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.
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