The Gambia - QSL

QSL from C5A and C50C received today. This is Radio Syd Contest Group Dx-Pedition QTH for major DX-Coontest on HF bands. QSL covered my QSOs from 160m to 10m! Just one missing band with The Gambia here - 30m. Very happy with Top Band QSO/QSL and 80m as well. It was easier to work them on low bands than few EU countries.

Here is C5A 160m four square antenna system!

More interesting pictures from The Gambia here

Many thanks to Brani OM2FY for rapid QSL!

HF Happenings

• XX9THX - Macau - Direct QSL Received - New DXCC on CW (247 confirmed)
• PT0S - All worked bands confirmed on LoTW already
• Latest Niger activity on LoTW
• KH6LC - Hawaii - worked during CQWW CW on 40m confirmed LoTW! new40!
• 5T0SP - 7 bands worked - looking for 40m now - SWL them on 160!!!!
• EX2B - Kyrgyzstan - new country on 80m
• Azores 9 Islands Hunt certificate recieived
• EY8MM - Tajikistan - new DXCC on 160m!

Last Minute INFO: 5T0SP logged on 40mCW :) 6 bands today (80/20/17/15/12/10/40)

Mauritania on 80m!

Polish DX-Pedition in Mauritania now making HF busy and I needed this entity for Phone and on 80m. And maybe ..... maybe .... on 160m if things goes well. Latest New One on TB was The Gambia! But .... 80m first. I was thinking it will be tough ... but it was not! One call to be honest! I was waiting for them on their frequency on 3515. Few minutes earlier member of the Team posted info to DX Cluster that they are on 3.525 and listen up2. It was mistake because he was calling on 3.515! And I was there ..... signal very weak but good ears on the other side! I had to repeat my call three times to be sure they will reply to me EI9KC. And they did it! Great! Mauritania on phone sorted yesterday on 21Mhz and 80mCW today .... I will try to get some more slots with my Polish friends in Mauritania. One of them I had pleasure to meet when I was passing my HAM radio licence many years ago. SP3GEM Jurek - every DX-Man in SP-land knows him and his QTH and his antennas of course! One of his best designed antenna is in Ireland now at EI3KG/EI5JQ QTH. Good Luck in Mauritania! Enjoy the pile-up!

CQWW CW 2012

CQWW CW 2012 Contest still running on the bands! Heavy pile-up on all metric bands CW sections. Digital parts are destroyed by Morse Code and a lot of people have fun. Quiet on SSB sections and WARC  bands. But they are good when some people do not like contesting or CW.
And I had my "5 minutes" during this contest. Decide to run all bands assisted category to chase some new DXCC on some bands and as my previous post main focus was pointed onto Lord Howe Island for NEW Country on HF. Had fun this time as usual during contesting. No much time spend to call CQ , Most of the time I was calling other stations. More statistics are here.

Some QSOs to remember:

7P8D - Lesotho DX-Pedition just started 10/15 logged.

C5A - The Gambia - worked on 5 bands - on 160m as NEW ONE!

D4C - on 4 bands - on 80m as NEW ONE!

EL2A - new 40/80m!

VP5CW - new on 80m!

YN2CC - new on 80m!

KH6LC - Hawaii ! - new on 40m

VK9/OH3X - Lord Howe Is. - NEW DXCC

New country in the log while CQWW CW Contesting!

Easy and real pleasure contesting here on all bands during CQWW CW 2012. Not for result in the contest here but usual chasing some new DXCC on contest bands. Main focus was pointed into Lord Howe Island! As two operators from Finland OH1VR and OH3JR are active from VK9-L as VK9/OH1VR and VK9/OH3JR - they also participated in CQWW Contest with their contest call-sign. Last friday signal on 17mCW was great here but for some reason operator went QRX and did not came back. I was trying on Saturday to reach them on 15m but signal was not readable here. Henri OH3JR was active as VK9/OH3X and I was only able to read last part of his call-sign dah-di-di-dah. I new it he was there as I was monitoring his frequency a lot of time and spots on the clusters as well. No luck on Saturday. Sunday was much better! Few minutes before 9:00 AM here Lord Howe Island logged here! Did via S/P but when turned antenna for L/P signal was much stronger. It was hard. I had to repeat my call few times! Thanks God I had no pile-up with me.

Micronesia on eQSL

QSO made in April this year with V63AAZ (Jonas SA0AAZ) is now confirmed on eQSL. Nice surprise!

Job has to be done!

A lot of antenna work today at EI3KG / EI5JQ QTH.

Michal EI3KG will participate in CQWW CW Contest 2012 this year and we had to do some work at his QTH. Old rotator broke down during last strong winds in Ireland and we had to replace it for a new one. Stronger one for sure! 

2 element 40m Yagi antenna

We had to do also some adjustments for 2 elements Yagi designated for 40m band. This is the beauty who let me log PT0S last week on 40m at their first day! Look at the size of it! My garden is twice that small! You can really see how big is Yagi for 40m when antenna is down on the ground. On the tower it doesn`t look so big!

Assembling three bander (20/15/10) for CQWW CQ 2012

40m 2 element Yagi on top of it!

Antennas work in progress.

Last adjustments before the CQWW CW Contest 2012

Job done! Enjoy the view. View towards Central America and Caribbean.

Uff! All day work behind us. We had to be quick as day is short this time of the year and all job has to be done before sunset. We did it! All antennas sorted for CQWW CW 2012 for Michal EI3KG! Good Luck in the Contest!

After dusk I had a pleasure to test 40m 2 element Yagi how it is working as Michal had to get a nap before Contest. To be honest this is Real Big Thing antenna! Can you imagine to get 17dB snr at Reverse Beacons in New Zealand on 7MhzCW ? 49 short QSOs managed on 40m this evening! 

Best DX worked as a big surprise there:

V63DX Micronesia on 40m! This is real Thing! Spotted signal in Japan from Micronesia - decided try to listen here in Ireland , why not ? 559 on 40m 2 element Yagi real raport! One call! Uff this is real pleasure DXing! Looking forward to see ZL9HR next few days as this will be challenge here in Ireland! 

DU / JA / VK / 9M stations logged today on 40m as well.