The next ATNO? - TX3X Chesterfield Islands coming on air

Chesterfield Islands, in the Pacific Ocean three days' sailing from New Caledonia, are being activated beginning, hopefully, tonight, by the TX3X team. This is potentially an All-Time New One (ATNO) for me, if of course I can get them into my log. I'm looking forward to giving them a call. I'm sure the pile-ups will be huge.

Chesterfield Islands, with the DXCC designator FK/C, is the 21st most wanted DX entity, according to Clublog. It's just behind Glorioso (FT/G) and just ahead of KP1 Navassa, which fell considerably in the most-wanted rankings following the K1N dxpedition there earlier this year.

ZL7 Chatham Island in the log - DXCC #304

Chatham Island and the QTH of ZL7/OE2SNL

It's half past seven AM. Yes, 7.30 in the morning. And I'm sitting here blogging. Why am I not in bed, enjoying a bit of extended sleep after a busy week at work? I'll tell you why. I got an alarm call at 7.05am. And when I say an alarm call, I mean a phone call, the purpose of which was to wake me up!! That most persistent and energetic DXer, Declan EI6FR, had just sent me a text message, which reads as follows:

"Wake up!! zl7 on 7006.3 wrked up 3.5".

His phone call was merely a way of ensuring that I read the text. I was glad for the phone call, because I hadn't heard the text alert. I jumped out of the bed. I always find it funny how I'm so slow to crawl out of the scratcher when it's a work day, but if there's rare DX to be nabbed, I jump out of the bed as if it was full of snakes!!



Anyhow, straight down to the shack and immediately the equipment was switched on. When you're still half asleep it can be difficult to get everything right! Nowadays when something rare is on, the very first button to be pressed is the 'on/off' button on the Acom 1000 linear. That takes two and a half minutes to warm up, which can be the difference between getting the DX entity and not getting it. Then the power supply, then the IC-756PRO, and then the laptop. All in that order. Oh yes, must remember to switch the antenna selector from the hexbeam over to the inverted v dipoles.

As soon as the rig came on, I selected 40 metres and went to 7.005.3, but could hear nothing. So I rang Declan for clarification. "Are you hearing them?" I asked. "Yes, 7.006.3, up about 3". Yes Anthony. 7.006.3, not 7.005.3. I was still waking up!!

Franz OE2SNL

Going to 7.006.3, I could hear CW immediately. There was Franz, ZL7/OE2SNL, a member of the forthcoming ZL7AAA dxpedition who is already on Chatham Island operating under his own callsign with the ZL7/ prefix. I could hear that he didn't have a significant pile-up. He was initially working about 3 up and then dropped to just 1 up. By the time the linear was ready, he was moving back up. I dialled in 7.009.28 on the second VFO and began calling.

A couple of minutes later I could hear that sweet music. "EI2?" And so I sent him the call a few times. Then I heard "EI2KC 5NN 5NN K", so I gave him "RRR EI2KC 5NN 5NN TU" and he came back again with "EI2KC TU" and a couple of dits. DXCC #304 is in my log!!! Wow. An unexpected joy. And on 40 metres. What a great signal he had. He was lifting the needle, and there was none of that Arctic flutter one might expect from such a distant station whose signal was likely coming over the pole. My small antennas really can do the trick for me sometimes. The QSO was at 07.16UTC, during which time EI was already in daylight and the grey line had passed. I was glad to get him when I did. A couple of minutes later he announced that he was going QRT.

And now, at 07:41UTC, I am going back to bed to catch up on some more sleep!!

Will we ever work KH5K Kingman Reef again?

Kingman Reef (KH5K) pictured in 2003

A disturbing report from Dx-world.net suggests that most of Kingman Reef, an isolated reef in the Pacific Ocean and one of the rarest DXCC entities with the designator KH5K, is now almost completely submerged. The eighth most wanted DXCC is now mostly under water, and probably too dangerous to visit.

Quoting Rich KY6R and citing a report from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, DX-world.net reports that much of the reef is awash, and that the two land masses making up the reef lie only three feet above water level:

The U.S. F&W report suggests that Kingman Reef is now too dangerous to visit:

“The work site on the reef flat was very shallow with water depths of 1 to 7 feet at high tide, and just a few inches of water at low tide. The two small rubble islands that comprise the only land masses at Kingman Reef lie merely 3 feet above sea level. They are frequently awash by waves and offered no shelter during removal operations. The severe sea state and environmental conditions at Kingman Reef are unpredictable, and forecasts are relatively unreliable at the isolated central Pacific reef. Such uncertainty constrained safe operations, and the team determined that mobilizing the full shipwreck removal team and all floating assets, including the 185-foot barge and large crane, from Palmyra to be staged at the Kingman removal site, presented an unacceptable risk to crew and resources. Instead, a subset of the crew traveled to Kingman Reef from Palmyra Atoll on the tugboat Sarah C with a transport scow in tow.”

Rich told DX-world.net that he thinks it's now "time that DXAC seriously consider deleting Kingman Reef."
Kingman reef was last activated in the year 2000 by the K5K dxpedition. There is some doubt right now about whether it will ever be activated again.

Wake Atoll and San Andres logged - two new ones in one day

It has been a great day on the bands here in the shack of EI2KC at IO63TQ. I nabbed 5J0R, the San Andres dxpedition, on no fewer than five band slots today, including two RTTY slots, an SSB slot and two CW slots. That was beyond my wildest expectations. Although they are only in the Caribbean and therefore relatively easy to work from EI, it was the first day of their activity and pile-ups were significant. That was DXCC #296 (official DXCC designation HK0-S).

I really didn't expect to even hear K9W on Wake Atoll, but I got a tip-off from Don EI6IL at tea time that they were weak but workable on 20m SSB and sure enough, I actually logged them with one call. I think it was because they were weak that most Europeans were not hearing them; hence it was easy to get through. I was beaming north, so right across the pole.

It's all water and ice between here and there. I was really, really chuffed, and somewhat relieved, to get them so quickly. That was DXCC #297 (official DXCC designation KH9). I've actually worked 303 DXCC entities, but six of these are deleted so the current DXCC tally stands at 297. Just three more and I will be at the magic 300 worked.

Below is a video showing 5J0R's signal on 10m CW just immediately after I worked them. Sorry about the volume level. It was a bit high for the recording.

Latest confirmation on eQSL - Tokelau Island

Delighted to see this eQSL card dropping into my inbox. This confirms my one and only slot with Tokelau Island - 20m CW. I already had confirmation via LoTW thankfully.

Austral Islands makes it DXCC #292

As you can probably see, I haven't been doing much radio lately. We've been having a heat wave in Ireland, and it hasn't rained in 16 days. Temperatures have been in the high 20s every day, with scorching sunshine and clear skies . . . until last weekend when it clouded over somewhat.

I have been tremendously busy with other things. Not least of which is my devotion to all things mythical and ancient. I recently received copies of 'The Mythology of Venus', an international collaboration of authors, including myself, with a foreword by Morgan Llywelyn. I have also recently written a novella, my first serious attempt at fiction, and am currently investigating how to get that published. I also took part, with my family, in some parts of the Brigid's Way Pilgrimage, which is based upon a discovery by Richard Moore and I, in our book Island of the Setting Sun.

So not too much time has been spent in front of the radios. In fact, very little. It recently came to my attention that Vadym UT6UD would be operating from Austral Islands (FO-A) which would be a new one for me. I heard him a couple of mornings during the past week, but the pile-ups were exceptional. Thinking that I had missed the opportunity, as he was due to go QRT today, I left it down to bad luck and lack of operating!

But at 6.30am this morning, my phone rang. It was Declan, EI6FR. "Austral is on 17 CW and easily workable" was the short sentence that he uttered, followed by "get out of bed". That I duly did, and made my way quickly down to the shack, where I was very quick to find FO/UT6UD on 17m CW. I programmed the split, and switched on the linear. His split was not as wide as the previous time I had tried him on 17m, so I was hopeful.

Within a short time, I could hear "EI2KC 5NN" and gave him "RR EI2KC 5NN TU". And cé la vie! I was in the log. DXCC #292 was in my log . . . finally!! I have had several opportunities to work FO-A but it never seemed to work out for me. So I am greatly relieved to have another one off the list. Just eight more to hit the magic 300 ! Thanks for the wake-up call Declan! And because I was able to work him pretty quickly, I went back to bed and got another hour's sleep!!

Sometimes the clock is against you in ham radio

There are times when the clock is against you in ham radio. Imagine the following scenario. There is a dxpedition on a Pacific Island that you need as a new DXCC. They are there for just over a week in total. Propagation is poor and they might be using small antennas and low power. Despite seeing other Europeans spotting them on the cluster, you are unable to hear them on any band or mode. You are fast approaching the weekend, when they will be winding the station down, and all of Europe will be on, calling them, and you won't be in the shack. And, with just minutes to go before you leave the shack to go to work on Friday morning, you finally hear them for the first time . . .

That, my dear friends, is the scenario that faced me this morning. I could finally hear VK9NT on Norfolk Island, on 12 metres CW  - the first time I had heard a decent signal from them all week. Many mornings they were either QRX or unhearable. Conditions were not great all week.

Norfolk Island, from which I could finally hear VK9NT this morning.

I saw them spotted on several slots, including 20m CW, 17m SSB and 12m CW. As it happened, I could only hear them on 12m CW. They were too weak on 20m CW to make out. It was 9.05am. I would have to leave the shack for work at 9.15am. I had TEN MINUTES in which to try to work them!!

The op was relatively slow, and was working a mixture of JA stations and EU. I knew I had a challenge on my hands! I had the beam pointing the right direction, the linear was on, and the split was set at up 2. However, on listening to the op's pattern, it became clear that he or she was moving up about 500 hz at a time and then, upon getting to about 4kc up, coming back down again. I heard "5NN TU" on the split, and moved down about 500 hz. I also slowed my keying speed to match the DX speed. Within a minute or so I could hear "2KC ?" I gave the call twice. Again I could hear "2KC?" - obviously I was being QRMed. Another couple of calls with "EI2KC" and I could heard "EI2KC 5NN" and I gave something like "QSL EI2KC 5NN 5NN TU" and I was in the log . . .

I didn't have time to celebrate. I had to switch off all the equipment, get my coat, and run to the car. It was 9.15am and I needed to be at the desk in Dublin at 10am!! However, I felt I could relax a bit. DXCC #290 was in the log, and I had all but despaired of working them. VK9NT on Norfolk Island - thank you. I am off to another island tomorrow, Inis Mór (EU-006) with the EJ7NET dxpedition. I hope conditions are good for that . . . both weather conditions, and band conditions!

ZK3N Tokelau in the log - DXCC #288 !!

Finally, it is my great pleasure to report that ZK3N, Tokelau Island in the Pacific Ocean, is in my log! I worked the mini German dxpedition on ZK3 this morning on 20 metres CW. I had spent days trying to work them, with a lot of bad luck. A few times when I sat down at the radio to start calling them, they would QRX, QSY or QRT just when they were strong to EU. Other times I had to leave the shack, or leave the house, for various reasons. This time, I managed to get them after just about ten, maybe fifteen, minutes calling. They were on 14.006. I sat on 14.015, having been tipped off by Declan EI6FR that the split was wide. Eventually I could hear "ES2?" so, thinking it might be me (for non CW ops, S is three dits, I is two!), I gave my call a couple of times. He came back with "EI2?" and I gave it a couple more times. Then he came back again with "EI2KC 5NN" and I gave "EI2KC 5NN 5NN TU". And that was it!. Dxcc #288 was in my log!

I enjoyed some PSK and RTTY operation over the past number of days. I worked a few decent DX contacts on digital modes with 40 watts. I am enjoying using these modes. I don't have to listen to any noise on these modes which is nice.

Great conditions on 20 metres

Conditions were absolutely fantastic on 20 metres over the weekend. On Saturday night at around 8pm I turned the beam towards the northeast and started calling for Asia and Pacific. Within a few moments I had a station from Taiwan calling me with a big 59 signal. Over the next hour I worked several Asian and Oceanic stations, including two from New Zealand, two from Australia, one from Indonesia, one from India, and one from Hong Kong! What a great delight to hear these far-off places at night time!

The weekend also brought a few other nice contacts, including two QSOs with 3D2SE in Fiji, one on 20m CW and one on 17m CW. I noticed that my QSO with 5W0M in Samoa on 15m CW was not in their online log, so I worked them again on that slot.

A few other nice ones from the weekend:

C98RF Mozambique - 20m CW - new country on that band
S79VJG Seychelles - 20m SSB - new band slot
EP3MJ Iran - 20m SSB
FY4PR French Guyana - 20m SSB - new slot
D44BS Cape Verde - 17m SSB - new country on that band

A day in the life of EI2KC on the bands

As many of you will know, I was made redundant from my job as a newspaper editor over two months ago. In that time, I have been looking for a new job. While looking for a new job, I have also been trying to complete my next book, 'Newgrange - Monument to Immortality', which is being published next month.

The new hexbeam attached to the back wall of the shack. Also visible
are my Butternut vertical and the inverted Vs.

For a while I was relatively inactive on the bands, but have recently found, especially with the kids back at school, a bit of time for radio. Since the hexbeam went up here almost two weeks ago my hit rate with the DX has gone up dramatically.

To give you an idea what sort of DX I am working, I thought I would give you a run-down of the complete log for today, September 18th, 2012. I will exclude the three non-DX or non valuable QSOs in the log. Times are local

5W0QQ - Samoa - 20m SSB 08:26
AH0KY - Saipan/Northern Marianas - 15m SSB 10:56
JG8NQJ/JD1 - Minami Torishima - 17m CW - brand new DXCC! 11:25
AH0KY - Saipan/Northern Marianas - 17m SSB 12:57
KP2/K5WE - Virgin Islands - 20m CW 13:01
Z60K - Kosovo (but not a new entity yet) - 15m SSB, 15m CW, 20m CW, 17m CW 13:08-13:24
BH4IGO - China - 20m CW 15:18
P49T - Aruba - 15m SSB 15:44
JW9HH - Svalbard - 17m SSB 16:03
YB9/DJ7XJ - Indonesia - 20m CW 17:33
VK2DX - Australia - 40m CW 21:08
A92IO - Bahrain - 40m CW 21:11 - new band slot, thanks to EI3IO Dave!
VK7RF - Tasmania - 20m CW 21:25
JH3EUJ - Japan - 20m CW 21:40
JA6BJV - Japan - 20m CW 21:44
PY6AM - Brazil - 20m CW 21:46 (on the long path!)
VU2JOS - India - 20m CW 21:49
JA2IU - Japan - 20m CW 21:51
JA9BFM - Japan - 20m CW 21:55
VK7BO - Tasmania - 20m CW 21:58
T8XX - Belau - 30m CW 22:40 - new country on 30m!

Not bad for a day dipping in and out of the radio spectrum! I am particularly impressed with how the hexbeam is helping me to hear the weak Pacific stations that I might have found more difficult with the MA5B minibeam. I have worked four new DXCC in a week, all of them in the Pacific - VK9XS Christmas Island, V73NS Marshall Islands, JD1 Minami Torishima and 5W0XT/5W0QQ Samoa.

At least two, and possibly three, new DXCC today!

Despite suffering wind damage during a storm, the hexbeam was still proving its worth this morning when I pulled in two distant rare DX signals and nabbed the latest brace of DX entites for the EI2KC log. I saw VK9XS on Christmas Island spotted on 21 Mhz CW on the cluster. I sat on his QRG and could hear nothing. Not to be disappointed, I checked that the beam was pointing at him and then busied myself doing other things at the computer while still keeping an ear on the radio.

Marshall Islands, from where V73NS was transmitting
on 15m CW when I worked him as a new one.

A while later, I heard a weak CW signal coming up out of the noise. Pretty soon I could hear 'VK9XS UP', so I put the split on and tried to listen where he was working. It was difficult, because the pile was big and I wasn't hearing some of the Europeans he was coming back to. But eventually I had it bang on and pretty soon I heard 'EI?'. He had me as EI12KC initially but after a number of overs he came back with 'EI2KC 5NN' and I had a new DXCC in the log.

Less than 40 minutes later I started hearing V73NS from Marshall Islands, also on 15m CW, and gave him a call with 400 watts. He was very weak with a lot of QSB but pretty soon I was in his log too, making two new ones in less than an hour.

Also worked today with the hexbeam were VK8CAW (Australia) on 15m CW, DU3/N0QM (Philippines) on 15m cw, VK9XS (Christmas Island again) this time on 17m CW, and a couple of 9M2s, a couple of 9M6s and a DS4 in Korea. Nice!

I am grateful to Tony EI4DIB and Pat EI2HX for helping me make repairs to the hexbeam, and to Tony for his persistence in uncovering the cause of a fluctuating SWR. Thanks gents!!

Tonight there is a Z60K team on the air, from Kosovo. This is not a DXCC entity, at least not yet. I worked them on 20m SSB on the basis of 'work now, worry later'. If Kosovo becomes an entity any time soon, I will have it in the log!!

Swains in the log on 30m CW

I was the happiest ham alive this morning when, with all of Europe calling the NH8S Swains dxpedition, they picked my call out of the pile-up!! It took a while to work them. They were on 10.103, listening approx 3kc up, but I worked them 2.5 kc up. They kept calling "EI2 EI2" and of course I was QRMed but I just kept giving my call and eventually I heard EI2KC 5NN ! So I gave them 5NN and TU. So thrilled. I spent the rest of the morning with a smile on my face!!

I did not have time to make a video recording as I had to leave the kids to school. That was slot number four for me. They were strong for a while on 15m CW for a while in the middle of the day but I was not able to break the pile on that occasion. But I will keep trying for more slots . . .