VK9CS - Cocos-Keeling Island - in the log with 100 watts!

I am delighted to report that I just worked VK9CS on Cocos Keeling Island on 12m CW, using just 100 watts into my hexbeam. I had been trying him for about 20 minutes and he was weak, and of course I had to leave the shack, to drop one of the kids to preschool! When I came back 15 minutes later, the signal from VK9CS had gone up, peaking 579 at times.

I decided to work him with 100 watts while the linear was warming up. He came back 'EI2?' after my first call! I gave him the call twice and he came back 'EI2C?' and before long, I was in the log!

This is the same operator (JA1PBV) that gave me VK9XS, Christmas Island, within the past week. The hexbeam is working beautifully. I have nabbed FIVE new DXCC in a fortnight, all five of them in the Pacific/Oceania area. Brilliant. Really delighted.

Below is a video showing the signal from VK9CS just after I worked him.

A day in the life of EI2KC on the bands

As many of you will know, I was made redundant from my job as a newspaper editor over two months ago. In that time, I have been looking for a new job. While looking for a new job, I have also been trying to complete my next book, 'Newgrange - Monument to Immortality', which is being published next month.

The new hexbeam attached to the back wall of the shack. Also visible
are my Butternut vertical and the inverted Vs.

For a while I was relatively inactive on the bands, but have recently found, especially with the kids back at school, a bit of time for radio. Since the hexbeam went up here almost two weeks ago my hit rate with the DX has gone up dramatically.

To give you an idea what sort of DX I am working, I thought I would give you a run-down of the complete log for today, September 18th, 2012. I will exclude the three non-DX or non valuable QSOs in the log. Times are local

5W0QQ - Samoa - 20m SSB 08:26
AH0KY - Saipan/Northern Marianas - 15m SSB 10:56
JG8NQJ/JD1 - Minami Torishima - 17m CW - brand new DXCC! 11:25
AH0KY - Saipan/Northern Marianas - 17m SSB 12:57
KP2/K5WE - Virgin Islands - 20m CW 13:01
Z60K - Kosovo (but not a new entity yet) - 15m SSB, 15m CW, 20m CW, 17m CW 13:08-13:24
BH4IGO - China - 20m CW 15:18
P49T - Aruba - 15m SSB 15:44
JW9HH - Svalbard - 17m SSB 16:03
YB9/DJ7XJ - Indonesia - 20m CW 17:33
VK2DX - Australia - 40m CW 21:08
A92IO - Bahrain - 40m CW 21:11 - new band slot, thanks to EI3IO Dave!
VK7RF - Tasmania - 20m CW 21:25
JH3EUJ - Japan - 20m CW 21:40
JA6BJV - Japan - 20m CW 21:44
PY6AM - Brazil - 20m CW 21:46 (on the long path!)
VU2JOS - India - 20m CW 21:49
JA2IU - Japan - 20m CW 21:51
JA9BFM - Japan - 20m CW 21:55
VK7BO - Tasmania - 20m CW 21:58
T8XX - Belau - 30m CW 22:40 - new country on 30m!

Not bad for a day dipping in and out of the radio spectrum! I am particularly impressed with how the hexbeam is helping me to hear the weak Pacific stations that I might have found more difficult with the MA5B minibeam. I have worked four new DXCC in a week, all of them in the Pacific - VK9XS Christmas Island, V73NS Marshall Islands, JD1 Minami Torishima and 5W0XT/5W0QQ Samoa.

At least two, and possibly three, new DXCC today!

Despite suffering wind damage during a storm, the hexbeam was still proving its worth this morning when I pulled in two distant rare DX signals and nabbed the latest brace of DX entites for the EI2KC log. I saw VK9XS on Christmas Island spotted on 21 Mhz CW on the cluster. I sat on his QRG and could hear nothing. Not to be disappointed, I checked that the beam was pointing at him and then busied myself doing other things at the computer while still keeping an ear on the radio.

Marshall Islands, from where V73NS was transmitting
on 15m CW when I worked him as a new one.

A while later, I heard a weak CW signal coming up out of the noise. Pretty soon I could hear 'VK9XS UP', so I put the split on and tried to listen where he was working. It was difficult, because the pile was big and I wasn't hearing some of the Europeans he was coming back to. But eventually I had it bang on and pretty soon I heard 'EI?'. He had me as EI12KC initially but after a number of overs he came back with 'EI2KC 5NN' and I had a new DXCC in the log.

Less than 40 minutes later I started hearing V73NS from Marshall Islands, also on 15m CW, and gave him a call with 400 watts. He was very weak with a lot of QSB but pretty soon I was in his log too, making two new ones in less than an hour.

Also worked today with the hexbeam were VK8CAW (Australia) on 15m CW, DU3/N0QM (Philippines) on 15m cw, VK9XS (Christmas Island again) this time on 17m CW, and a couple of 9M2s, a couple of 9M6s and a DS4 in Korea. Nice!

I am grateful to Tony EI4DIB and Pat EI2HX for helping me make repairs to the hexbeam, and to Tony for his persistence in uncovering the cause of a fluctuating SWR. Thanks gents!!

Tonight there is a Z60K team on the air, from Kosovo. This is not a DXCC entity, at least not yet. I worked them on 20m SSB on the basis of 'work now, worry later'. If Kosovo becomes an entity any time soon, I will have it in the log!!

Delighted with NH8S Swains dxpedition results

The NH8S Swains Island dxpedition has gone QRT about three days earlier than expected. However, I am very happy with my results, having worked them on a total of nine band slots.

The 'league table' showing the top EIs in the NH8S log.

The last of those slots was on 15 metres SSB last night, but this morning I see my callsign is busted and I am listed as EI3KC. The result of this is that I appear to be in joint second place among the EIs who have worked NH8S, but in actual fact I should be joint first. I am not complaining though! I am extremely satisfied to have worked this rare and distant dx entity on so many slots.

My call was busted on 15 metres SSB.

The new hexbeam has certainly helped with that, and I managed two slots using the RTTY mode, one on 20m and one on 15m. I did not hear them on 40 metres at any stage, nor did I hear them on 12 metres, but only a couple of EI ops seem to have nabbed them on those bands so I am happy enough.

Below is a video showing how strong NH8S was on 20m SSB on my hexbeam a couple of mornings ago.

Swains in the log on 30m CW

I was the happiest ham alive this morning when, with all of Europe calling the NH8S Swains dxpedition, they picked my call out of the pile-up!! It took a while to work them. They were on 10.103, listening approx 3kc up, but I worked them 2.5 kc up. They kept calling "EI2 EI2" and of course I was QRMed but I just kept giving my call and eventually I heard EI2KC 5NN ! So I gave them 5NN and TU. So thrilled. I spent the rest of the morning with a smile on my face!!

I did not have time to make a video recording as I had to leave the kids to school. That was slot number four for me. They were strong for a while on 15m CW for a while in the middle of the day but I was not able to break the pile on that occasion. But I will keep trying for more slots . . .

The ups and downs of QSLing

One aspect of amateur radio which can be both rewarding and frustrating is the exchange of QSL cards. I get a lot of QSL requests in through the IRTS bureau. Having processed some 700-800 cards over the past number of months, I had the pleasure yesterday of sorting all the outgoing cards into continents and countries so I could send them to the outgoing manager. Above is a photo showing the sorted cards. It can take a number of hours to process each incoming bundle and fill out the return card and mark everything off in the log. This amount of cards probably took about five or six hours to process. It is a time consuming business!

On the slightly less frustrating side of the QSL bureau is when you get some nice cards incoming. Today I received 183 incoming cards from the bureau. There were quite a few from the 'usual suspects' including Germany/Sloevnia/Bulgaria etc., but some nice and unusual ones too. Above is a card from JD1BMH, Ogasawara Island, which would be a new DXCC confirmed. Also on left is DP1POL from Antarctica. Other highlights include ZD8W Ascension Island, 9M2TO West Malaysia, and a bunch of cards from Japan. Nice.

Down goes the MA5B . . . up goes the Hexbeam!

Yesterday, after a long time thinking about it, I finally decided to take down the MA5B minibeam in favour of a second hand hexbeam. Although the MA5B has served me very well, being my first beam and being a big improvement over the Butternut vertical in many cases, the gain figures for the hexbeam are better and those who have them swear by them.

The Hex Team! Thos EI2JD, Pat EI2HX, Anthony EI2KC
and Tony EI4DIB. What a crew!

So it was with mixed feelings that I finally decided to swap them. My antenna team swung into action here on Tuesday and consisted of Thos EI2JD, Pat EI2HX and Tony EI4DIB, without whose help it would never have happened.

I already had the arms and the stay ropes of the hexbeam assembled to move things on a little bit. Working in a very confined space with the hex was difficult, but we worked well as a team, ironing out the problems as we went along.

We discovered too, regrettably, that my old Moonraker rotator is kaput, and had to make the decision to erect the hexbeam on an armstrong rotator for the moment. (For non hams, this simply means the pole is manually rotated, using just the strength of one's arm!!)

The whole operation took about four hours, with tea breaks! It was a lovely sunny day which made it easier and we got to work on our sun tans too HI! The hexbeam is lighter than the MA5B, and without the weight of the rotator the new structure does not need stay wires.

Upon completion, we did the SWR test. SWR is flat across the 20m band, and is around 1.5 - 1.7 on 17m, 15m and 12m. It is a bit high, inexplicably, on 10m, but at 3:1 the ATU will tune it and also the Acom 1000 will handle it if needed.

Who's a happy boy then?

Although band conditions have not been great since it was erected, I worked a good bit of DX yesterday evening and last night, and was impressed with the many 59+ signals I was seeing on the FT-1000MP. Here is a summary of DX worked:

Japan 20m CW 400 watts

Asiatic Russia 20m CW 400w

Sumatra (YB4) 15m SSB 400w

India 15m CW 100w

Svalbard 17m SSB 100w

Swaziland 15m SSB 100w

Tanzania 10m SSB 400w - new country on 10m!!

Few Stateside QSOs on 15m CW 100w

Dominican Republic 15m SSB 100w

Peru 12m SSB 400w (new band slot)

Nicaragua 15m CW 400w

Gibraltar 17m SSB 100w

St Lucia 15m SSB 100w

Venezuela 17m CW 100w