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:

7O6T Yemen in the log - brand new DXCC!!

Finally, after hours of trying, I managed to get the 7O6T Yemen dxpedition in the log tonight. I had just worked VP2V/NY6X on 17m CW and with the linear still running I decided to try 7O6T on the same band. It only took a few tries. But that followed prolonged periods where I was calling 7O6T on various bands since the dxpedition began just over 24 hours ago. I have put in about three or four hours calling them so far, and the pile-ups are very wide and intense. So it was a great pleasure to hear "EI2KC 5NN" coming back through the noise!!

For many operators this will be a brand new DXCC, and that's how it was for me. Yemen is my 260th DXCC worked. I look forward to chasing them on other bands! In the meantime, here's another video I made showing the pile-up on 12m earlier on (where I failed, incidentally, to work them!) Enjoy. Happy hunting!

7O6T Yemen dxpedition begins - and it's chaos!!

The 7O6T dxpedition has just begun and already the bands are absolutely jammed with signals. Here is a video showing the width of the pile-up on 17 metres (18 Mhz) CW.