FT5ZM Amsterdam Island confirmed on LoTW

Today I received confirmation of ten band slots from the FT5ZM Amsterdam Island dxpedition which took place in the spring of this year. I'm delighted to see a 40m CW slot in there too. And in among all the FT5ZM QSLs there is also a confirmation from FR4NT, Cyril on Reunion Island, for our 80m SSB QSO last week. Delighted with that.

The FT5ZM QSLs brings my total number of countries confirmed on Logbook of the World to 292, out of 306 worked.

Endless pile-ups for Amsterdam Island

For the past three mornings the pile-ups for FT5ZM Amsterdam Island on 10 metres CW and 12 metres CW have been immense. Even as I write this, the pile-up on 12 CW is almost 20 Khz wide. He is calling on 24.894 and at one stage was listening on 24.911 and above. I still haven't broken the pile with my paltry hexbeam, but I reckon the pile-ups will thin out before too long. Well done to all the EI stations who are in the log. Right now there are 33 Irish callsigns in there. Hopefully I will bag a few more QSOs before too long.

Here is a video showing some of the action on 12cw. As you can hear, he is only making a QSO a minute - the pile-up must be huge on his side:

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.

FT5ZM Amsterdam Island is QRV... and the madness starts!

After a bit of a HF hiatus, I am back in action hunting DX. The first "biggie" of 2014 is here. FT5ZM Amsterdam Island went QRV this morning, and as you can imagine, there's chaos on the bands! This is a video recording made in my shack of some of the action on 10 metres SSB. They're a good signal here, but so is all of Europe!! And worse for EI is the fact that in relation to FT5Z, we are "at the back" of Europe, so to speak. It could hardly be worse for us . . . except, of course, if we were in Iceland! Listening on 10 SSB and 12 CW it became apparent that no G or EI stations were getting through, although some Scandinavians were being picked up. The best we can hope for is that the pile-ups die down over the coming days and that small stations like this can start to break through. The 12 metre CW split is quite compact, and the signals there are huge. I don't particularly want to spend my whole Sunday in front of a radio . . . but sure you know I probably will !!!