Great conditions on 20 metres

Conditions were absolutely fantastic on 20 metres over the weekend. On Saturday night at around 8pm I turned the beam towards the northeast and started calling for Asia and Pacific. Within a few moments I had a station from Taiwan calling me with a big 59 signal. Over the next hour I worked several Asian and Oceanic stations, including two from New Zealand, two from Australia, one from Indonesia, one from India, and one from Hong Kong! What a great delight to hear these far-off places at night time!

The weekend also brought a few other nice contacts, including two QSOs with 3D2SE in Fiji, one on 20m CW and one on 17m CW. I noticed that my QSO with 5W0M in Samoa on 15m CW was not in their online log, so I worked them again on that slot.

A few other nice ones from the weekend:

C98RF Mozambique - 20m CW - new country on that band
S79VJG Seychelles - 20m SSB - new band slot
EP3MJ Iran - 20m SSB
FY4PR French Guyana - 20m SSB - new slot
D44BS Cape Verde - 17m SSB - new country on that band

VK9CZ Cocos Keeling Islands on 17m SSB

This is a short video showing VK9CZ, currently operating from Cocos Keeling Islands, on 17m SSB. As you can see, this was shot at 7.44pm local time. This small dxpedition has been workable both in the mornings and the evenings from Ireland. I have already nabbed them on four slots, which I am delighted with.  I have yet to work VK9-C on 10 metres, so here's hoping!

Two new DXCC in 24 hours

The higher your DXCC count, the harder it is to work new ones. At 285, I imagine things are going to get a lot more difficult at the shack of EI2KC from now on. However, the past 24 hours has bucked the trend, because I worked not one, but two new DXCCs in that period.

Yesterday morning, while unsuccessfully trying to bag H40T on 30m CW, I QSYed down the band to find XR0YG (Easter Island) and could hear them so I decided to give it a go. A short time later, I heard that beautiful music wafting through the ether "EI2KC 5NN". That was DXCC #286 for me.

A screen shot showing my XR0YG and T2GM confirmations on LoTW

This morning, I got a text message from another ham friend at 6.45am saying "H40T on 7015, up 2, gud sig".  So I got straight out of bed and headed down to the shack, putting the equipment on (and the kettle) while still getting dressed!! Sure enough, I could hear H40T on that QRG, and could hear that he was working around two to three KCs up.

With the linear warmed up, I hit the ground running. At 7.06am, I heard "KC 5NN" but did not respond in case it wasn't me. A second later I heard "EI2KC 5NN" so I have him "RR EI2KC 5NN TU" and I had DXCC #287 in the log. What a great pleasure!! I was the last one in the log before they went QRX/QRT. They disappeared off 30m CW a few minutes later shortly after I started trying them there.

I am both astonished and delighted to see that XR0YG has already confirmed our QSO yesterday on ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW). Really impressed with that. I also have confirmation of my first QSO with T2GM Tuvalu on 30m CW, and am awaiting two further confirmations for 20m and 17m.

Anyway, two new ones in 24 hours is a rare achievement these days. I will try the XR0YG dxpedition on other bands if I get the chance but I have a busy weekend ahead and may not get anywhere near the radios...

Video: Smashing signals from Spratly

This is a short video showing the signal strength of 9M4SLL, the Spratly Islands dxpedition, on 17 metres CW today. Excellent propagation on the bands. That was somewhat dampened later by the arrival of a CME to earth and a consequent rise in the K index. There were aurora reports further north. Lots of Irish hams have been working Spratly on different bands, filling out slots. What a great signal !

Some nice confirmations via Logbook of the World

You know the old saying about buses in Dublin. You wait ages for one, and then two come along at once! That might have been the case with my Logbook of the World confirmations when I logged in yesterday to find a rake of nice QSLs waiting for me. Here is a summary:

9M4SLL - Spratly Islands - four slots confirmed, the best one by far being 80m CW!
KL1V - Alaska - 30m CW - worked on Tuesday last as a brand new one on that band!
9X0NH - Rwanda - 30m/17m CW - two confirmations from this rare African country.
PJ2/K8ND - Curacao - 17m/10m CW - two new slots confirmed.
T30PY - Western Kiribati - two bands confirmed for this rare DXCC.
J38A - Grenada - 80m CW - a new country confirmed on 80 metres.
4A4A - Revilla Gigedo - confirmation of two slots from a March 2011 dxpedition.
T6MO - Afghanistan - a new QSL for 80m. He was a new DXCC on that band.
TZ6BB - Mali - 17m CW. New slot confirmed.

A great weekend on the bands

What a great weekend on the bands! It was raining here all day Saturday so it was a day for the shack. The Clipperton Island dxpedition was winding up by Saturday so it was tough going getting more slots. But I managed 10 metres SSB (finally, after an hour and a half of QSB and much QRM) and later in the night I got 20m RTTY to bring my total number of band slots up to 14. That far exceeded any expectations I had. It was a real delight to work them on every band from 80m through 10m.

The Progress window of my logging program showing my TX5K slots.

It was one highlight of a great weekend on the bands, the rest of which is briefly outlined here:

5W0W - Samoa - 20m SSB - made it through a huge pile-up by numbers
WL7E - Alaska - 17m SSB - a great contact through a huge EU pile
H44G - Solomon Islands - 20m CW - strong signals for a short time here and I was in the log after a few minutes
VR2KF - Hong Kong - 17m CW - new band slot
A92IO - Bahrain - Dave gave me a new band when he heard me on 20m CW
XW0ZJZ - Laos - 20m CW at 19:37 local time. Great signal for that time of night
VE7SNC - British Columia - 17m SSB
KL2YV - Alaska - 20m SSB my second contact with Alaska this weekend. Took longer but gave me a new slot
T6MO - Afghanistan - 80m CW. Saw this one on the reverse beacon and jumped at it before he was spotted on the clusters. New country on 80m!
V47JA - St. Kitts & St. Nevis - 40m SSB - new band slot. Worked first call with 400w and my Butternut vertical.
HP1/IZ6BRN - Panama - 20m CW
H44G - Solomon Islands - 15m CW. New country on 15 metres! Again big signal. Only took a few calls. He went QRT just after he logged me
DU1EV - Philippines - 15m SSB. Working a 1khz split, which is a bit unorthodox, but got him when he called #2s.
XW0ZJZ - Laos - 17m CW - new country on 17 metres !!
KL3IH - Alaska - 20m SSB - Alaska is rare and difficult to work but this was my third contact into Alaska over the weekend!! He had a huge pile-up but I waited until propagation dropped and EU quietened down.
V73NS - Marshall Islands - 20m CW - another huge thrill was working Neil on only my second band slot ever for this DXCC!!
9M4SLL - Spratly - 30m CW
J88DR - St Vincent - 30m CW
HS0ZEE - Thailand - 30m CW - new country on 30m!

Here are my totals on the bands (worked/confirmed)
160m:  66/51
80m: 128/104
40m: 187/140
30m: 197/142
20m: 250/190
17m: 250/172
15m: 235/149
12m: 221/153
10m: 214/153

Total: 285/256

Great signals coming from Clipperton Island

Above are two videos showing the signal strength from TX5K Clipperton on 15m CW and 30m CW here on my hexbeam and my inverted v. Incredible stuff. The first video was takenlast night after 9.30pm local time, while the 30m video was 9.24am this morning. Really great signals from Clipperton and they're proving quite workable here in EI.