating portable from the cliff tops on Gola Island.

EJ/HB9DGV/P on Gola.

To celebrate our success, the EJ7NET QSL manager for the Gola activity, Rolf HB9DGV, brought his Elecraft KX1 to the top of the cliffs on the western end of the island and made about 30 QSOs as EJ/HB9DGV/P. He was running just 3 watts into a Sota dipole. Two of the QSOs were transatlantic.

While Rolf was up on the summit, accompanied by Declan and Gordon, Liam had a good run on 40 metres SSB, working mainly UK stations, helped by Tony who took over and continued the run.