V73D Marshall Islands

Majuro - Marshall Islands

Remote DX as Marshall Islands are always welcome in my log. At the moment V73D is QRV on the bands. German DX-pedition on Majuro IOTA OC-029.

I need Marshall Island on low bands and 12/10 M

In current condition high bands will be impossible .... maybe 12 like Niue E6GG ....

160/80 no possible from my side at the moment so focus on 30M to get QSL on LoTW.

I have QSO with V73DL confirmed by QSL card but not on LoTW.

Yesterday I had opportunity to log V73D on 30M twice.

Early in the morning on CW and late at night on RTTY.

RTTY QSO was very tricky as on their QRG was some CW beacon jamming 

making digi print very noisy. But done! This was a time when they had no pile-up at all.

About 75% QSOs with Pacific areas worked in the morning not many evening QSOs

so this was nice surprise and I am grateful.

Both my QSO already in the log.

V73D on Clublog

What next ? SSB QSO will be nice. I don`t have Marshall Islands on Phone.

So will keep focus on that. And high bands of course :)

At the moment - 19:30 local time they QRV on 30M CW.

Very strong signal in EU and massive European pile-up.

V73D on 30M CW in EI

TI9/RA9USU

TI9/RA9USU

Great CW operator RA9USU and his QSL card from Cocos Island / Isla del Coco.

Worked on 2 bands. 30M as new one. Many thanks Dima!

Chesterfield Is.

TX3X Chesterfield Islands

Uff it was challenge! One of the hardest DX to work so far! Needed as All Time New One! First opportunity I had on first day. Signal on 20M was great, both CW and SSB but I wasn`t able to break the pile-up ... using one of the strongest antennas in EI @ Papa Lima! Next few days I wasn`t near radio at all. Busy with other commitments. I was watching DX-Cluster to make some plans when and how to work them in poor condition on the bands ....

Day & Nigh Poor - all HF bands

Solar activity SFI: 81 - Magnetic activity K: 5 

On top of that Aurora hits Norther Europe , etc. 

One morning when I switched on radio I had to check antennas are still on the masts as bands were so quiet. How to work Chesterfield ? How ?

On Tuesday was nice opening in EI on 20M and several EI`s worked them on that band but I was at work.

DX-Cluster spots TX3X on 20M

CQ CQ no takers ....UFF !!!

One of my plans was .... to take day off from work on Wednesday ...

Arrived @ Papa Lima QTH early before SR , all prepared. Waiting.

NIL on low bands , NIL on 20M , the rest are closed here.

Finally 20M CW. TX3X was there. 14.023 magic QRG occupied by so many of us these days.

Signal weak but workable. Easy to say workable but they did hear our part of EU that moment.

Huge EU pile-up. Mostly East EU. No hope. Spotted EI6IL in the pile-up , no joy either.

Few hours without luck. 

That was 7`th October .... 

Then TX3X Team published their update #9

5. We are not hearing some parts of EU.

Almost gave-up. They will go QRT on 12 October. It will be nice to work them just on one

band , one QSO. Still few days left. I had to make some arrangements to be able give a try next morning. It was worth it!

Thursday 8`th October arrived @ Papa Lima early as usual. 

waiting ....

waiting ....

waiting ....

All prepared , all ready to go. SR passed , no sight of TX3X on any bands.

Then ... 1h after SR here RBN gave us info:

40M RTTY !

Let`s check .... wow .... I can read their print. CQ TX3X TX3X TX3X up 5-10

One shot! They got me! EI EI ? EI9KC EI9KC EI9KC

I had to repeat few times more. Started loosing them ... only 75% of RTTY print was

readable that time ... but I`ve got my magic EI9KC 599 EI9KC on return!

Wow that was something! I don`t know if any other EU station worked them that time , that moment on 40M. EI 1h after SR but I spotted some Dutch station calling on same QRG I was using.,

Anyway ..... after that never ending JA WALL stared the have fun ...

@ Papa Lima chasing TX3X

I don`t want to blame them for "poor knowledge" of propagation , etc. So many comments was on DX-Cluster already. Appreciate it that they are there for us one way or the other. 

No much time left that Thursday , I had to go ... few more minutes .... then .... 

G4EZT        14185.0 TX3X           + up 5 eu lonely 

One call .... EI9KC 5/9

Wow , wow , wow 

Two bands in one day!

This is my record of TX3X shortly after my QSO on 20M SSB

Chesterfield - SORTED!

CW QSO will be nice ....as this is my favourite mode , 308 DXCC worked on CW , there is still hope ....

Friday 9`th October

Same story as yesterday and day before. 

Bands quiet , SFI low , K index high ...

Waiting.

TX3X spotted on 20M CW in EU , NIL here .... too early .... possible opening after 9:00 our time.

They were active on 30M CW, massive EU pile-up , very weak to try then QRX

At 9:05 .... on 20M CW 14.023 Mhz CQ TX3X TX3X UP

EI9KC

EI9 ?

I had to reply my call few times. Signal was strong, solid 559 but looks like on the other side much different condition and they did not copy me well.

Usually I will send my call once for CW. This time I had to repeat twice:

TX3X - EI9KC 5NN 20M CW QSO

to get my 5NN from TX3X on CW!

Update #13 from TX3X explain a lot:

We also had excellent openings on 20 CW to the UK, Nordics, and other northwest EU countries. Until now there’s been very little to no propagation to that region.
We know that you are hearing us better than we’re hearing you. With the A having been as high as 77 it’s a miracle you hear us at all.

10 minutes after my QSO their signal was much stronger:



EU EU EU at last :)

All my 3 QSO in the log.

TX3X , Chesterfield Islands was hard to work. I hope bands condition will improve for

next NEW ONE from similar location:

VK9WA Willis Island !!!

November 14-23, 2015

E6GG Niue last place on the earth welcoming new day

This is E6GG Niue on 20M CW yesterday in the morning. Lovely signal, very strong via S/P , Niue as default on 20M in EU on that band.... My hunting for E6GG is finished now. Happy with 2 new bands (40/30) and one new mode (RTTY)  Dream QSO on 80M didn't happen ... I wasn`t able to copy them. Today in the evening nice surprise on 12M CW and my probably last QSO with E6GG Congratulations to EI4KL who managed QSO on 28Mhz! So far they have 15 QSOs with EU on 10M! All QSOs already confirmed on LoTW. This is great QSL policy and big thanks to whole Team for big effort. I had pleasure to be 7 times in their log - 4 times on the other side was Nigel G3TXF ( 12/17/20/40). BTW no QSO with EU on Top Band ..... yet. Good Luck!  Few days left .....
E6 is a new prefix for Niue , 3 years ago ITU updated its Table of International Call Sign Series to reflect a call sign change for Niue Island from ZK2 to E6. I had ZK2 in my log and E6 too. My first QSO with Niue new prefix was with E6AK in 2013 on 20M CW.

E6AK QSL card

HF bands switched off

Looks like HF bands are switched off ... I was chasing E6GG on the bands last few days and I was surprised how quiet can be on the bands. 10/12/15 are dead here no joy whatsoever. OK logged Comoros Islands on 15M CW but this is much closer than Niue ... My plan for Niue is ... low bands. Had chances to work them last Friday on 30M but no much time to stay on the radio. Decided to visit EI0PL to enjoy real low bands fun. Saturday in the morning managed QSO on 40MCW with Niue as new country on this band and that was it. First off all signal was from skewed not 330 degrees but 270 and was so small and hard to copy. No beep on 80 but I heard 2 EU stations in QSO with them  .... 30M .... even worst than 40M. Signal was hardly readable and highest peak was for about 30 minutes around our SR. 

Sunday morning was even worst than Saturday. 40M was disaster and 30M was dead as stone. No signal at all from Niue even on 20M! This was really big disappointment as we expected Niue to be there as default on 20 one way or the other. 

Hopefully it will improve soon , especially for TX3X - Chesterfield Is!

PQ0T - Trindade Island QSL card

PQ0T - Trindade Island QSL

Long awaited QSL card from PQ0T - Dxpedition 2015 arrived today!

Nice 4 page confirmation.

Thanks a lot!

EJ1Y - Ireland`s Eye Island - EU-121 - IOTA Contest 2015

Where we will go next? Last year after Great Blasket invasion we had no plans for this year IOTA Contest. Shortly after spring time when summer arrives to Ireland Papa Lima DX-Group members decided to go somewhere to do IOTA Contest. Plan to stay at home wasn`t an option. First idea was Aranmore Island or Inishbofin Island but .... distance was a big problem during busy holiday period.

At the end of June Adam EI5JQ , Oleg EI7KD and Maciej SQ9DDD went to see Dalkey Island possibility. Someone told them ... "you can`t stay overnight there". So one more option on Irish Sea was .... Ireland`s Eye Island beside Howth. Brief visit around the island and no other options left we decided to activate Ireland`s Eye Island this year for IOTA competition. It will be our first time from EU-121.

Adam EI5JQ unloading boat

We landed on the Island Friday afternoon. Shortly when all our equipment was safe we went to find place for camp. Not too far from landing spot but still a distance to move our heavy boxes. First tent as usual was radio - tent. The same tent we used for kitchen on Great Blasket last year ...
Then time for antennas. Just three antennas this year. 5 band HEXbeam by SP7IDX , GP7DX multiband vertical and Inverted V for 80M.

Heaviest item! PA power supply.

Installing hexbeam

Radio tent

View from the hill on our camp

Multiband vertical GP7 DX

Inverted V for 80M ready to go up

Oleg EI7KD started contest on 20M CW run station

Adam EI5JQ on mults station

Friday evening, when Hexbeam was installed we did few QSOs as EJ0PL.

Early in the morning on Saturday antenna work continued. Then shack need to be set , all networks connections , computers etc. Around midday on Saturday Jurek SQ7IT arrived on the Island with 2`nd power generator. Set-up was simply. Two stations , two power amplifiers, two power generators. 

Now contest time! For some reason we thought that competition starts at 14:00 .... what a mistake! Hurry up few things are not working as it should be but great help from Michal EI3KG by phone let us set computers.

Oleg EI7KG started and he was on run station for first 3 hours. Then he had to go back to main land with Maciej SQ9DDD. Just three operators left on the Island. EI5JQ , EI9KC and SQ7JT. Shortly after contest started we realized that EJ1Y is the only off-shore island station during IOTA Contest 2015 from Ireland. No competitors again ....

 At about 2:00 at night we took 4h break for sleep. 

Weather forecast for Sunday was not great. To be honest was bad. Very bad ..... and it was. Rain started at 6:00AM , heavy wind makes tents fly. Radio shack was secure , antennas as well. But 80M Inv 80M had to be lowered because one mast guy rope supporter was loose.

First part of the contest I was on multi station. We used N1MM plus logging software and it was mistake. It was very hard to find and log multiplier station. Maybe because I was using this software for first time .... but for sure previous version N1MM was much better. 

I had my time also on RUN station but on Phone. I was too shy to try CW with long serial number and IOTA ref on top. But in the morning I decided to go on RUN station on CW!

Yes, why not. 28 WPM was my speed and 99% stations came back to me with similar speed. It was great, Mistakes can happen but practice make you master. 

Band condition wasn`t great. 15M was closed on Saturday with a small opening on Sunday. 10M was dead. 40/20 did a great job.

As far as I remember now EJ1Y logged about 1500 QSOs during competition.

At 12:00 just one hour before end of the contest EJ1Y went QRT

We had to contact our boat man to get instruction for departure.

Boat was booked for 4PM. So we had just 4h to dismantle station.

Heavy rain plus wind din`t help. Makes this DXpedition hard. We had to protect every single electronic device against rain ... it was hard job.

When all boxes were packed and ready to be loaded on the boat our boat came from Howth ... but high waves makes departure from the Ireland`s Eye impossible .... 

Boatman contacted us and told us about emergency landing spot on the Island which can be used during high tide only! At what time is next high tide on Howth then ? 20:30 .... we had to wait few hours for it ....

Waiting for high tide

When boat arrived with high tide we had just few minutes to pack all our gear. But we had great help from our non radio members and departure was much easier. When boat was loaded was too heavy to reverse because emergency landing spot on Ireland`s Eye in not so deep even in high tide and our boat ran aground! We were stuck for few good minutes. Finally escaped .... and reached deep water.

Lucky we had no option to stay on the Island another night or so.

Great adventure it was and our first time from EU-121 ...

All gear safe on Howth`s pier.

Our boatman was happy too to have all of us safe in the port. Last year boatman said "I hope I won't see you again" ... this time boat owner asked us .... "did you win ?"

Yes we did! We won Irish leg of the contest. IRTS IOTA trophy is ours for next year!