A great milestone - Navassa makes it 300 confirmed on LoTW

Tonight I am delighted to find that I now have 300 countries confirmed on ARRL's Logbook of the World. The 300th country confirmed is Navassa, courtesy of the K1N dxpedition. I have 312 countries worked, and now 300 of these are confirmed by LoTW only. There are only 12 entities that are not confirmed on this electronic QSL service. This is truly wonderful. I am chuffed.

My stats as of tonight. 300 current entities are confirmed.

The K1N Navassa confirmations, including 80 metres and 160 metres!

Finally, after five days trying, K1N logged on top band!!

Just a quick update about Navassa. I now have 13 slots, and all bands from 10m through 160m except 30m. This morning, with my severely compromised inverted V system for 80/40/30, I managed to work them on top band on CW. I have been trying for five consecutive mornings, and finally heard the sweet sound of "EI2KC EI2KC 5NN 5NN" on 1.826.5. I went back with "RR 5NN 5NN 5NN" but he came back again with "EI2KC EI2KC 5NN" so I went back again with a string of 5NNs and he said "TU K1N UP". Wonderful stuff.

They're now not difficult to work on some bands, although 20m RTTY yesterday evening was extremely busy over about 15 Khz of band, with an equal mix of NA and EU calls. So needless to say I didn't make it. I tried for a while late last night on 30 metres CW, the only band apart from 6 metres where I now need a QSO. Again, he was working NA and EU and I didn't get in. Antenna tear-down is on Saturday, so I will be hoping to try for a 30m QSO before then.

Below are some videos I've made during this dxpedition:

K1N Navassa logged as All-Time New One (DXCC #310)

I know I haven't blogged at all so far in 2015. There is a very good reason for this, which I will explain at the end of this post. But I have to tell you that I logged K1N Navassa as an All-Time New One (ATNO) this week, DXCC #310 in my log. Furthermore, as of this morning I have four slots, including 40m CW, and to my great delight, 80m CW. Below is a video made just after my QSO on 80 metres this morning:

The pile-ups have been huge, which is not surprising because it is the second-most wanted DXCC (the most-wanted according to some sources!). I didn't have much time to try them early in the week but now that I have more time I am being rewarded. I have made CW QSOs so far - on 20m, 17m, 40m and 80m. My 40m QSO was at 00:27 this morning and only took me two minutes! The 80m QSO at 07:38 this morning was the same!! I heard my friend Declan EI6FR going through and went about 1Khz above where he called and in no time at all I was in the log. Several Irish stations made it through this morning - EI8H, EI9FBB, EI6FR, EI2KC, EI6IL and EI8FH. As always, they peaked on the grey line and this was the best chance to log them. They are DXCC #167 on 80 metres for me. I'm really delighted with that.

The next challenge is TI9, Cocos Island, which begins this month also. In the meantime, I will try to log Navassa on the high bands.

LACK OF BLOGGING

A while ago, I made a decision about this blog which I didn't publicise. Life is busy on this side - hectically busy at times. I found that I was not getting any time to write about the things that I most love to write about - Irish mythology, monuments, astronomy etc. I was putting time and effort into this radio blog that could be put into writing other things. In August 2014, I started writing a novel. I tried to write every day, even though some days that was only for five minutes! The novel is now finished, but I am still writing other projects related to Mythical Ireland. I have also been taking a lot more photos. I found going out into the landscape was very conducive to writing good material. And all that has been very rewarding for me, and Mythical Ireland is the subject closest to my heart. (No - believe it or not, amateur radio is not my main hobby/interest!!!!) I have continued to indulge in radio, and DXing, but naturally with 310 countries logged I have less interest in repeating DXCC bands and slots, so generally I tend only to chase new countries and new slots. I hope and intend to continue in the hobby of DXing, and I am rarely in the car without having 2m and 70cm switched on. However, I have found that this re-prioritising of my life has worked very well in terms of my writing, which has flourished. I am now trying to find a publisher for my new novel. And I am trying to put together another non-fiction book about Irish mythology. So although you will still hear me in the pile-ups and I will continue to enjoy amateur radio as much as possible, blogging about it has to take second preference to my duties as an author. I'm sure (and I hope) that you'll all understand.