When ten metres is open, you can hear anything!

This is a short video of VK6LW in West Australia, taking part in the BERU (British Commonwealth) Contest, as heard on my 10m attic dipole and my Yaesu FT-897. As you can see, it clearly demonstrates that when ten metres is open, it is possible to hear very distant stations with very modest equipment. Let's hope this latest opening on 10m improves in the days and weeks ahead.

Finally made it through to 3C0E Annobon Island

This is a video showing the huge pile-up from the USA for 3C0E on 17m CW, at a time when his signal was massive into EI and other parts of Europe. I seem to have been plagued by bad luck during the past week with 3C0E. Every time I sit down at the radio to work them, they either QRX (take a break), QSY (go somewhere else), or start calling for JA or USA ! It has happened countless times this week.

And that is why I count myself extremely fortunate to have made it into their log this evening on 12m CW, thankfully. A while later they came up on 17m CW with a huge signal and after tuning the Acom 1000 and giving them a few calls I could suddenly hear "3C0E USA UP". Damn! What a run of misfortune! Every time they are strong they are not working EU. Or so it seems. The above video gives an idea of the sort of pile-ups these two guys are up against. Annobon is the 32nd most wanted DXCC and there are just two ops on the island. So I am grateful for one band slot. They are QRT (finished) on Sunday.

What's the chances of another slot or two?

I love the sound of CW in the mornings

I haven't been doing a wild lot of radio lately, with one thing or another. Some of you may know I am writing a book about Newgrange, set to be published in the autumn. That project is going to keep me very busy over the next six months, so unfortunately radio time will be limited. However, I will do my best to keep as active as possible nonetheless. I have been trying to make a couple of QSOs in the morning time, before going to work. I generally give a CQ call for a few minutes and try to put at least one or two callsigns into the log before heading down the road to work. Hence the above poster, based on the famous film Apocalypse Now, except I've changed the familiar catchphrase "I love the smell of nepalm in the mornings" to something more suitable for the hobby! Not sure how good Robert Duvall's CW is HI !Anyhow, hopefully I will catch you on the bands approx 08:00 to 08:30 UT on CW.

Pile-up on 30 metres CW for 3C6A Equitorial Guinea - video

I may not be a big contester, but . . .

. . . I decided to have a bit of fun in the ARRL DX contest (CW) at the weekend. I had lots to do with the family but where I found time I logged some QSOs. I finished the weekend with 404 QSOs in the log. I had 119 Qs on 15 metres, 130 on 20 metres, 44 on 40 metres and 106 on 80 metres. I enjoyed 15m and 80m the most. I had 42 multipliers on 15, 38 on 20, 14 on 40 and 24 on 80, I worked 50 States (US and Canada) over the weekend with a final claimed score of 141,246. I will enter single op assisted high power. I had great fun. Not imagining I will win anything, but the participation brought me a lot of satisfaction.

On 15 metres, I was only short 9 states, KY, LA, ME, MO, OK, SC, SD, UT and WY. I was very happy to get DE, VT, TN, NV, KS, ID, IA, and CO among others.

On 80m the highlights included DE (Delaware) and five of the Canadian states.

10 metres was an utter disappointment. On Sunday afternoon the band sounded dead at my QTH.

I had hoped to make a QSO on top band with my 40m inverted V and 100 watts (pushing it, I know) but the band was in awful shape. 40 metres was a bit of a struggle, particularly on Saturday night but improved somewhat on Sunday night. 80 metres was very enjoyable, I even had a couple of pile-ups going after someone spotted me on the cluster.

Anyway, it just goes to show that contesting is not just for power lids!! It can be an enjoyable pursuit. ARRL DX is a good way to notch up your states. Look out for the phone portion of the contest on March 3rd and 4th. Polish off those microphones!!!  See more details here: http://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx

Let's have a little game - guess the rig

OK, that's all I'm giving you. It should be enough for those of you who are familiar with the various makes and models of transceivers to guess first time. But just one caveat - I want the exact model !!!!!!!!!!! Answers can be left as a comment below. Good luck. By the way, there is no cash prize HI HI . . .

Two brand new DXCC today - Somalia and Rodriguez Island

This photo was taken immediately after I worked 3B9/OE4AAC on 17m CW showing the split.

A ham friend of mine remarked to me, just yesterday, in an email, "You should start trying for Somalia 6O3A . . . I bet you will work him". Well, the opportunity to try working Somalia presented itself today, so I gave it a bash. After a good time trying, on 17m CW, I finally heard that magic code coming through the headphones . . . "EI2KC 5NN". Well I was completely overjoyed. Somalia is the 40th most wanted DXCC (out of a total of 343) and because of the terrible situation in that country it is very difficult to activate. I watched a TV programme about Somalian pirates one time. The whole country is one big mess. It's devastated. Hardly anyone has running water or electricity. But that didn't deter Darko J28AA from going there and activating this rare one. And I, for one, am so glad he did.

This evening, I saw 3B9/OE4AAC spotted on 17m CW. I had been trying him on 30m CW this morning without success. But this time he was on 17m, so I swung the MA5B minibeam towards him and could hear him. I figured out that he was listening roughly 1-2 KCs up, so I worked hard to keep up with where he was listening. After about 10 minutes I heard him working a station on 18.079.2 so I called him there and out of the noise I could hear "2KC 5NN" so I gave my call again, "R R DE EI2KC 5NN 5NN TU" and he came back "EI2KC 5NN TU". Yeesss!!!! Two brand new DXCC in one day. Not bad at all.