Mount Athos by SV2RSG

SV2RSG Monk Iakovos

Warm welcome to new permanent Radio Operator SV2RSG Monk Iakovos from 16`th most wanted DXCC - Mount Athos

Had pleasure to make 2-way QSO with him today on 21Mhz CW. Which is nice surprise for my 2`nd ever QSO in CW with this entity. Location is "easy" from EU so the only thing to avoid big EU pile-up is to wait for best opening from his location and this is what I did today. To be honest Greece is always strong on higher bands and to make QSO is not difficult. 

On DX Cluster his call-sign can look like Greece but is Mount Athos! So keep an eye for SV2RSG.

His CW was slow at about 16 wpm but I hope Monk Iakovos will only get better. It was good to see him operating in split mode when it was necessary. 

CQ JA part II

Last night I had good fun with stations from JA worked on 14Mhz CW. Like last time, I was calling CQ JA on 14.037Mhz and JA8LRG gave me a call back. It was Fumihiko Sato from Sapporo. He put my station to cluster and then I`ve got big pile-up from Japan. As I`m still learning CW it was a bit stage fright for me ... Anyway .... last night 9 stations from Japan logged. Thank you for your patience Folks! I will try to do my best with CW and only real QSO let me it! Sayonara and see you soon on the bands JA!

CQ JA

Last night I was trying to work 5M2TT on 20m SSB and during calling them I heard few stations from Japan calling them as well. So ..... decided to do a call CQ JA on CW 14Mhz ..... after few calls CQ JA first station from Japan came to my call! JK3AGC and he put me on the cluster with cq JA! As I`m still learning CW it was good challenge to me! I`ve just worked 4 station from JA because I had to go QRT. Anyway .... great fun and night to remember!

HF happenings ....

March is always busy with family life here and I don`t have much time for radio. During some spare moments last weekend 3 new DXCC logged , 2 Brand NEW!

UK8FF Anvar from Uzbekistan (30m CW)

S21YZ DX pedition from Bangladesh (20m CW)

 V85SS  AMBRAN from BRUNEI (20m CW)

Bangladesh and Brunei are Brand New Ones!

This weekend I didn`t take a part in WPX_SSB Contest. I will try it with CW in May. To be honest I don`t like calling in SSB (too much noise hi hi :) CW this is the thing!  And I will be busy contesting next weekend for SPDX Contest.

Last minute news! Just worked (21:45 local time) S21YZ 2`nd time on 30m with dipole and 100W !!! Great signal, great Team, great propagation, good FUN!

West Malaysia

Interesting contact logged on 30m CW. 9M2TO from West Malaysia (10921.6 km from my QTH). Worked with dipole and 100W.

Zimbabwe

 

Fernando Z21BB is my newest DXCC on HF. Worked this morning CW on 28Mhz. Nice to see condition on 10m better these days like years ago on 11m.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands !

East part of the World is for some reason difficult to work from my location. Just few times herad VK and ZL. JA is also rare , all Far East. And today I was waiting about 1 hour for Cocos (Keeling) Islands to hear on 12m. Signal was building from 0 to workable. And is in my log now :) Wide split up 4.3 but worked. New country for me on HF. Cocos (Keeling) I have confirmed on 11m years ago. Nice one anyway! (12m CW) VK9C/G6AY

I`ve visited their website and they say: "..... VK9C/G6AY will be active on CW only......" This is also main reason why I had to learn CW. I`m not expert now, still leraning but have a lot of fun working in CW!

P.s. Patience .... it`s important to wait for right moment .... just worked them again on 20m CW! When I had a plan to turn antenna to West I`ve decided try. They were active for so long on 14Mhz and I had no hope to work them with 100W ... but I did!  Almost 5PM local time no bad Folks! Thanks for great Fun!