Surprisingly 4 m opened late at night last night! Probably not many expecting such a late time opening that late in the Sporadic-E season thus activity was rather low and not many QSOs done. But good to catch IO94 for a new one, thanks Clive! 😎
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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21:34 EI4DQ IO51WU 55 52 4 m. SSB ES 1512
21:36 GM4FVM IO85WU 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1092
21:41 G3UVR IO83KH 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1150
21:46 G4FJK IO8ØHV 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 1226
22:24 G4FVP IO94FM 599 579 4 m. CW ES 1041
22:43 GI4SNA IO64XM 579 599 4 m. CW ES 1331
23:08 EI3IO IO63WF 579 559 4 m. CW ES 1349
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Actvity being that low it was a good chance to check some beacons again. 😉 Heard were GB3CFG (IO74), GB3BUX (IO93), EI4RF (IO63), GM8RBR (IO67), GB3RAL (IO91) and finally G4JNT/P (IO80). The latter being a small 600 mW + dipole beacon and still pounding in at 549 when I decided to call it a day at 1:30 am local time. 😉
G4JNT/P beacon, 600 mW + dipole, sending CW ID and PSK31 telemetry on 4 m:
Well, I’ve been doing Meteor Scatter on & off for the last 20 years and observed quite a few Perseids meteor showers. My feeling is this year was the worst shower ever! In fact the usual slow rise in meteor activity from the 8th onwards to the 12th was almost non-existent. As you can see from the log below I did just 2 QSOs on the 10th and none on the 11th … not because I was not QRV but just because of bad MS condx. 🙁 Due to the fact I decided to take a day off from QRL on the 12th to do at least a few more QSOs hoping condx would improve. They did but still much below Perseids average …
Nevertheless I could work a few new squares (denotated with an asterisk below) but concentrated on 4 m most of the time as there was the most potential for something new, of course. 😉 And OM, HA, GD and ES were new countries on four. 😎
I also think the maximum (if you can call it that, hi) might already have occured early morning of the 12th instead of early morning 13th as was predicted.
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DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB
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01/08/15 20:22 LA9DFA JP51MU 6 m. JT6M MS 981
08/08/15 20:00 LA9AKA JP2ØMM 6 m. JT6M MS 985
08/08/15 20:37 LA3EQ JO28XJ 6 m. JT6M MS 774
12/08/15 07:52 OZ5AGJ JO47IA * 6 m. JT6M MS 551
12/08/15 11:28 EI9E IO43XW 6 m. JT6M MS 1595
12/08/15 13:39 OHØMZA KOØ9CX 6 m. JT6M MS 839
14/08/15 23:41 PE1DCY JO22SI 6 m. JT6M MS 590
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02/08/15 06:55 DK5EW JN48MB * 4 m. FSK4 MS 676
02/08/15 21:29 OH1XT KPØ1UK * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1020
07/08/15 21:06 9A/OK1TEH/P JN82TR * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1190
07/08/15 21:44 OM5KM JN98BG * 4 m. FSK4 MS 612
08/08/15 08:15 HA1WA JN87IH * 4 m. FSK4 MS 677
08/08/15 14:46 LA9BM JP4ØCN * 4 m. FSK4 MS 896
08/08/15 15:30 S57A JN65TW * 4 m. FSK4 MS 807
08/08/15 16:04 9A1Z JN86FJ * 4 m. FSK4 MS 772
09/08/15 05:56 EA6FB JMØ8PW * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1865
09/08/15 21:13 EI9E IO43XW * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1595
12/08/15 08:32 OZ5AGJ JO47IA * 4 m. FSK4 MS 551
12/08/15 09:04 G4FJK IO8ØHV 4 m. FSK4 MS 1226
12/08/15 10:52 M5MUF IO92JP 4 m. FSK4 MS 1033
12/08/15 11:19 GDØTEP IO74SD 4 m. FSK4 MS 1230
12/08/15 14:12 GØCHE IO9ØPS 4 m. FSK4 MS 1054
12/08/15 18:00 GMØUSI IO75UV * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1226
12/08/15 18:23 M1BXF JOØ2FE 4 m. FSK4 MS 932
12/08/15 21:50 ON4KHG JO1ØXO * 4 m. FSK4 MS 759
13/08/15 05:34 SV8/SP7VC KM29PW * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1695
13/08/15 06:15 OH6PA KPØ2PL * 4 m. FSK4 MS 1113
13/08/15 21:15 ES3RF KO29IF * 4 m. FSK4 MS 932
13/08/15 22:20 G4WLC IO81WV 4 m. FSK4 MS 1111
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01/08/15 19:23 LA/PA2DW JP32LV * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1159
02/08/15 20:47 SM/DG5CST JP61KV 2 m. FSK4 MS 971
04/08/15 18:04 ISØEBO JN4ØGR * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1449
09/08/15 16:23 EI9E IO43XW * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1595
09/08/15 17:38 R6CS KN95BW 2 m. FSK4 MS 1891
09/08/15 21:35 RW3QJA KO9ØPH * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1746
09/08/15 22:20 SP/OK1MU KO13NX 2 m. FSK4 TR 595
10/08/15 21:47 F8GGD IN95UQ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1335
10/08/15 22:17 RA6DE KN96DQ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1857
12/08/15 07:16 GØHIK IO84JE * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1149
12/08/15 07:26 G4NBS JOØ2AF 2 m. FSK4 MS 958
12/08/15 09:37 LY/OK2ZAW KO23BX 2 m. FSK4 TR 660
12/08/15 12:21 UA4UK LO14MA * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1891
12/08/15 13:27 SM2A KPØ4NP 2 m. FSK4 MS 1332
12/08/15 21:56 UR4EWZ KN87CX * 2 m. FSK4 MS 1649
12/08/15 22:05 UR8EK KN67PV 2 m. FSK4 MS 1465
12/08/15 22:16 GM8IEM IO78HF 2 m. FSK4 MS 1342
12/08/15 22:32 UT3UX KO5ØHJ 2 m. FSK4 MS 1168
12/08/15 22:42 F/DL3ZAL IN87SL 2 m. FSK4 MS 1338
12/08/15 22:48 IK3MLF JN55WJ 2 m. FSK4 MS 882
12/08/15 22:58 RK3AF KO75WO 2 m. FSK4 MS 1422
12/08/15 23:12 RA3POV KO93CX 2 m. FSK4 MS 1579
13/08/15 05:18 RU1A KO48VR 2 m. FSK4 MS 1145
13/08/15 05:25 YT1X JN94WG 2 m. FSK4 MS 1074
13/08/15 21:03 UY1HY KO6ØMA 2 m. FSK4 MS 1343
13/08/15 21:31 RK1AS KP4ØUE 2 m. FSK4 MS 1220
13/08/15 22:06 UA3LID KO64CN 2 m. FSK4 MS 1186
13/08/15 22:34 R2YAA KO73DH 2 m. FSK4 MS 1331
13/08/15 23:18 RA6C KN94GT 2 m. FSK4 MS 1990
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A pity that the KO13/KO23 expedition of the Czech guys only did FSK (at least when I was there). They had really good signals (up to s5 on tropo) but refused to work me in CW so I really had to do it on FSK441 which is *not* a good mode for tropo contacts! Doing a quick CW or SSB QSO in-between does not cost more than a few seconds. Can understand they would not want to do it when in the middle of a QSO but they even did not when calling CQ … something I really do not understand having done a number of VHF expeditions myself! But maybe they had some good reasons, who knows …
Playing around on 6, 4 & 2 m this weekend but Perseids meteor shower not picking up yet. There was a big ES cloud Sunday morning with MUF up to 144 MHz above Eastern Europe but too far away to catch anything from here. The more astonished I was when suddenly Kadri, TA1D, popped up on 144.300 MHz calling CQ. A second cloud formed enabling an easy QSO into Turkey. 😎 The opening only reached into JO73 this time but Kadri could do 3 QSOs as DG1BHA & DL3BUA where QRV, too (5 and 20 km away). Did not hear any of the SP1 guys in Szczecin (40 km away) working him so really very localized! Opening ended after 10 minutes …
Rather bad condx! Neither had time nor motivation to do much more so basically just handing out a few QSOs and points every now and then. Need to plan to go on an island myself next year maybe, certainly much more fun, too. 😉
Nice surprise in the post box today. So the last award I had applied for from the ARRL Centennial celebration activities finally arrived here, too. It already got a prominent place on the shack wall. 😉 Still have fond memories, it was a great operating event!
Posted inAwards|Comments Off on W1AW WAS plaque received
Just handing out a few points, no time and – to be honest – no pleasure this time, don’t ask me why. Maybe the summer doldrums or just being in VHF mood currently. 😉
Also recognized our 80 m dipole has a problem, SWR jumping from 1:1.2 to 1:6 and higher in seconds … we need to check that some time. At least enough QSOs for the nice looking (after ARRL’s redesign) Certificate of Operating Achievement with the 250+ QSOs and 75+ Multipliers endorsements … 😉
Got a phone call by Sandro’s (DD3SP) wife Yvonne around 15z passing his best regards and telling me to “move my butt out of the office, hurry home and join the Sporadic E fun on 4 & 2 m”. 😉 Luckily I was done with all my meetings for today so simply left QRL earlier (and did some work in the evening again).
Arriving home 2 m was already closed again so I missed the first wave into southern Italy. But I was lucky to work HBØ/PA5MW on 6 m for a new one, tnx Mark! 4 m saw a few small and spotty openings to the south-west, i.e. Spain and Portugal, and south-east, i.e. Croatia, Romania and Greece, but not much (new) worked.
An hour later 2 m opened again, this time to Spain, so I could finally work another few ES QSOs on 144 MHz this season, albeit all very spotty, most stations not audible for longer than a minute or two at a time …
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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16:08 EA6XQ JM19LH 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1763
16:12 EA5NY IM99SN 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1879
16:19 EA5TT IM99SL 55 55 2 m. SSB ES 1887
16:22 EA5GZY IN9ØWB 55 59 2 m. SSB ES 1817
16:54 EA1NL IN52PJ 52 59 2 m. SSB ES 2075
16:57 EA2XR IN83KI 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1677
16:58 EA1MX IN73XK 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1722
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Afterwards checking 6 m which was wide open all over Europe I caught N1ZZZ/mm in rare water gridsquare JM27 cruising along the costline of Algeria. So just two 6 m contacts today but both quite worthwhile. 😉
Posted inDX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF|Comments Off on HBØ – Liechtenstein #137 on 6 m … and 2 m ES again
Not been much active lately … QRL, QRL, QRL. So it was good to get out of all the business stuff for a few hours this weekend and free up my mind. 😎 Condx were rather average, didn’t recognize any of the big tropo signals from the UK reported in the western part of Germany. The two G’s worked can be worked anytime from here.
We had some 1,5 hours of Aurora (SK4MPI/B up to 59A!) during the night but I did not do a single AU QSO – really frustrating! This time I could have gained some advantage from being in our fringe area but it wasn’t meant to be. 🙁 Only heard LAØBY with a nice auroral signal but I had already worked Stefan on tropo before. No other Scandinavians on, what a pity … 🙁
What certainly cost me a number of QSOs and points was that I also overslept 2 hours on Sunday morning. Seems instead of hitting the snooze button to grab some additional 5 minutes of sleep I accidently hit the off button … oh well. So was off the air for some 5 hours in total … might have all just been reasoned by the extreme heat, of course … 😉
Just back from Friedrichshafen visiting the HAMRADIO fair. Seems I missed all the fun on 6, 4 & 2 m. All three bands have been wide open 3 days in a row and Sandro, DD3SP, reported working lots of QSOs and new (4 m) squares. And of course now having returned it’s all closed. Oh well … but we had fun in Friedrichshafen, too! 😉
Met a lot of guys, old and new friends, shaking lots of hands and feeling proud with all the people knocking on my shoulders while walking over the fleamarket telling me they use one of my gadgets, be it the sequencer, the microphone voicekeyer or even the big FA-SM solution, and how much they like it. Seems the shirt with big callsign letters on the back worked out nicely. 😉
Also nice to be awarded with a small trophy for placing 3rd in 2014’s EUROPA-Diplom Honor Roll. I was not even aware they had trophies for the first places so astonished to receive an email from award manager Georg, DL4SVA, asking if he could hand it over during HAMRADIO. Sure, no problem, Sir! 😉 Intentionally I only put my current figures in to get the Honor Roll sticker for 2014 for the EUROPA-Diplom award. Nice coincidence. 😉
Posted inAwards, General stuff|Comments Off on Missed all the fun … had different fun! ;-)
Arriving from QRL seemed to be just in time this evening! Switching on the radio I heard Geoff, EA5/G3XGS, on 4 m and grabbed him easily for a new square. Looking at LiveMUF by Dave, G7RAU, it seemed to be a good idea to check 144 MHz, too. It did not even take 5 minutes until the band opened into EA1! Later it shifted to western France and there were a few time when the band seemed closed but as there were still QSOs going on between other stations I think we rather landed in the Atlantic Ocean west of France during those silent minutes. The opening lasted a bit over an hour and provided 13 QSOs on 2 m. 😎
Spent some more time on 4 m afterwards and worked another 2 new squares with KN35 and KN20. Around 18:30z we could hear the band noise getting louder and turning the antenna to the sun it was up to s8 on a calibrated meter. One could hear the flare predicted, wow! Cool stuff. Everybody was hoping for a big Aurora but it wasn’t going to happen. Indeed there was a small AUR opening but I only worked LA3BO and heard LA3EQ on 2 m. SK4MPI/B was pretty much only “in & out” all the time never getting stronger than 53A on short peaks. I did hear ES1CW on 4 m via Aurora but when he finally QSY’d into the DL band he had vanished into the noise. 🙁 Will have to wait for another opportunity to work Estonia on 70 MHz … Despite no big Aurora there was an Aurora-E opening on 2 m (happens once in a few years only!) between SM2 and north-west DL, PA and east G. Unfortunately nothing overhere but it seems the guys had some fun!
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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16:46 EA5/G3XGS IM98PB 579 559 4 m. CW ES 2034
16:50 EA1MX IN73XK 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1722
16:51 EA1HRR IN83JJ 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1679
16:55 EA1UR IN53TF 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1993
16:58 EA1HNP IN53SI 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1988
17:06 F8GGD IN95UQ 55 59 2 m. SSB ES 1335
17:18 F6DFI IN87WC 51 55 2 m. SSB ES 1341
17:22 F6AQI IN96DW 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1327
17:24 F6GNR IN97FD 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1303
17:33 EA6VQ JM19HN 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1751
17:39 EA1FCH IN63IN 559 599 2 m. CW ES 1903
17:46 F5GHP IN96LE 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1340
17:47 F6ETZ IN97CG 59 59 2 m. SSB ES 1310
17:47 F1CPX IN97DD 52 55 2 m. SSB ES 1313
17:49 FØGOW IN96TT 52 55 2 m. SSB ES 1256
17:57 GU6EFB IN89RK 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1233
18:09 YO9HP KN35BA 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 1252
18:11 YO9IE KN34AW 57 59 4 m. SSB ES 1255
18:15 YO9HP KN35BA 559 559 4 m. CW ES 1252
18:16 LZ2PL KN23XT 599 599 4 m. CW ES 1351
18:19 LZ1ZP KN22ID 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 1454
18:21 SV2JAO KN1ØDN 599 599 4 m. CW ES 1530
18:25 SV7GBR KN2ØIX 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1569
18:38 SV1DH KM18VA 57 52 4 m. SSB ES 1839
19:33 LA3BO JO59CD 55A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 707
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Made a few audio recordings again, will insert them later on.
Six had been wide open all over Europe the whole morning. Except a weak D4C via double-hop ES who provided a new square (had wkd D4 in HK86 before but HK76 was new) there was nothing interesting at all. So I spent some time handing out a few points in the Alpe Adria contest on 2 m but nothing special there, too. Bands went quiet until late afternoon and early evening when 6 m saw some great short skips within Europe and also opened into North America from all over Europe. Wait, from all over Europe? Nope, not from Europe’s 6 m DX blackhole, i.e. JO73. 🙁 There was even a great opening into the U.S. West Coast from certain parts of Europe but nothing overhere at all. One of those days when I’m thinking why I’m doing all that 6 m stuff still … The only DX heard was YV4NN late in the evening but just about 529 with an occasional peak up to 559 at times but as half of Europe was calling I gave up after trying for three quarters of an hour and him getting weaker and weaker …
Contrary to six 4 m was real fun! Had a good opening to the west so worked a bunch of G, GW, EI. Also did a nice crossband QSO with Marcel, F5DQK, in Paris with me transmitting on 4 m and him answering on 6 m as four is not (yet?) allowed in France. Later on MUF increased rapidly and finally allowed for a 2 m ES opening between G and UR. Being too close to these clouds to work on 2 m but with a MUF that high I looked south to maybe work my first Slovenian station on 4 m as geometry should be right. I finally did so 😉 but even better was working south German stations in JN67 and JN68 via ES on 70 MHz – that’s just 500-600 km! Does not happen too often on 6 m and even less so on 4 m. It did not last longer than 4 or 5 minutes but signals were s9+ with QRP power levels. Great stuff! 😎 Also working double-hop into EA8 again does not seem to be too exciting anymore with it happening every second day or so now. 😀
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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09:55 EA1HRR IN83JJ 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1679
10:34 DL2OM JO3ØSN 559 529 4 m. CW TR 542
11:08 DL8LAQ JO43XU 539 319 4 m. CW TR 290
11:49 9H1CG JM75FW 559 599 4 m. CW ES 1918
16:34 GWØEZY IO82HO 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1178
16:36 GW8ASD IO83LB 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1148
16:37 G4VWI IO92LQ 55 59 4 m. SSB ES 1021
16:38 G4FRE IO82UC 59 55 4 m. SSB ES 1117
16:39 GW4RWR IO83HE 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1168
16:43 EI4DQ IO51WU 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1512
16:48 G3TA IO81XS 59 56 4 m. SSB ES 1109
17:23 G7FMC IO91NW 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1027
17:23 GW8JLY IO81JM 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1194
17:39 M5MUF IO92JP 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1033
17:41 G8BFV IO81QE 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1166
17:42 GØWUU IO92SR 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 982
17:46 F5DQK JN18GR 59 55 4/6 m. SSB ES 954
17:55 G8DKK IO91VX 55 57 4 m. SSB ES 981
18:04 EA8DBM IL18OH 579 559 4 m. CW ES 3747
18:06 CT1HZE IM57NH 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 2504
18:20 DG3YEV JN68NL 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 529
18:22 DL3MBG JN67JX 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 587
18:26 S57D JN76GC 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 788
18:29 S51DI JN76VL 569 559 4 m. CW ES 754
18:32 9A6Z JN75SL 559 599 4 m. CW ES 862
18:43 9A6R JN83FM 599 599 4 m. CW ES 1087
18:48 EI8IQ IO62SF 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1391
18:52 EA3FZT JNØ1TE 579 599 4 m. CW ES 1633
19:01 9A6R JN83FM 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1087
19:32 EA1YV IN52OC 59 57 4 m. SSB ES 2102
19:55 EA6SX JM19IK 599 579 4 m. CW ES 1760
20:09 EA8TX IL18QI 55 51 4 m. SSB ES 3734
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During the great 4 m opening tonight I saw the MUF rising slowly. Later first QSOs were reported on 2 m between G/GW/EI and the Mediterranean and when I saw ES geometry should be right I switched over to 2 m. Nothing happened except a few locals CQing on 144.300 MHz and I put out a few CQs myself, too, without any response. At some point I had this gut feeling something was going to happen (You know these moments, too, don’t you? ) thus started to tune the band. Heard a very weak station on .310 but no positive ID. Tuning below the calling frequency reaching .290 I thought wow, great, a Spanish sounding station, just finishing a QSO with DL1RNW, band must be open to Spain via Sporadic E. When he ID’d as EB8BRZ I almost fell of my chair! 🙂 The Canary Islands via terrestrial propagation on 2 m (double-hop ES) – something I had dreamt of for some 20+ years being active on the VHF bands! Gave him a quick call, he responded with call and report, sent him my report and switching back to receive I just heard him fading down into the noise. He later confirmed he got my report all okay. 😎 He came up a few times some minutes later but never making it really out of the noise again.
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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18:26 EB8BRZ IL28HA 53 51 2 m. SSB ES 3700
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Found out later the weak one on .310 was probably EA8AVI. Well, that would have been another great QSO but hey, I need some dreams for the next 20 years, too. 😉
Posted inDX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF|Comments Off on EA8 – Canary Islands #65 on 2 m – 3.700 km terrestrial!
Was a bit late out of QRL again today (19 o’clock) but the first thing to do when arriving home during the summer is to switch on the rig and check for ES conditions. 😉 Seems the 4 m band had been open already for 2 hours to EA8 then as I was told by the locals. Party got in full swing later on with a few EA8’s via double-hop ES as well as CT3 and CU for new countries … great! 😎 Also good activity from EA mainland so worked a lot of new stations and a few new gridsquares, too:
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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17:09 EA3GP JNØ1SF 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1634
17:10 EA8DBM IL18OH 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 3749
17:22 CT3HF IM12OP 579 599 4 m. CW ES 3358
17:31 EA5TT IM99SL 57 55 4 m. SSB ES 1888
17:40 EA1FDI IN53TF 57 58 4 m. SSB ES 1994
17:42 CU3EQ HM68KP 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 3519
18:00 EA5/GØKSC IM97PX 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 2043
18:13 EA4SV IM68PU 59 52 4 m. SSB ES 2254
19:04 EA1HRR IN83JJ 55 57 4 m. SSB ES 1680
19:16 EC4TR IN8ØER 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1927
19:19 EA8YT IL18SL 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 3715
19:23 EA8BPX IL18SK 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 3719
19:37 EA8TX IL18QI 55 53 4 m. SSB ES 3736
19:42 CT3HF IM12OP 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 3358
19:58 EA7HG IM87CS 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 2203
20:00 CT1HZE IM57NH 55 52 4 m. SSB ES 2505
20:17 EA4LU IM68TV 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 2232
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Well, I finally defeated my “nemesis”! 😀
I have been chasing Jean-Jaques, FW5JJ, for a few month’ now. Whenever he was QRV we either had no propagation (it’s a difficult path almost directly over the Northpole) or if he was indeed audible I couldn’t break the pileups …
When I was young(er) I always smiled to myself when the old local DXers told their stories about their nemesis’, i.e. needing years to catch a certain DXCC country on the radio. I always said to myself “that’s bullshit”, it’s just a matter of perserverance, knowledge and a good station! Well, until I started “failing” to catch JJ on Wallis Island. 😉 But all is good now, caught him this morning on 17 m CW for an ATNO. 😎
Posted inDX|Comments Off on FW – Wallis & Futuna Islands #305
Not very active after returning from holidays, QRL taking its toll. Besides this 6 and 4 m haven’t been very active, too. There were a few openings but if I was there in the evenings I was either too close to or too far away from the ES clouds.
Worth to mention was a QSO with Joe, CT1HZE, on 4 m on Monday evening. He’s at the southern most tip of Portugal at a distance of 2.505 km from here. That is normally too far for one ES hop so it was probably a double-hop QSO as he also worked shorter distances in parallel.
A nice surprise was OJØB on 2 m! Finish guys were on Market Reef to do some repair work on the OJØB contest station antennas and were joined this time by Jussi, OH6ZZ, a seasoned VHF guy, who wanted to do some EME and MS from the Reef. Although reflections were rather sparse I managed to catch them tonight for a new one on 2 m. Thanks guys!
Also a bit of tropo reported from the UK to Denmark and southern Sweden earlier this evening but not much overhere. Worked John, G4SWX, with a good 559 signal but he can be worked almost daily from here. So if at all it was just a very slight enhancement …
Holidays are over. 🙁 But opening the mailbox today I found a letter from ARRL HQ containing a small envelope with the missing endorsement stickers. 😎 So my “W1AW WAS Award” is finally correct and reflects all the hard work in also chasing all the oversea’s territorries during the ARRL Centennial last year. Thanks guys! Now waiting for my “W1AW WAS Award Plaque” to arrive, too …
Posted inAwards|Comments Off on W1AW portable WAS correct now :-)
“Four” opened up again this afternoon and evening. Seemed very patchy most of the time although Malta, 9H, proved to be the ES hotspot again, the guys were in & out for several hours! Just wished activity would be a bit higher to take advantage of the great propagation on the 4 m band. 😉 Worked these fine QSOs:
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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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15:15 9H1PI JM75FW 55 55 4 m. SSB ES 1918
15:35 9H1GB JM75FU 57 57 4 m. SSB ES 1927
16:05 9H1ES JM75FV 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1922
16:50 LZ1ZP KN22ID 57 57 4 m. SSB ES 1454
18:08 9H1XT JM75GV 599 599 4 m. CW ES 1922
18:30 9H1AV JM75GU 559 559 4 m. CW ES 1927
18:54 YO4FYQ KN44FD 57 56 4 m. SSB ES 1446
19:04 LZ2PL KN23XT 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1351
19:10 LZ2NW KN23TB 599 579 4 m. CW ES 1405
19:30 SV2JAO KN1ØDN 59 59 4 m. SSB ES 1530
19:42 SP6TRX JO71VQ 55 55 4 m. SSB TR 198
19:55 OZ7AMA JO54XQ 569 559 4 m. CW TR 222
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Sorrily SV7GBR in KN20 QSY’d a few minutes too late into the “DL-band”, i.e. between 70.150 and 70.180 MHz. He was just down into the noise then while a solid 57 before when working OZ’s on 70.200 MHz. A pity as he would have been a new square …
2 m saw a good ES opening, too, but as usually the case from up here in JO73 we only “get into the water”, i.e. with the existing ES cloud our signals landed in the JM94/KM04 area, deepest Mediterrenean Sea. 🙁 😉
Wow, what a great day! It didn’t look too promising during the morning. There was a nice ES cloud with MUFs up into the 80-90 MHz but too close, i.e. just 250 km east above SP2. Nevertheless I went to the station after enjoying a great lunch meal at my mom’s. Nothing spectacular on 6 m but 4 m opened shortly down into Romania enabling another QSO with YO7BSN. The band later opened up quite nicely between G and 9A, S5, etc. Taking the E-skip geometry into account the band must have been wide open into France from here but as they do not have a 4 m allocation (yet) it was only listening to noise while monitoring all the cluster spots of the QSOs between the UK and Southern Europe.
I hoped the clouds would move south-westwards to then allow working into Spain but that did not happen. The more excited I was when stumbling across EA8TX calling CQ on 4 m – double hop ES to the Canarian Islands! That’s 3.750 km to Teneriffa, wow! 😎 Fernando struggled a bit to copy me but we eventually made it. I was even more excited when Alex, EA8DBM, popped up on 70 MHz, too:
He was an easy QSO and signals were great throughout the whole opening that lasted about 50 minutes here. Unfortunately EA8ACW, who is QRV on 4 m, too, was not around. He’s in IL28 while the former two guys are both in IL18. Thus “just” one new gridsquare and a new DXCC worked. 😉 If you are interested I also made a short video clip of EA8TX (link) as well as EA8DBM again, now on CW (link). Sorry for the a little unstable video shots – seems my mobile (a good old-fashioned Blackberry, hi) is too small for such things … or maybe I was just too excited and therefore kept trembling. 🙂
BTW: Alex, EA8DBM, was also worked by Oleg, LY3UE, afterwards – that’s a whopping 4.500 km! Lithuania has a special permit for 4 m now, too, and Oleg is the first guy QRV from there and EA8 was just his 5th QSO ever on the band! Quite sure he opened a nice bottle afterwards. 😎
So definitely a day to remember (although I have been told double hop on 4 m happens a few times each summer). It will be difficult to higher that ODX now. Theoretically there are 2 chances for even bigger distances on terrestrial propagation modes from here: Bahrain, A9, has a 4 m allocation, too. That would be around 4.250 km. Dave, A92IO/EI3IO, worked quite a number of double hop contacts into Europe on 70 MHz while there but unfortunately he returned to Ireland at the end of 2013 so currently no active station there as far as I know. Another option would be working ZS, South Africa! No kidding! They are allowed to work on 4 m as well and there have already been TEP contacts between Southern Europe and South Africa with SV2DCD – ZS6WAB being the first one ever, afaik. That would be 8.700 km then! Unfortunately chances are extremely low. We would need to have a good ES opening into the Mediterranean to link into a possible TEP opening from there. With TEP peaking in April and October so before and after the 4 m ES season in Europe and knowing how we already struggle to work ZS’s on 6 m from up here I’d render that a “no chance at all”. But if it ever happens I’d take it, of course. 😎
) thus started to tune the band. Heard a very weak station on .310 but no positive ID. Tuning below the calling frequency reaching .290 I thought wow, great, a Spanish sounding station, just finishing a QSO with DL1RNW, band must be open to Spain via Sporadic E. When he ID’d as EB8BRZ I almost fell of my chair! 🙂 The Canary Islands via terrestrial propagation on 2 m (double-hop ES) – something I had dreamt of for some 20+ years being active on the VHF bands! Gave him a quick call, he responded with call and report, sent him my report and switching back to receive I just heard him fading down into the noise. He later confirmed he got my report all okay. 😎 He came up a few times some minutes later but never making it really out of the noise again.
Well, I finally defeated my “nemesis”! 😀
