Austral Islands !

When I`ve worked FO/KH0PR Yoshi from PUKAPUKA ISLAND / FRENCH POLYNESIA (OC-62) last week I knew it he is going to another islands soon. I was thinking it will be French Polynesia too. But it was not! His new QTH is RAIVAVAE ISLAND / AUSTRAL ISLANDS (OC-114). When I realized that it can be my NEW DXCC on HF I needed to plan something how to work him in just one day. Busy time at work now so no much time for radio. I asked Michal EI3KG:

- do you want to work new DXCC ?

- VK9NT ? Norflok Island ...

- Norfolk too but something special ...

-What ?

-Austral Islands !!!

- OMG! Where!?

When I was working Yoshi from OC-062 in French Polynesia (on 30 and 17) I remember he was not so strong .... 100W from Pacific Ocean is a challenge to work! You need good antenna to copy him. I had no choice and no time to wait if I can copy him from my shack. Decided to visit Michal EI3KG and one of the BEST antennas in EI for metric bands. 

Location on Austral Islands - French Polynesia

5:30AM in the morning ready to go! 6:00AM on the radio. We were waiting for him. In the mean time VK9NT Norfolk Islands spotted on 15mCW, signal was not so strong ... but we did it! For me new band. For Michal new DXCC! ... Then Galapagos HC2IWM/8 showed up on 30mCW. 40m Moxon Yagi is great but 30m can be tricky! Galapagos is "easy" from EI and it was! New DXCC on 30!

Then yes! FO/KH0PR from Austral Islands spotted on DX-Cluster! Where? 15m RTTY !!!

OMG! 

EI3KG is doing set-up for RTTY on IC-735 at his shack.

At the moment back up transceiver is at use. Old, good ICOM IC-735. How to operate RTTY on it? Can we copy him first? Yes we can! 4 el full size Yagi is great antenna! What then .... Michal EI3KG spend few minutes to set-up RTTY on his interface. We are not DIGI emission fans but ... NEW DXCC is NEW DXCC! No choice. Has to be RTTY! And it was!

ICOM IC-735 and USB micro KEYER II did a good job!

AUSTRAL ISLANDS (OC-114) logged on 15m RTTY as new DXCC early in the morning today!

On the end. One more surprise ... VK9NT worked on 20mSSB! As new on 20m and Phone.

Great morning on the radio! To remember!