Doing a little bit of JT65 over the weekend

When there's no big dxpeditions on and no particularly rare DX to be worked, sometimes it's nice to unwind with a bit of digital mode action. I personally like to do some PSK and occasionally some JT65 on such occasions. I find digi modes relaxing. I don't need the linear on and I can work at a fairly relaxed pace. Last night, I made a couple of QSOs on 80 metres using JT65 running just 15 watts. I was surprised at how quiet the band was. There was no DX on, but I didn't mind. Today, I was decoding JT65 on 20 metres and even made a QSO into Greece using the WSJT-X software. Here is a screen shot:

Earlier, I made a couple of ragchew QSOs on 10 metres CW, using 100 watts and my Antron 99 vertical. I had a chat with VE1DX, Paul in Halifax, and WA2DTW, Steve in Pennsylvania. I find that I can now ragchew on CW, and although I still miss words, I am much more comfortable than even a year ago.

South Georgia - so near and yet so far

Mike VP8CMH/GM0HCQ

Mike VP8CMH was active briefly from South Georgia Island yesterday evening as VP8SGK. He did, after all, manage to get to the island but his operation was extremely brief and, sadly, he chose 15 metres instead of 17 or 20, so there was no chance for EI. When I arrived home from work, I did briefly hear him. All I heard was "Victor Papa Eight" and then noise. I heard nobody calling him. He was working simplex. Several spots suggested Africa and Middle East were working him, but hardly any EU, and definitely no EI.

I had worked Mike as VP8CMH/MM on 17m CW and 20m CW over the previous evenings, and found him quite workable. Unfortunately when his brief moment on South Georgia finally came, he was on 15m. So that was an opportunity to work an All-Time New One that sadly didn't happen.

I worked him on Tuesday evening when the ship was moored alongside South Georgia. That's the irony of the situation. I know I could have worked him when he was on the island, but by the time he got there, 15 metres was closed to Europe.

Ah well. What can one do? It's another of the 31 remaining DXCC that I need that will have to wait for future activations. In the meantime, there are probably a few dozen people out there who have Mike in their log from VP8/G and are delighted. So well done to those who made it in.

And for those who didn't? Our day will come!

Galapagos Islands - all bands now worked!

Galapagos Islands.

Last night, I worked HC2AO/8 on 30 metres at a few seconds past midnight. This was the last band that I needed Galapagos Islands on. I first worked this DXCC in May 2013 and now have all HF bands from 10 metres through 80 metres worked. I still need 160 metres and 6 metres, but I have Galapagos on all the HF bands on which I am active.

The current operation from Galapagos is fantastic. HC2AO/8 alone has given me seven band slots. HC2OGT/8 and HC2AWT/8 have both given me a slot apiece. And HC2AO/8 has already confirmed a few of my slots via Logbook of the World. Happy days.

CQWW CW 2014 - a brief summary of DX contacts

I dipped in and out of CQWW CW 2014 over the weekend. I was not active and will not be submitting a log. However, as always, I find this contest fantastic for working new countries on bands and slots and that proved to be the case again. Here is a summary of the contest activity:

Four new DXCC on 80 metres: 9K Kuwait, A7 Qatar, VP9 Bermuda and XE Mexico.

7O2A Yemen (rare one) worked on three bands - 10, 20 and 40. New country on 40 metres!!! The 40 metre QSO was made near the end of the contest through an intense simplex pile-up. Here's a video taken immediately after my QSO when lots of contesters were still trying to work him:

9Y4/VE3EY Trinidad and Tobago, new country on 10 metres.

Three QSOs with VU4KV Andaman and Nicobar - two contest QSOs and one RTTY contact on 17 RTTY. New country on digimodes. They went QRT at the end of the contest!!

HC2AO/8 Galapagos - worked on 10m and 15m.

5K0A Providencia - 10m CW.

A few non-contest QSOs:

TG9AHM Guatemala - 12 metres SSB - new slot.
TG9IIN Guatemala - 10 metres SSB - new slot.
VP8CMH/MM Falklands - 17m CW.

And just to finish, here's a video showing the signal from 9K2HN on 80 metres. I had worked him just after the contest started, at 14 minutes past midnight on Saturday. This was his signal on Sunday:

Update: five new countries on 80 metres in two days!

There is an update to my previous post! Last night, I managed to work 8Q7DV in the Maldives on 80 metres CW, although it was a bit of a struggle to be honest. I was first logged as EI2EZ, due to the persistent callers who never listened and QRMed me despite repeated efforts to get my call through. Not satisfied with the busted call (and with some encouragement from EI6FR!) I decided to go at it again. It took me another hour to get in again, and in all that time the signal from 8Q7 was quite QSB, so it was fairly readable at times and then quite unreadable. Nevertheless, I finally got in with EI2KC this time.

I also worked OD5NJ in Lebanon on the same mode, and to my surprise I found that I didn't have Lebanon on that band. So in the space of less than two days, I have five new DXCC on 80 metres.

I'm delighted with how the inverted v is performing, despite all its shortcomings. The important thing is that it's resonant, and that makes a huge difference.

Three new countries on 80 metres in 24 hours

I'm delighted to see that winter propagation is good on 80 metres. I've worked three new countries on that band in the space of 24 hours.

Yesterday morning I worked VP2EIM Anguilla on 80 cw.
Last night, to my great delight and with not much effort, I worked VU4KV Nicobar, also on 80 cw, battling against an EU pile.
And just now, this morning, I worked HC2AO/8 on 80 metres cw. You can see his signal strength in the video below. He was struggling to hear EU because of QRN and as soon as I stopped making this video he disappeared from the QRG. Lucky me!!

FT4TA Tromelin dxpedition is QRT. My thoughts

Members of the FT4TA team in action.

The FT4TA Tromelin mini dxpedition (I have to call it that, because there were only seven ops) finished on Sunday night, November 9th. I am glad to say that I have at least eight slots with them, with a possibility of two or three more. I reckon I have only the slimmest chance of being in their log on 30 cw. They were very weak and there was a lot of QRM. It might not have been my callsign that I heard. Time will tell. They have not uploaded the last three days' logs due to lack of internet on Tromelin, and are planning to do a final upload some time today (Monday) from Mayotte. As I said, time will tell!! I definitely worked someone using the callsign FT4TA on 15m CW, but a few of us who worked them on Thursday are not in the log. Is there a log missing, or was it a slim? There was also a 20m CW QSO that I am not entirely certain about, but I'm keeping the fingers crossed.

This was a tough dxpedition to work. Part of the reason for this is because they were a small team - seven ops running four stations. They managed over 70,000 QSOs in ten days. Not bad. Conditions for them were very challenging. When they tried to work North America only, the EU jammers would start causing deliberate QRM (DQRM). Mind you, the DQRM was there at many times when they weren't working NA/SA only, including the now famous (or infamous) EAHSYL, whoever that is. I doubt that they are even based in Spain, but their efforts to send what might be EA5SYL never work because they send four dits (a H) instead of five (a 5).

I am very, very glad to have been at the radio on two weekdays during this activation. I had a week's holiday and was in the lucky position to be able to call them on their first day of operation. Indeed, after just a short time trying on 10 metres SSB, I worked them on that Friday morning using my trusty Antron 99 antenna, a fibreglass vertical antenna that is also used by many 27 Mhz CB operators around the world. I worked FT4TA on a +39 Khz split. Amazing stuff. I also managed a QSO on 17 metres SSB that evening, meaning I had them in the log twice on their first day. But then the weekend came, and all hell broke loose. The pile-ups grew massively. The CW pile-ups were 25 Khz wide. The SSB pile-ups, in some cases, were 50 Khz wide. All the weekday workers were playing radio for the weekend, and it became almost impossible to get a QSO. By the most extraordinary luck, they QSYd from 20 metres SSB to 20m RTTY, and I called them before there was a big pile-up. I managed a QSO at 00:40 (twenty minutes to one in the morning) on Sunday morning, November 2nd. Happy days. Now I had three slots and two modes - SSB and RTTY.

I was fully sure that the pile-ups would start to settle down as we went into the Monday, but they didn't. The intensity of the piles remained, all through the week, right up until the moment they went QRT. This eighth-most-wanted DXCC, a small island in the Indian Ocean of Madagascar, was in huge demand around the globe. In fairness to the FT4TA team, they did make an effort to work different areas of the world. After spending the whole of each of the first few mornings working EU, they would then ask for NA/SA only in the afternoon. Incredibly, European operators started moaning about this on the clusters, asking such things as "why NA only" and suggesting that the Tromelin ops were favouring the US because that's where their sponsors were located!! And not a word about the fact that they had spent the whole morning working Europe only. There is an increasing belligerence among EU ops that I don't like. They want it all. They want to work the DX on the bands and slots that they need, without taking cognisance of the needs and aims of the dxpedition and other hams around the world. And when the dxpedition does something contrary to their wishes, they put up nasty comments on the cluster. It's clear that some hams need to grow up. And what about the usual request spots? Oh my god. If I see another "please 20m RTTY" or "Good time for EU 40 CW" etc etc, I will throw all my equipment in a skip and take up fishing. Do they think the dx ops are sitting there, in a shack in Tromelin, watching the cluster, wondering who wants what slot? I don't think so.

After the final log upload today, I find I have a total of nine slots, which is
fantastic. I am missing a 15 cw and 20 cw QSO. Who can complain?

I worked several more slots, including 10 CW, 17 CW and 12 SSB, all of which are in the log, but I will have to await the complete log update to see what my final tally is. I gave up chasing them at the weekend after they asked for slot chasers to stand by to allow people who needed it as an ATNO (All-Time New One) to call. But on Sunday night, I was informed that EI and G were working them on 20 SSB and as most of EU wasn't hearing them, I gave them a holler and bagged that slot too.

It's difficult to complain about a dxpedition. These are people who invest huge amounts of their own time and money to activate a rare DXCC for the benefit of the ham community. So I will keep my complaint very short. They kept disappearing from a band or slot without warning. Sometimes they would just say "QRX" and disappear for five minutes, or QSY somewhere else, or just disappear completely. This was bad operating, and very frustrating for the huge pile waiting to work them. However, given the small team and the huge demand for them, I sure understand why they would need regular breaks. They must have been exhausted.

It's wonderful to have this rare one in the log. In most cases, DXCC in the Indian Ocean are relatively easy to work from EI. But the intensity of the pile-ups and the unfortunate QRM and regular QRXing made this a difficult one to bag. Well done to the FT4TA team for seeing it through to the end. Remember, you can't keep all of the people happy all of the time. But you've certainly put a smile on the face of this operator!!!

Paul, VK4MA, has some very interesting thoughts also on the dxpedition.