Casual contesting is actually great fun

This weekend I decided to keep my CW contesting skills up to date by participating in the Romanian DX contest (YO DX). Although this is a mixed mode contest, I operated CW only. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, there has been no activity at the EI0R contest station where I regularly participate. So I felt it would be good to keep my contesting skills up to scratch, so to speak.

I used only my inverted V dipoles and my Antron 99 for this contest. The hexbeam is still down, pending repair, at the moment. Despite the limitation, I had great fun and worked 378 QSOs on the bands. My best band was 40 metres, where I managed 167 contacts. 20m was next with 89, then 80m with 60 QSOs, 15m with 37 and I was thrilled to be able to manage 23 contacts on 10 metres using the Antron vertical.

My claimed score is 142,754 but there were perhaps as many as ten or 12 QSOs where I had great difficulty copying the progressive number, especially on 15m and 10m where some of the signals were weak.

Notwithstanding the slight difficulties, overall the contest was very enjoyable. There were good run rates at times, and only a few lean periods. Most of the time it was possible to log QSOs without having to wait too long. I operated maybe 12 hours out of the 24-hour contesting period. I did not want to get too tired or stressed and only participated to have fun.

I certainly achieved that objective. I'm looking forward to further contesting coming into the winter.

Some nice CW action captured in HD video

It's been a while since I wrote anything on the blog. Life is busy. There are many things keeping me occupied. Life is good. These things include family, work, music, photography, research, writing blogs and much more. But I am still finding time for radio of course. Just not as much as a few years ago!

Some time ago I bought a new lens for my Nikon cameras. It's a 17-55mm f2.8 lens and it's a thing of beauty. As well as helping me to capture some lovely photographs, it's also very nice for video work. So I set it up at the side of the bench here in the shack and decided to record some CW QSOs that I was making with my Scheunemann key. Take a look and see for yourselves:

EJ7NET Tory activation is QRT - stats

Our activation of Tory is now sadly ended and we have returned home. It was a fantastic five days, and although propagation was a bit hit and miss, the bands provided us with solid action, especially on 30m and 20m where we found good rates at times.

Gordon GM7WCO enjoys a walk along the cliffs during a break in activity.

This activation made history for the EJ7NET group. We made trans-Atlantic QSOs on 6 metres for the first time. We also activated more bands and modes than ever before. We had 9 QSOs on 160m CW and even one on SSB! We had activity on all bands from 1.8 Mhz through to 50 Mhz, and used a variety of modes, including LSB/USB, CW, RTTY, PSK31, PSK63 and JT65.

By the end of the dxpedition we had achieved over 5,000 QSOs, which is by far the best performance of the four years I have been on the islands with the Westnet DX Group.

EJ7NET makes over 4,000 QSOs in three days

It's official. EJ7NET's Gola activation has logged over 4,000 QSOs in less than 72 hours. The station tear-down takes place this evening at around 18:00 local time. We might get a couple of hundred more by then. There was another opening to Japan on 17 metres this afternoon, with about two dozen or so JAs logged.

Rolf operating portable from the cliff tops on Gola Island.

EJ/HB9DGV/P on Gola.

To celebrate our success, the EJ7NET QSL manager for the Gola activity, Rolf HB9DGV, brought his Elecraft KX1 to the top of the cliffs on the western end of the island and made about 30 QSOs as EJ/HB9DGV/P. He was running just 3 watts into a Sota dipole. Two of the QSOs were transatlantic.

While Rolf was up on the summit, accompanied by Declan and Gordon, Liam had a good run on 40 metres SSB, working mainly UK stations, helped by Tony who took over and continued the run.

E30FB Eritrea QSOs confirmed on Clublog already

I'm delighted to see that my two QSOs with Zorro, E30FB, have already shown up in Clublog. The statistics make for interesting reading. During his time in Eritrea, Zorro made only 19 QSOs with Ireland, and there are a few of us with more than one QSO, so he might only have worked 15 or 16 separate EI stations. I'm thrilled to see that both my 20m and 10m SSB QSOs are in his log. Hopefully he will upload to Logbook of the World before too long. Thanks again Zorro for a wonderful activation, and for giving me the last country I needed on the African continent. Cheers!

Very happy to receive XR0ZR Juan Fernandez LoTW confirmations

I have just received QSLs via Logbook of the World for my four QSOs with XR0ZR, Juan Fernandez. This is my 284th DXCC confirmed via LoTW. I am particularly thrilled to receive confirmation for my 80 metres CW QSO. That was an incredible distance to work DX using my dog-legged compromise inverted v antenna. I worked them at 7.46am on 18th November 2013. It was one of my most memorable QSOs on the HF bands!!

I participated in the IRTS 2 metres counties contest today from the home QTH and had a bit of fun. I made 31 QSOs with 11 different counties. I used my Icom IC-746 and my Watson W300 vertical. My best QSO was with Co. Galway.

VK9MT Mellish Reef - my three QSOs are in the log!

Delighted to see my three QSOs with VK9MT Mellish Reef in their online log. My 15m QSO had been missing due to a technical glitch, but I got word today that it was in there. I consider myself lucky to have worked this ATNO (All-Time New One) on three slots, especially considering they went QRT early due to stormy weather. Congratulations to all the EI ops, and indeed everyone else, who made it into the log. Job well done! VK9/M Mellish Reef is currently the 22nd most wanted DXCC, according to Clublog.

A wonderful week of DX in fantastic conditions

It's been a really great week for DX. There aren't many dxpeditions on, but the conditions are such that the world is at your fingertips every time you touch the CW paddle or the microphone button, or indeed the keyboard for the RTTY macros. Here is a summary of the DX worked in the past seven days:

The 9J2T dxpedition to Zambia - worked 6 times so far.

JG8NQJ/JD1 Minami Torishima 17m CW; VP8CMH/MM Falklands 17m CW and 20m CW; KH6/VE7AHA Hawaii 12m CW at 9.10pm local time!; WL7E Alaska 12m CW - new on 12m, at 21:23; VK3TZ Australia 12m CW at 21:32 at night!; FK8DD/M New Caledonia 12m CW; FK8IK New Caledonia 12m SSB - my first ever phone contact with this DXCC; 9J2T Zambia dxpedition - total of six band slots; WL7E 12m SSB at 21:19 at night, a new slot; D44CF Cape Verde 10m CW - new slot; CX3TQ Uruguay 10m SSB - worked on the Antron 99 with 100 watts; 4S7DFG Sri Lanka 20m CW; HK0/UA4WHX Providencia Island - a total of six slots so far!!; ZL4IR New Zealand 20m SSB; CB3N Chile 20m SSB; FK8IK 40m CW - new country on 40 metres!!; ZM90DX New Zealand 20m CW; 4S7LXG Sri Lanka 15m CW - new one on 15; 4S7DFG Sri Lanka 10m CW - new country on 10m!!; ZL1/G0EHQ New Zealand 20 SSB - nice chat on SSB (YouTube video); RI1ANR Antarctica 17m CW; D44CF Cape Verde 12m CW - new slot;  A92AA 20m RTTY - new DXCC on digital modes; 9J2T Zambia 17m RTTY - new DXCC on digi modes; V21ZG 17m RTTY - new one on digital modes; ZL7/OE2SNL 40m CW - brand new country (number #304 worked!); RI1ANC Antarctica 17m SSB; OX3KQ Greenland 12m SSB - new slot, worked with Antron-99 and 100w; 5H2DK Tanzania 17m SSB; JT5DX Mongolia 80m CW - new country on 80m!; 4S7FRG Sri Lanka 12m CW - new on 12; YB4IR/P Indonesia IOTA OC-204 20m SSB; KH6CW Hawaii 12m SSB - new slot; ZD8RY Ascension Island 40m SSB; KH2L Guam 17m CW at 21:45 local time; JW7QIA Svalbard 80m CW.

QSL cards from Antarctica via the bureau

These two cards from the Japanese research expedition in Antarctica arrived at the shack of EI2KC with the latest delivery via the IRTS bureau. They confirm QSOs made on 17m and 20m CW during 2011.

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

Some time on the air as EI80IRTS

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year and as a result the special callsign EI80IRTS has been on the air since January 1st. I was recently asked by Ger EI4GXB and Thos EI2JD if I would consider operating on CW as EI80IRTS.

Since I now have an interface that can key my radio, the ICOM IC-756PRO, I decided I would give it a go. Over the past three days I have logged about 700 QSOs, a great majority of which were made with just 100 watts. The higher bands have been in great shape.

Much of my time was spent on 10m and 12m, early in the mornings for Asia and Pacific and late in the evenings for North America. I have had Australia, Japan and Singapore in the log in the mornings and lots of west coast USA in the evenings. I am using N1MM logger to log the calls.

I am very happy with my rate when there is a pile-up, but with changing band conditions, it's not always possible to have a pile-up!! I was running at 32wpm, which is a bit on the hot side, but I want to get used to going along at a good pace because I want to start taking part in more CW contests.