FT4JA Juan de Nova confirmed on LoTW and gives me my 300th DXCC confirmed on CW!

The recent FT4JA Juan de Nova dxpedition, which gave me my 320th DXCC worked, has now confirmed my 11 QSOs with them via Logbook of the World. That's fantastic service! It was a great dxpedition. I'm happy that I worked them on RTTY as well as SSB and CW.

As you can see from the above EI2KC account status on LoTW, FT4JA was my 300th entity confirmed on CW, which is also very nice.

Some very nice eQSLs received recently

I've received a few new eQSL cards in the past week, having done a log upload. I've gone from 201 countries confirmed via eQSL to 206. Now I know it's not an "official" QSL service, but I like using it, and I especially like the virtual cards that you get, which is something I think LoTW could incorporate. Probably the best of the bunch was the above card from Pat when he was active in St. Brandon. He gave me a brand new DXCC with that contact on PSK63, and I'm very proud of it. I've recently sent him a direct card too so hopefully I will receive a physical QSL from him.

Some of the other cards received are below. I'm also very delighted to have received an eQSL from Willis Island.

T32DX - East Kiribati.

VK9WA - Willis Island dxpedition November 2015.

Special event call sign VK100ANZAC from Australia.

Very glad to receive a LoTW QSL from 3B7FA

I'm delighted to have just received QSL confirmation from Patrice (Pat) 3B8FA for a QSO I had with him when he operated from St. Brandon as 3B7FA in late October last. He was at that time a brand new DXCC for me (ATNO), number 315 worked. And now his QSL on ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW) is my 306th DXCC entity confirmed on LoTW, out of a total of 317 worked. The QSO was made using the PSK63 digital mode and the story of the contact can be read here.

A QSL from Pat for a French shortwave listener for his 3B7FA activation.

I also worked VK9WA, Willis Island, in November, as DXCC #316. Just last week, I am pretty sure I had a QSO with FT4XU on Kerguelen Island, although I'm not 100% certain of the contact because of QSB and QRM. If the QSO is confirmed, that would be DXCC #317.

Currently I am chasing another possible All-Time New One (ATNO) in the form of K5P on Palmyra Island, but the chase is proving difficult because I have not heard them yet! This dxpedition to the very rare DX entity of Palmyra (#2 on Europe's most wanted list) is using vertical antennas, and so far only the big stations in Ireland have heard and worked them, including EI6IL and EI2CN. Ark EI9KC worked them from the EI1Y contest station near Naas in Kildare.

I hope to hear them at some stage - if I can hear them, I will call them. Around 5-6pm local time seemed to provide the best opportunity on 20 metres CW.

Patrice 3B8FA.

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!

A few nice cards in from the IRTS bureau

I got a delivery of QSL cards from the IRTS bureau today, and there were some nice countries included in the small pile. I'm particularly pleased to receive cards from 5W1SA Samoa, A52AEF Bhutan and AH0BT Saipan. I got several cards from South Korea, which is unusual, plus some from Japan, and one from 9H Malta, OH0 Aland Islands and 3A Monaco.

S01WS worked again as I receive their QSL card!

My QSL cards received from S01WS Western Sahara.

I managed another new band slot with S01WS in Western Sahara today. I worked them on 12 metres CW with my trusty Antron 99 vertical antenna. This brings to eight the total number of slots I have them worked on. Only a couple of days ago I received QSL cards confirming six slots. I have worked them twice again since requesting the card!! I would be very glad of confirmations on Logbook of the World, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Although I didn't have much time in the shack today, I did manage to work the following:

E51XIW South Cook Islands - 20 metres RTTY (new one on digi modes)
9N7CJ Nepal - 20 metres SSB (new slot)
TR8CA Gabon - 10 metres SSB (new slot)
T30D Western Kiribati - 20 metres CW (new slot)
C21GC Nauru - 17 metres CW (new band)
3D2YA Fiji - 20 metres CW

Some nice confirmations in via eQSL

Saipan, Mariana Islands, for a QSO on 20 metres CW.

TZ6BB, Mali, for a QSO on 30 metres CW earlier this month. Thanks Nando!

YV4NN Venezuela, for a QSO on 6 metres!! Chuffed with that one.

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.

Another milestone reached - over 100 DXCC confirmed on digi

Over the past couple of months, I've been watching as the number of DXCC confirmed on digital modes has been slowly creeping up on Logbook of the World. Because I am only an occasional digi user, my total was much lower than other modes. But recently I've been doing a lot of dabbling in digital, including RTTY, PSK and JT65. And the effort has finally borne fruit.

My total number of QSLs on digital is now 102

A few days ago, I saw my total number of QSLs hit 99. I needed just one more to get me over the line. However, next time I logged in it was 102!!! That was helped by my stint last night on JT65, which saw me working Brazil and Japan for the first time on that mode. The Japanese station confirmed our QSO on LoTW overnight!

Below you can see highlighted the three QSLs which brought me from 99 to 102. CT3MD Madeira Islands made it #100 with RTTY. This was followed by TI3EDM in Costa Rica on PSK31, and #102 was my JT65 QSO with JA3EGY, made with about eight watts on JT65.

A short video about importing LoTW QSLs into Logger32

I had only just uploaded today's log to ARRL's Logbook of the World and when I logged into my account I noticed that three of the QSOs had already been confirmed. So I decided to make a short video showing the process of importing LoTW QSLs into the Logger32 programme. 

The above is a brief self explanatory video on importing LoTW confirmed QSLs into Logger32. The error that popped up during the import is explained in the short video below:

Still making contacts across the pond after 60 years

Amateur radio can be a lovely hobby for throwing up nice stories and interesting connections. I recently received a QSL card from Ron W8KYD in Cleveland, Ohio. Ron enclosed a copy of a QSL card that he had received from Fintan EI8C way back in 1953 - his first QSO "across the pond". Fintan became silent key in 2010, but used to run an electrical shop in Drogheda and I remember visiting his shop to get equipment fixed, probably in the 1980s. Anyway, the above video speaks for itself. Below is a copy of the QSL card plus Ron's note about it to me:

Two milestones reached on Logbook of the World

I have reached two milestones this week on ARRL's Logbook of the World. I have just hit the magic 200 countries confirmed on Phone, and 250 confirmed on CW. My 250th CW confirmation was from H44G, Solomon Islands. My 200th confirmation on Phone was EP3PK in Iran, for a QSO on 20m SSB. That remains my one and only QSO with Iran.

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.

A break from radio over Christmas

As you might have noticed, it's been a while since I updated the blog. I haven't been very active at all on HF, although I have maintained local activity here in Drogheda on the UHF and VHF bands. I had a busy and enjoyable Christmas and have been trying to clear a backlog of QSL cards, both direct and via the bureau.

The latest QSL card in the letterbox yesterday was from 3D2C,
Conway Reef dxpedition, confirming seven band slots.

I must say the bureau cards have become an absolute chore. I've been receiving over 200 cards for the last number of deliveries and it takes a while to get through them all. I've decided now that I will only be sending return cards via the bureau TWICE A YEAR - there simply isn't enough time to do everything! I have to prioritise direct cards, and I am a big fan of ARRL's Logbook of the World, which is by far the best and easiest way to QSL in my humble opinion.

There have been a couple of wind storms this week which have given my antennas a good battering, although at this moment in time everything seems to be fine.

In 2013, I hope to be one of a number of EI hams activating a new special event callsign, EI13CLAN, which is in celebration of a big event next year called "The Gathering", which aims to promote and celebrate all that is Irish. You can see more information about The Gathering on this website.

The special callsign EI80IRTS, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society, will cease to be active on December 31st 2012, just a couple of days away, so if you hear the call on the bands, work it quickly before it's too late!!!

In the meantime, you can read more about EI13CLAN on QRZ.com. Meet you on the bands in 2013!!

The ups and downs of QSLing

One aspect of amateur radio which can be both rewarding and frustrating is the exchange of QSL cards. I get a lot of QSL requests in through the IRTS bureau. Having processed some 700-800 cards over the past number of months, I had the pleasure yesterday of sorting all the outgoing cards into continents and countries so I could send them to the outgoing manager. Above is a photo showing the sorted cards. It can take a number of hours to process each incoming bundle and fill out the return card and mark everything off in the log. This amount of cards probably took about five or six hours to process. It is a time consuming business!

On the slightly less frustrating side of the QSL bureau is when you get some nice cards incoming. Today I received 183 incoming cards from the bureau. There were quite a few from the 'usual suspects' including Germany/Sloevnia/Bulgaria etc., but some nice and unusual ones too. Above is a card from JD1BMH, Ogasawara Island, which would be a new DXCC confirmed. Also on left is DP1POL from Antarctica. Other highlights include ZD8W Ascension Island, 9M2TO West Malaysia, and a bunch of cards from Japan. Nice.

Some nice QSLs in via the bureau

I received my biggest delivery of QSL cards to date from the IRTS bureau yesterday, and included in the bundle of 221 cards were some very nice ones. Perhaps the most exciting one was from ET3AA, Ethiopia, for QSOs on 10 metres SSB and 40m CW.

But there were cards also from UN7IZ in Kazakhstan (10m CW), OJ0B in Market Reef for six QSOs including top band and 80m, ED9M in Ceuta (40m CW), YB0MWM in Indonesia for 12m SSB, and MU0FAL in Guernsey for 80m and 12m CW.

Now all I have to do is process all the cards and write the returns !

Some nice QSLs via the bureau

I recently took a delivery of QSL cards via the IRTS bureau service, which I must start processing. I got about 160 cards, and some interesting DX was included, which is pictured here.

I got cards from BV100 (Taiwan), RI1FJ (Franz Josef Land), VE6WQ (Alberta, Canada), UN0C (Kazakhstan),and a couple of stations from PJ4 (Bonaire). I love getting the nice cards through the bureau.

Latest QSL card - 7P8PB Lesotho - hand delivered!

Peter's 7P8PB QSL card, received at the Dundalk (EI7DAR) rally!

I had the utmost pleasure of bumping into Peter Ball, EI7CC, at the Dundalk rally last weekend. Peter regularly visits Lesotho in Africa, from where he operates as 7P8PB. In March, I worked him on 15m CW as a brand new country, never worked before. It was a great pleasure for me to get him into the log, particularly because he is a fellow EI giving me a brand new DXCC. Just two days later, on March 22nd, I worked him on 20m CW as a new DXCC on that band. So he gave me two slots! To receive the QSL card into my hand a month and a half later was a rare pleasure I can tell you. I worked Peter on both slots with my trusty Butternut vertical and 400 watts. Thanks again Peter for the great pleasure! PS: Peter is one of Ireland's top DXers. You will regularly see him on Clublog in the top 10 for dxpeditions.