EI9KC/P - EJ9KC

Stay tunned for portable operation of EI9KC/P or EJ9KC from offshore islands in Ireland next days. I`m on holidays now. But first EJ0PL for RSGB Iota Contest 2011! See you on the Air!

ST0R - South Sudan

New country South Sudan DX-pedition is active now on the bands. Massive pile-up everywhere. I`m trying 3 days now without luck. When Western Europe had best signal from them around evening hours they calling NA only for 4 hours. Very bad DX managment traffic. Disappointed very much so far.

A QSO with a heart of Africa

Last few days I`ve been watching for 9Q/DKSMO Otto operating from Democratic Republic of Congo. Great tools to watch any DX by call-sign is a widget from DXWATCH.COM , here is my widget for Otto:

I was waiting for Otto on 17m today, I had my radio on 18.069 .... when he appeared on 15m. Wasn`t busy at all. He was working few DL stations and I gave him a call. New one DXCC in my HF collection! On 21Mhz his favorite freq is 21.010 +/- / On 17m 18.069Mhz this is old school of DXing, be on the frequency before pile-up gets heavy ;)

CY0 QSL

Wonderful 4 pages QSL card today in my box! K8LEE/CY0 , beautiful design by SQ8X and kiss-print by WZ8P. Sable Island confirmed! Many thanks Randy N0TG!

Rare DXCC confirmed lately on LoTW

Great QSL confirmation on Logbook of The World received last few days:

1. CY0/K8LEE - Sable Island
2. PP0T - TRINDADE & MARTIM VAZ ISLANDS
3. S9DX - SAO TOME & PRINCIPE

Sable Island and Trindade are Brand New for me! PP0T on 15 and 20m , CY0 on 17m - only ... only ? I had a QSO on 20m as well! When I didn`t get my QSL for 20m from CY0/K8LEE I had to write an e-mail to Randy N0TG and ask him about my QSO with Wayne K8LEE/CY0 on 20m. Randy reply very fast to me that my call-sign was entered in error. I was logged as EI8KC. And he told me that he will re-send paper QSL to me with 17m and 20m for CY0.

IARU HF Contest 2011

Few words after my first IARU HF Contest ....
Good fun it was I must say. A had plenty of time to enjoy radio during 24h for contest. Not many QSOs made but interesting ones. Most productive was 21Mhz where 9 new DXCC worked!
Summary:
New DXCC: 160m (+1) / 80m (+2) / 40 (+2) / 15m (+9) / 10m (+1)
QSOs: 152
A lot of HQ stations worked. Best result with SN0HQ worked on 9 of 12 band slots. Very useful was their map with all the freq. When there was no spots on cluster was easy to locate SN0HQ!
I`ve logged also EI0HQ on 4 band slots. Thos EJ2JD invited me to take a part for this activation. I hope next year! Good experience this IARU HF competition was!

Jan Mayen

JX5O DX Pedition just started! Long expected DXCC from EU. Never worked before! And today I`m lucky logged them on 20m SSB and CW. Jan Mayen for first time!

 

100 DXCC on 17m

Last night FP/VA2WA Victor gave me new one in CW and today 2`nd contact with him, this time on 17m and this is my 100DXCC worked on 18Mhz! Many thanks Victor!

2 new DXCC worked CW

1. 6Y5WJ Josh from Jamaica. Worked on 17m. See my prevoius post about Josh here. Thanks Josh for 2-way QSO this time hi hi! 
2. FP/VA2WA Victor is transmiting from St.Pierre et Miquelon. Logged on 30m. Not new DXCC, not new on 30m but new in CW for sure!

Fernando de Noronha

New DXCC worked today on the bands! I`m happy to put Fernando de Noronha in my log twice today! First QSO on 17m and 2`nd on 15m CW. This archipelago located 354km offshore from the Brazilian coast on Atlantic Ocean is my 220th country worked on HF. The station is PY0FO operated by PY2FN Marcelo. 

Antenna tuner adjustment in my radio.

Few days ago I`ve spotted some losses in the transmission from my RTX. I didn`t know what is the problem and finnaly discovered that my antenna tunner is not working propelly. I had to do a master (hard) reset and calibrate tunner with dummy load. I needed Service Manual from Icom (not supplied with the radio) and some advise from a friend of mine. Adjustin done and tuner is back to operation!

ZD7XF on 80m !

Last night I had one of my best QSO! Saint Helena worked on 80m CW. Nigel ZD7XF started his operation on that band last Saturday. To be honest I had no hope for that band what's whoever! 40m was reachable much better. But I was trying .... my wimdom dipole is not working very well on 40m for some reasons SWR is not good .... few times when I was waiting for Nigel on 40m, he was calling CQ , I was only station on the frequency but he didn`t copy me .... On 80m I was calling him 5 days. Everynight he was around 22:00z on 3.503 but his signal was very low and pile-up was good as well. Last night his signal was much better on 80m. I was trying for 2 hours and after that when there was no one on the frequency he pick-up my call. I had to repeat few times , and then i RX 599 for EI9KC! Summary: I have 7 bands slots for Saint Helena by Nigel G3TXF! Great! On 40m Saint Helena is also in my log ... ZD7FT Peter worked last year and his paper QSL is in my collection.