Galapagos Islands - all bands now worked!

Galapagos Islands.

Last night, I worked HC2AO/8 on 30 metres at a few seconds past midnight. This was the last band that I needed Galapagos Islands on. I first worked this DXCC in May 2013 and now have all HF bands from 10 metres through 80 metres worked. I still need 160 metres and 6 metres, but I have Galapagos on all the HF bands on which I am active.

The current operation from Galapagos is fantastic. HC2AO/8 alone has given me seven band slots. HC2OGT/8 and HC2AWT/8 have both given me a slot apiece. And HC2AO/8 has already confirmed a few of my slots via Logbook of the World. Happy days.

CQWW CW 2014 - a brief summary of DX contacts

I dipped in and out of CQWW CW 2014 over the weekend. I was not active and will not be submitting a log. However, as always, I find this contest fantastic for working new countries on bands and slots and that proved to be the case again. Here is a summary of the contest activity:

Four new DXCC on 80 metres: 9K Kuwait, A7 Qatar, VP9 Bermuda and XE Mexico.

7O2A Yemen (rare one) worked on three bands - 10, 20 and 40. New country on 40 metres!!! The 40 metre QSO was made near the end of the contest through an intense simplex pile-up. Here's a video taken immediately after my QSO when lots of contesters were still trying to work him:

9Y4/VE3EY Trinidad and Tobago, new country on 10 metres.

Three QSOs with VU4KV Andaman and Nicobar - two contest QSOs and one RTTY contact on 17 RTTY. New country on digimodes. They went QRT at the end of the contest!!

HC2AO/8 Galapagos - worked on 10m and 15m.

5K0A Providencia - 10m CW.

A few non-contest QSOs:

TG9AHM Guatemala - 12 metres SSB - new slot.
TG9IIN Guatemala - 10 metres SSB - new slot.
VP8CMH/MM Falklands - 17m CW.

And just to finish, here's a video showing the signal from 9K2HN on 80 metres. I had worked him just after the contest started, at 14 minutes past midnight on Saturday. This was his signal on Sunday:

Galapagos Islands on 17 metres CW - video

Vlad UA4WHX is now on Galapagos.

One of the best-known and widest travelled single DXers is Vlad UA4WHX. He has had recent stints to places such as Egypt, Palestine, Juan Fernandez and Providencia, and his whirlwind tour of the world's DX hotspots seems to continue unabated. He is largely a CW operator and has an excellent ear. He is currently QRV from the Galapagos Archipelago, and had a beautiful signal on 17 metres CW yesterday morning. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to get him into my log. He is operating as HC8ART. The video below shows what his signal was like immediately after I worked him:

Vlad also gave me the pleasure of a 12 metres CW QSO the previous evening. Although Galapagos is not a new one for me, I still need a number of bands and slots and I hope to be filling some of those out with the help of Vlad.