Nice surprice in JA pile-up

When condition is good on high bands ? When Japan is workable on 28Mhz in EI in the morning. Seen spots from Japan yesterday decided to give a try today. Great signals noticed. Several stations from Japan and Asiatic Russia logged this morning. I had great pile-up from Japanese station and had to managed simplex frequency as another EI station was nearby - Eric EI4KF was up1 from my QRG ... Did kind of split operation ... I was able worked stations up 0.20 and down 0.20 ... Great surprise showed-up in the pile-up .... ZL3JT Duncan gave me a call! It was first time when I worked ZL on 28Mhz CW and my first ZL on 10M from my QTH. I had only one QSO with New Zealand ZL4PLM worked from EI0PL contest station. Duncan send me an e-mail shortly after QSO with info that he was calling me via L/P :) I had my antenna pointed into Japan so it was S/P to New Zealand ... God only knows how this signal went across the Globe. I had to go QRT before 9:00 local time when heard last call on my frequency. It was another ZL station! ZL1BYG ... logged ... but signal was tiny ... Was not sure 100% about call-sign. And Duncan ZL3JT helped .... it was ZL1BYZ John .... Great QSOs!

Annobon 2104 3C0BYP

Elmo EA5BYP is active now from Annobon Island as 3C0BYP. Rare DXCC and pile-up is guaranteed. He is active now on 28Mhz and 14Mhz SSB. I don`t know if he will be active on CW.... anyway .... I need Annobon on few bands. Last time I`ve worked Annobon in 2012 it was 3C0E. Good Luck.

Rapa Nui - Easter Island - QRV again

I remember days when I was chasing Easter Island on 11m. I was in Poland and Easter Island was DX like a dream. 2 or 3 hours difference between EI and SP is a lot. Especially from that direction. At the moment I have Easter Island worked on 7 bands and always Rapa Nui is welcome in my log as rare location and place to visit some day. At the moment Oliver W6NV is active as CE0/W6NV and I had contact with him on 21Mhz CW. Recorded his signal as well.

DXing at EI0PL

EI0PL - 1`st tower 40/20/15/10

Yesterday had big pleasure to chase some DX on the bands on EI0PL Club station. Condition wasn`t good but no bad either. Some CQ mainly on CW and bit on SSB on few bands , focus on 17/12

I did 250 QSOs. Great fun. 100W and good antennas. No DX-Pedition now to chase but there is always someone to give you new slot / country on some bands. And ...

Vanuatu on 30m - by VJ0ZZ done as new country on 30M

Bermuda by VP9/M0VFC - New on 17M

Potugal CT1BOH - New on 17M

Gabon by TR8CA - New on 17M

plus

4 new USA States on 17m as well.

FT5ZM Amsterdam 80M QSO fixed ....

FT5ZM T-shirt

Good news. My busted QSO with FT5ZM on 80M fixed now ...Thanks Dean N7XG who is dealing with all log book queries now. Thanks for your time Dean! 

Dublin Radio Rally

Last Sunday EI0PL Members had a table at Phoenix Amateur Radio Rally in Coolmine , Dublin. Myself and Adam EI5JQ been there. We had two SP7IDX Hexbeam ordered by two EI stations ready for collection. Few bits and pieces for sale as well. QSL from our IOTA DX-pedition and some Hexbeam leaflets. We had great time at the Dublin Rally.

Chasing Amsterdam on low bands .....

Just few words about chasing FT5ZM Amsterdam Island on low bands .... To be honest I didn`t believed that it will be possible. First week not much attention from my side. I was concentrated to catch them on high bands first ATNO (at new one) ..... SWL`ed them few times on 80m but signal was very low and pile-up massive as usual. One night condition on 80m was great , but they went on Top Band ... just to be back on 3.5 at their sunrise for North America only. That situation happened for me few times. When they had best signal on 80m here .... NA only was called .... Finally managed QSO last Saturday on 80M. But next day when they uploaded log into Clublog .... my call was not there on 80M. I was 99% sure I`ve got 599 back but .... they logged me as EI2KC. I was on the phone with Tony EI2KC and he wasn`t at home that night , and he did not work them on 3.5Mhz ... So will see, maybe they will fix that entry in their log.
Last Sunday for example condition on Top Band was best ever I was SWL`ed them on 160M! Uff ... that was something. Adam EI5JQ managed QSO with them on TB as 2`nd station from EI. Next day I went to his QTH to give a try on inverted L on 160M .... no luck .... no condition .... I have no big experience on low bands, they can be fussy as well as high bands.

American Samoa confirmed.

KH8/WD5COV QSL Card

American Samoa confirmed at last! W8A received on LoTW (still no QSL card) and KH8/WD5COV arrived by post. 299 DXCC now confirmed on HF. 

Just ordered my 300`th one! FT5ZM OQRS is open now. 7USD for QSL card from Amsterdam Island ??? Not too bad for rare location like FT/Z

Already sent them some more for great DX-Pedition!

Look for TO7CC Reunion Island

Reunion Island is not Most Wanted DXCC but for some reasons a lot of band slots has to be worked. I have Reunion Island confirmed only on 10m band. Now will be great opportunity to work some more.
TO7CC is now QRV on the bands. Pleasure to work F6KOP Team as they are doing always fantastic performance on the Air. Two EI stations are members of the Team. EI5GM Jerremy and EI9FBB Dave. Here is recording from 24Mhz SSB operated by EI9FBB Dave. Great QSO and new DXCC on 12M. Looking forward for some more. Good Luck and enjoy!

Radio Arcala Extremes Surprise

Nice surprise received by post from Finland. Ordered only latest South Sudan QSL Card Z81X by Radio Arcala Extremes and received big envelope from Suomi Freinds ....




 Beautiful cards, nice to have them in my collection. Many thanks for your efforts. See you on the bands soon!

Marshall Islands with dipole!

DJ2EH Dieter is now QRV as V73DL from Marshall Islands. Had a pleasure to SWL his signal for first time on 30m today at around 12:00. Bit too late for EU or too soon on 30m but .... my 30M dipole is now fixed after antenna coax been eaten by rat , decided to give a try! My 30M dipole is well located to work Pacific so why not? Pile-up massive. I went in the middle of pile-up and .... soon Marshall Islands on 10Mhz worked as new DXCC on my favourite band! Thanks Dieter!

Damage done not by the storm!

RG8 Mini Coax damaged by rat

Every week Ireland is battered by heavy storm. My dipoles are hanging on the trees and dancing with the trees on the wind. On Monday discovered high SWR on my 30m dipole ..... I was thinking maybe wind did damage. Had a chance yesterday to have a look. Took my antenna down , everything looks fine ... if not the antenna then what ? Balun or coax. Coax is easier to check. 35 meters of RG8 mini .... Found it! Found damage done not my the storm! Done by RAT! ..... I don`t have spare coax at the moment. I had to use ADAPTOR - SO-239 DOUBLE BARREL to fix the damage.

Long awaited Amsterdam on 30M sorted!

Great success on 30M! Sunday night. After several attempts , hours waiting for my time , FT5ZM Amsterdam Island logged on 10Mhz! Great signal was so small , my dipole is weak for that direction , South - East is covered by buildings and hill and nothing better I can do .... but patience is for free .... plus some DX-Hunting skills as well ;) FT5ZM best signal on 30M has always aroung 16:00-17:00 UTC , real 559 in my location. But was almost impossible to break the east and south EU wall. Their Sunset is about 00:00 UTC , SWL` them on 30Mhz at 2:00 AM as well. In the evening amount of people making QRM on their QRG is massive. Is not a hobby any more.
Finally , last Sunday , time to go to bed soon. Work tomorrow. Last things sorted. Radio is on on their operating frequency. W3LPL robot skimmer is NOT SPOTTING FT5ZM on DX Cluster - UFF , half of the World is trying to work them on 14Mhz RTTY and here we go.... small, tiny signal FT5ZM, FT5ZM , FT5ZM .... without CQ without UP. But I knew it where to go to work them. UP 1.8 set and here we go ..... EI9KC EI9KC ..... received KC 599 , I was no sure , one more shot and reply was clear EI9KC EI9KC 599 73 EE! Happy days! Amsterdam on 30m in my log!

That night Ireland was battered by another storm , my dipole on 30M is damaged , must check soon what is wrong. Did great job for me. Has to be fixed!