North America on 6 metres from Tory Island

Today was a great day on the bands, particularly on 6 metres, where we managed several QSOs into the United States in the afternoon. This was achieved with a HB9CV two-element beam at about 15 feet. As of this moment, we have over 200 QSOs on 50 Mhz since yesterday, which is fantastic.

Some of the North American stations we worked on 6 metres today.

The 50 Mhz contacts into the USA were not all easy. It took some time to get K1TL into the log. In fact I'd safely say it took 10 to 15 minutes to complete the QSO. Some stations were easier to hear and work. We were ecstatic at getting one in the log, but we ended up with six or seven NA QSOs. And all the time we were beaming NA, we were still working Europeans, some from Italy, Spain and France, but some from other areas. We worked a couple of Scandinavian stations off the back of the beam.

The EJ7NET 6 metre station on Tory Island.

Elsewhere, we have been plugging away on the HF bands. We had some activity on 20m, 17m and 15m today, with occasional pile-ups and also occasional dry periods. As of this moment, we have over 2,000 QSOs in the combined logs, which is not bad at all. Conditions on 20 and 15 are interesting. A lot of UK and Netherlands stations were strong on those bands today, while everyone else was comparatively weak. Last night (Sunday), we had some nice action on 40m SSB.

Weather today has been largely overcast, with drizzle at times. Generally typical Irish weather. Rolf HB9DGV activated the lighthouse on the island as EJ/HB9DGV/QRP.

Band conditions poor today, but 6 metres is open now

Tony EI2GX caught the only bit of decent action on HF this
morning with a stint on 20 metres SSB.

Just a quick update from Inis Mór from the QTH of EJ7NET. HF bands have been poor today, and seemed to take something of a nosedive. However, we have been compensated with a great opening on 6 metres, with CW and SSB contacts into many European countries from IO53DD. We hope to be active on 80 metres SSB this evening, following several requests from EI and G stations, so keep an ear out.

With poor conditions on the bands, some of us abandoned the shack for some exercise, with several of us taking walks to different parts of the island. Myself, Gordon GM7WCO and Dermot EI5IQ took a hike down to the beach to get some photographs of the sea spray. The heavens opened while we were there. Photographic efforts produced mixed results! Gordon and I then went to see a ruined 8th century church and the weather picked up nicely, with strong sunshine but strong winds too.

Rush hour traffic on Inis Mór . . .

As I write, I have been on 6m working a pile-up and now Liam EI7DSB has taken over and is still getting plenty of contacts thanks to a good opening there. Our chef Tony EI3HA made a beautiful homemade vegetable soup for us a while ago and has now begun working on our main meal of the day.