CQWW CW @ EI1Y

CQWW CW EI1Y 2015

Read the feedback by K1CC on 3830.com 

Warming up before CQWW CQ

EI0PL

Next weekend biggest contest in 2015 for me. CQWW CW

I will be a member of EI1Y this year.

I had good opportunity to visit EI0PL and check condition on the bands , what to expect from where , etc. It was also pleasure to chase some DX!

1) VK9WA Willis Island ....

VK9WA 

Already in the log on few bands but it will be good time to try some more. Plan was to get 20/40 in the log and maybe ... maybe 10.

20M was tricky SSB QSO on noise level not sure 100% if went OK.

Had moment to make sure that 20M will be logged on RTTY later on. Narrow split 1-3 makes it hard to work. 

10M CW was open for a short period via SP and later via LP but no luck at all. Today for example not a peep on 28Mhz

40M - Moxon was winded down because of high winds so it wasn`t good to use. Yesterday was first day when could go higher to work some DX. And .... did Willis at 3PM during daylight with lovely 5/9 , VK9WA was stronger than DQRM from EU. Here is a video how strong they were in EI shortly after my QSO

VK9WA on 40M daylight in EI

80M! Yes 80M! It was absolutely amazing what happened! Left radio on their QRG , switched RX to JAPANESE beverage and went doing some other things in the shack. Then received 5NN , what ? 

It is Willis on 80! Wow ... it was hard on the beginning. Bang on on our sunset which is 16:20 at the moment. Great signal was getting even stronger. First QSO done but wasn`t sure if went 100% .30 minutes later much stronger signal and few callers and EI9KC , EI9KC 5NN on 80M sorted!

Here is how beautiful , clear their signal was on 80M yesterday. RX on beverage. Also what I must say was.... discipline! I was able to hear them on 3524 for about 3h and station wasn`t spotted on DX Cluster! Some great DXers were calling him and went into their log. This is difficult path for EI on low bands so more than happy to have Willis on 80.

2) 9G5XA Ghana

9G5XA Ghana

Ghana is very rare DXCC from Africa in my log and 9G5XA Alan (G3XAQ) is now active from this country. The thing is ... to log him on the bands you have to be QUICK. For same reasons when Alan is spotted very goes QRT soon. I was chasing him on the bands and happy to have 15M in the log as new DXCC on this bands and 20M and 17M when QSL from Ghana is still needed. I had QSO with Alan from Ghana in 2011 on 28Mhz confirmed via LoTW so fingers crossed that this time his QSL Manager G3SWH will use LoTW again.

3) S79C new IOTA from Africa AF-119

Coetivy Island AF-119 was announced as a NEW IOTA in July 2014, during the 50th Anniversary IOTA Convention in Windsor, England. (info from their website) and one of the Best DXers in EI , Dave EI9FBB is leading DXpedition S79C to activate this IOTA for the first time.

Had pleasure to make few QSOs with them, top DXers on the AF-119

S79C -EA3NT - 21Mhz SSB


S79C - SP5APW - 18Mhz SSB

And here is Dave EI9FBB on 28Mhz SSB


Thank you for this IOTA! It will be hard to hear this Island anytime soon.

BTW I have nice souvenir from Dave which is in use every day:

S79C AF-119 souvenir

4) JAPAN on TOP BAND !!!!

Yes , I did it , finally :) K index 0. Bands clear and very "sharp"

JA SR at 21:33 our time

SWL few JAs on 80M, decied to give a try on TB. 160M is a tricky one and good experience is need to get 100 DXCC in the log. Good RX antennas is a must. 

Started calling CQ on JA portion of the band and after few CQ DX I was spotted on DX Cluster by RW3XW. Thank you Igor for that , appreciate very much because just after his spot lovely JA signal came back after my DX PSE K

JA7NI - Kunikazu from Akita in Japan gave me a call. Lovely 559 confirmed and logged my first Japan on Top Band.

I was able to log two more stations from Japan that night:

JA4LKB Shigeru

and

JH4AAG Yuichi

It was great day at EI0PL , great warming up to chase some MULTS during CQWW CW next weekend!

Willis Island New DXCC in the log !!!

VK9DWX Willis Island DXpedition 2008 QSL card.

This is when I`ve heard about this DXCC for the first time by looking at this beautiful card

But VK9DWX is a history now. Island wasn`t activated since ...

Demand for Willis is big. Ranked 32 Most Wanted DXCC by Clublog

Willis Island - North Cay

Willis Islets map

Now thanks to VK9WA we have Willis Islets on the air!

VK9WA Willis Island 2015 is operating from Middle Islet.

Location very similar to TX3X Chesterfield Island DXpedition 2015 which was very hard to work from Western Europe ! How will be with Willis then ?

GREAT! 

2`nd day of operation and I`m happy to have VK9WA on 4 bands !!! and two emissions ....

UFF!

Every QSO is a separate story to tell:

Lets start

1) 17M CW - Yesterday , late in the morning they started on 30CW and 20SSB 

Hexebam is low because of high winds and stormy weather , decided to put it up for a short time only ... on 20M very weak , 30M is ok but not the best moment to try .... then .... discovered CQ CQ from VK9WA on 17M CW ... hurry ... not spotted ... few station already calling him. One by one , up1 , still no spot on DX Cluster ! Robot W3LPL wasn`t able to send his spam on DX Cluster , great ,,, QSO with EW station and after that .... EI9KC 5NN !!!! Wasn`t sure 100% but WFWL ... Opeartor on the other side was "slow" on CW and he was keying by hand ... few hours later first log upload on Clublog I`m in !!! QSO with Jared N7SMI Co-Team leader!

2) 15M CW - Sunday - Massive EU pile-up , up 1 to 15 totally packed , like Navassa ... very hard to find split or system what Operator on the other side is running ,,, finally after long battle discovered what is what and EI9KC 5NN , sorted ! Uff !

3) Missed short opening on 10M in Ireland today , SWL them 5/3 but strong winds didn`t let me do more ... Weak signal on 12M CW , lets give a try ! Pile-up not that big like on 15M but on 12M 50% of callers are not possible to hear .... so to discover split preferences will be much harder. But hold on yes ... I can "see" many stations calling him up 10-12 on CW with nice 5NN. I was trying too ... QRX 10MIN .... small break for coffee and here we go again ... CQ CQ VK9WA VK9WA  up .... no callers ! But up 1 to up 5 packed with massive pile-up ... still CQ CQ VK9WA VK9WA ...UP ... one station went trough 5NN ... hello ! He is listening up 10!!! After few attempts magic EI9KC 5NN received ! Not an easy one but very lucky for sure.

4) QSO on 17M SSB was easiest .... one call ... Operator on the other side was calling up 5-15 but he was listening up 20 from time to time :)

5) No luck on 20M SSB , signal fair enough , readable but on their QRG 14.190 was big radar noise. Some kind of digital emission causing much difficulties to copy them correctly ... Not many callers but no joy .... 40M CW lovely signal but ... NA only ... so deiced to wait for good moment on 30M CW. Massive signal in the afternoon here but NA/SA only .... 1h later EU/AF .... let`s try .... pile-up MASSIVE up 1 to up 10 solid wall , no ideas how Operator on the other side is working pile-up ... took me 1h to discover his style ... FIND THE GAP! It was the answer ... no way to call on the same or similar QRG where 5NN was copied ... Last QSO for today sorted when EI9KC 5NN went back few times , yes few times beacause DQRM were horrible .... 

VK9WA Willis Island 2015

That was it ! I will try later this week for 20M maybe 40 and 10 ... 

Many thanks VK9WA Team for great thrill by being there on Willis for us.

Missed new DXCC

St Brandon - Mauritius

3B8FA Pat was active from St Brandon as 3B7FA.

AGALEGA & ST BRANDON ISLANDS

Number 46 Most Wanted DXCC

He was mostly active in PSK63 mode ....

Congratulations to all who made QSO with him.

This is one of the few DXCC I`ve missed on the bands.

Previously not worked: CENTRAL KIRIBATI and MACQUARIE ISLAND

I hope some DX-pedition Group will make plans to go there

on St. Brandon or Agalega soon as there is huge demand for this entity.

One person DX man is also welcome.

Chad on 40M

TT8AMO

After several nights SWLing Pierre TT8AMO on 40M in the evening time 

today finally logged Chad on 40M as new DXCC on this band!

Pierre HB9AMO is QRV holidays style activity from various locations in Chad.

This time his QTH (info from his website) was Mao, North of Lake Chad. Using a Codan broadband antenna up 10 meters. No city power, running on generator. Mainly evening activity. 

Thanks Pierre! I wasn`t sure if you called me before your signal was up and down and DQRM didn`t help either.

Anyway Chad on 40M in the log using simple windom antenna.