Fantastic band conditions for CQWW SSB 2015

CQ contest . . . EI2KC taking part in CQWW SSB contest 2015.

I took advantage of excellent band conditions during the CQWW SSB contest to work some new band slots and enjoyed dipping in and out of the contest. I wasn't actively participating, so to speak, but did enjoy my limited activity. All my activity on the 10 metre band was carried out with my Antron 99 antenna. It's a fabulous antenna on that band when conditions are good. And conditions were surprisingly excellent.

Here follows a summary of the nice contacts made (including a few that were non-contest QSOs):

4L0A Georgia - 10m SSB - new band slot.
XW1IC Laos - 10m SSB - new band slot.
SK3W Sweden - 10m SSB - new band slot.
AH0K Mariana Islands - 10m SSB - not a new slot but fab condx meant I got him with one call!
V47T St. Kitts & Nevis - 10m SSB - new band slot.
HG150ITU Hungary - 20m CW - last of the HA/HG special ITU call signs needed for gold award.
CR6T Portugal - 15m SSB - can't believe I needed Portugal on 15 SSB - new band slot!
TK/PB8DX Corsica - 15m SSB - new band slot.
C91B Mozambique - 17m SSB - operated by my friend Beth MW0VOW. New band slot!

4U70UN United Nations HQ - 12m CW - new country on 12 metres. Delighted to hear them strong.
4U70UN United Nations HQ - 17m SSB - new band slot.
A71CV Qatar - 40m SSB - new band slot.
4O3A Montenegro - 80m SSB - new band slot.
VK4SBB Australia - 10m SSB - not a new slot but an indication of the fantastic propagation.
C37N Andorra - 10m SSB - new country on 10m!!
TK/PB8DX Corsica - 10m SSB - new band slot.
4U70UN United Nations HQ - 17m CW - another slot.
VP2V/N3DXX British Virgin Islands -10m SSB - new band slot.
4U70UN United Nations HQ - 20m CW - new country on 20m!!!
KL7RA Alaska - 15m SSB - a late QSO and a nice surprise at 19:21 local time - new band slot!
JD1BNA Ogasawara - 30m CW - a non-contest QSO. New country on 30 metres!!
4U70UN United Nations HQ - 30m CW - a second new country on 30m!!

Below is a video I made during the contest. It shows my QSOs with A73A (Qatar), VU2PAI (India), VR2XAN (Hong Kong), VU2CPL (India), B1Z (China), A61ZX (United Arab Emirates), and VK4SDD (Australia), all on 10 metres, and all using the Antron 99 antenna.

Rain, wind and mixed propagation. Oh, and antenna damage!

It's Monday morning and overnight we've had some very strong wind. As a result, there was some slight damage to the antenna system. The Sota pole holding up our 20/15m wire vertical broke in the wind and needed to be repaired, while the 30m wire vertical came loose from its pole. However, a short time later we were up and running again.

Sunday night was good on the bands, with decent action on 40, 30 and 20. Most of the activity has been on CW, but Liam EI7DSB is quite active on SSB, especially on 20 metres. We passed the 2,000 QSO mark last night. There was some action too on 6 metres. We made 11 QSOs, some with EI stations and there were some Europeans who made it into the log, including several from Croatia and Italy, and one each from Poland and Slovenia. We will keep a listening watch on 50 Mhz during our stay using a dedicated FT897 and a two-element beam.

Band conditions this morning are not that good. After a promising start with a good rate on 20 cw, the action died off. 30m has been OK, and 40m has been very hit and miss.

I've received information from Peter EI7CC that Gola Island was in fact activated before, by Paddy EJ7GK, in 1997. So we're not the first!!! Thanks for the information Peter. At least we know now!

The food has been excellent, thanks to our chef, Tony EI3HA, who has been looking after us very well. We will surely put on a few pounds while we're here, sitting around working radio and eating all the time!

I took a walk to the western end of the island with Declan EI6FR yesterday. There are fantastic views from the top of the cliffs out into the Atlantic Ocean.

A splint is added to support the broken Sota pole.

Roast beef for Sunday dinner. Yum.

A card EJ7GK to EI7CC from his Gola activation in 1997.

Anthony EI2KC at the edge of the cliffs on Gola.

Tasmania on 20 metres JT9-1 using just five watts

Last week, having taken a step into the weak signal mode JT65, I followed by taking a look at JT9-1. I had been told by Bas PE4BAS that it uses less bandwidth and as it's a new mode, there's less cramming of signals like you get with JT65 because it's not yet that popular.

A screenshot showing my QSO with VK7BO (The frequency
shown is 40m, but I was in fact on 14.078 at the time!)

So I downloaded WSJT-X (v0.9, r3195), and installed it and, within a short time, my computer was decoding signals out of the noise. On my first night CQing, I worked K0KC, followed swiftly by K1JT (Joe Taylor, the man who wrote the JT-9 software!) using only five watts from the Icom 756PRO.

I will say that both JT65 and JT9-1 are very slow modes. It takes about six minutes to make one QSO. Transmit sessions begin on the minute, and take around 50 seconds, with ten seconds of decoding. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I was thrilled to have the help of Doug EI2CN to show me how it's done.

Tonight, having worked JD1BMH in Ogasawara on 20m RTTY as a new country on digi modes, I couldn't find any other decent DX about the bands, so I launched WSJT-X and left it decoding on 14.078. I worked a UA3 who was putting out a CQ and then I spotted something I didn't expect to see!

CQ VK7BO QE38 (See screenshot above)

So I immediately called him back with VK7BO EI2KC -06 (in fact, I didn't properly finish the QSO with UA3 - I didn't give him 73!). The Tasmanian station gave me EI2KC VK7BO -03 and then we confirmed the QSO. Tasmania on five watts. Not bad at all. I think I will enjoy using this weak signal mode a bit more often !!

New video: St. Helena Island on 10 metres

Conditions have been fantastic on 10 metres during the past couple of weeks, and the band really came to life over the weekend for the CQWW 2012 phone contest. Here, the day after the contest, is ZD7FT, Peter on St. Helena Island, working a pile-up into Europe.

XX9 Macau - another one to look forward to

With the 7O6T Yemen dxpedition in full swing from Socotra Island, AF-028, Irish hams can look forward to another big activation this month with the forthcoming XX9 Macau dxpedition. This dxpedition will be on air for JUST ONE WEEK from May 17th to 23rd inclusive, so it will be tough to fill out slots as it is expected to be in high demand. They will transmit from  IOTA AS-075 (Coloane Island OL62SC).

 XX9 Macau is the 78th most wanted DXCC entity out of 340, according to DX Publishing. The team consists of ten hams, mainly from Spain, and one Welsh-born operator, F5VLY Adrian, who now lives in France.

They will be active on all HF bands from 160-10m and also 6 metres, in CW, phone and RTTY. For more details see their website.

The HF bands are pretty dead this morning

HF propagation is non existent this morning. There is a moderate geomagnetic storm underway, with the K index at 5 (peak 6) which may be affecting things. I did hear one ZL station on 20m SSB this morning but pretty much nothing else. I made one contact with Gary EW1MM but he vanished in QSB. Above is a short video showing just how poor the band is. It's not that there's even any local stuff to be worked - it's just dead as a dodo! Ironically, the sunspot number is at 158, so hopefully when the aurora subsides we will have good propagation . . .