8R1DB QSL (my 6m-DXCC #200 country)

Today the 8R1DB QSL came with the mail. What a great 6m DXpedition that was, huge sigs for many days in a row. Thanks again !!

8R was my 200th country worked on 6m and it is the last QSL I was waiting for to get all worked countries confirmed, 203 in total. So, this certainly gives a very satisfying feeling. Just get them accepted with the ARRL, but that is a task I will shift into the new year as I already filed a major DXCC application this year, and I hate to pay an extra application fee …

8R1DB fold-out QSL, front and back

8R1DB fold-out QSL, inside

XR0Y on 40m

This morning I finally succeeded to get XR0Y in the log on 40m / CW. An e-mail from Aart, PA3C, told me that they have a serious problem hearing stations after 20hrs local. Some sort of switching device is causing QRN but thay are unable to trace it.

Here is a long MP3 with my QSO at the end. XR0Y 40m CW 13-nov-2009 0701utc

3D20CR DXpedition

The Conway Reef crew (including my countryman Ronald, PA3EWP) arrived at their destination and are active since Sep. 30th. Worked them right away on 20m/CW. 30m is a different story. Yesterday the band was open the whole day and in particular in the morning (7utc and later) they were putting out strong signals into NW Europe. Unfortunately they were apparently not aware of this as they only worked JA stations. This morning it started out similarly. However they switched to EU around 10 utc. A bit too late as signals were down a bit, but still better than yesterday. It took me another one and a half hours to work them for a new bandpoint.

Listen here.

Recording 3D20CR 30m/CW 11:29utc.

5J0BV QSL received

Today the QSL card from Dennis, 5J0BV, was delivered by the mailman. Thanks again Dennis for this difficult DXpedition and our QSO.

New boots for the SteppIR antenna

As reported earlier, the rubber boots which fix the glass fiber poles to the EHUs, were almost torn in two pieces (after only 3 years). Probably as a result of decreased mechanical strength due to UV exposure and some mechanical stress (bending of the poles).  Enquiry at the local DIY store led me to a local plumber & sanitary installation company who could deliver suitable replacement boots. These boots are produced by Mücher Dichtungen GmbH and are probably available throughout Europe.  See this datasheet for detailed information. The one you need is the MAC 0502. They do not come in cheap though … per piece € 16.oo excl. VAT.

The material of the boots is EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) which is supposed to have a good UV resistance, so I just hope that these ones last longer than the Mission boots originally delivered by SteppIR. As an extra precaution I have covered the boots with standard PVC electrical tape to protect the rubber from direct sunlight. I also included a safety tie-wrap which will prevent the pole from falling in case the rubber boot will tear again.

Old Mission boot after taking it from the SteppIR

New Mücher boot with safety tie-wrap

DXCC using LotW

Although I was not a strong believer of the Logbook of the World at the time of introduction, I upgraded my DXCC awards (Mixed, CW and 6m) last week via LotW. In the past I already integrated my current, paper QSL checked awards into LotW, which is a fairly easy procedure.

First I tried it with my QSO with 7O1YGF (free of charge). It was accepted and added to my awards within one day. I then applied my pending LotW credits for the awards and, again within one day, all were accepted. This sets my standings at:

Current DXCC countries for Mixed / CW / 6m : 334 / 321 / 192

(My actual standing is 335/ 331 / 203 due to QSOs confirmed per paper card only or QSLs not received yet)

All in all I have the feeling the LotW service has matured considerably over the last period and I hope many more hams – in particular DXpeditions – will enter their QSO records into LotW. Of course a real paper QSL of  a DXpedition is a meaningful collector’s item, but the DXCC award crediting is much easier and reliable using the LotW system.

Poll: Needed Caribbean countries

Now that the Es season is more or less over, it is maybe nice to inventorize your score of the last couple of months. Every year there are people going on DXpedition in order to give us a new one. In particular the Caribbean is a popular destination among the DXpeditioners. Some of us, who have quite a few years of activity behind them including many Es seasons and maybe one or two solar peaks with good F2 propagation, have most – if not all – of the island countries in the log. But those of you who who started on 6m more recently might still be in need of a few relatively “easy” ones.

So, fill in the poll in the right pane and let’s see what the result will be. I will leave the poll on at least until Christmas in order to give everyone the opportunity to vote. Please vote only once. Thanks !!

(KP1/5 and YV0 have been left out because everyone will need those …)

Caribbean opening late in the season

Today we enjoyed quite a long opening to the Caribbean (J79PAK, KP4EIT, WP2B). In particular J79PAK was audible for more than 2 hours starting aroung around 15:30 utc until approx. 18:00 utc. Pierre operated SSB but also CW every now and then, which enabled him to work the smaller station. Aurelio, PC5A, could work him using an ATAS-120 vertical and ~75W output … ! Listen to this recording.

[Edit 25-Aug-2009] After return from my holiday in Greece, I found a very sad comment in French to this blog. It reports that Pierre, HB9CUA/J79PAK, age 46, drowned in the violent waves of the Dominica coast, while saving his 8 years old daughter. My sincere condolences go to the family he is leaving behind. May he rest in peace …

18/19 July weekend: CQ VHF contest / mediocre conditions

This weekend was the CQ VHF contest. Hopes for some transatlantic openings were high, but in vein … Nevertheless there were some short openings to the Middle East: 5B4, 4X and A7. I missed the Saturday morning opening but in the early evening another opening made a contact with A7/M0FGA possible.

Here is a recording of that QSO.

Great opening to Caribbean; J39BS 6m-DXCC #203

While we are heading towards the end of the Es season, we were pleasantly surprised by a very good opening to the Caribbean. Heard or worked: KP4, 9Y, FG, FM, J6, PJ4, VP2M, and J3. Highlight was working J39BS for #203. Unfortunately I only heard VP2MSJ CQ-ing once but he then disappeared again in the noise. He was worked west of me …

Recording of QSO with J39BS, 15-jul-2009 17.57utc CW.

[Edit 21-Jul-2009] Received the following e-mail from Derek:

Hello Enno,
I am very glad we did make the QSO at last. Yes it really was a fabulous opening and I was really pleased to finally work Europe as I knew many stations needed J3. I was at first using an Icom 706 but made so many changes to antenna position, length of Coax, etc and finally got the FT-950. The antenna is 6MX5 which was donated by UKSMG. I have to tell you that my location is not the best. I have some mountains in the NorthEast direction to Europe, but hope to get the antenna higher in the future. I was really frustrated when I could not get to Europe, but now I think all are happy including myself.
Thank you very much for the recording. Very nice. The opening really took me by surprise and am very sorry that I was unable to record some QSO's as was very busy with the pileup hi. All signals from Europe were S5 and better at the peak of the opening and you were very easy copy here.

Thank you and best regards,

Derek - J39BS

5J0BV worked just before he was closing down

Dennis, K7BV, was active again this year from San Andres Island as 5J0BV. This is a difficult path and last year (as 5J0M) he was worked in The Netherlands by only 2 or 3 stations. Today was his last day being active from the island. What a sheer luck that it opened to W-Europe. Extremely spotty opening though. I was busy in the house and just happened to walk into the shack to see on the ON4KST chat that Dennis was on and being heard with short burst in my area.
After a while his CW signal came suddenly out of the noise. Apparently nobody else could hear him at that time. He came back to my call,  gave 569 and I could quickly QSL and give him 559 TU => in the log as #202 !! Then he disappeared into the noise and I never heard him again except for a few dots and dashes. Thank god he was in CW. Think about the mess when he would have been in SSB … Thanks Dennis !!

Phew, talking about keeping your nerve together … But that’s 6m DXing alright !

[Edit 08-Jul-2009] Just received an e-mail from Dennis stating:

Enno,

Thank you for being one of my last QSOs from the island.  I had to QRT very soon after our contact.  The QSB was very very deep that final morning.

Again, thanks for the QSO!

73

Dennis K7BV

Enno,

Thank you for being one of my last QSOs from the island.  I had to QRT very soon after our contact.  The QSB was very very deep that final morning.

Again, thanks for the QSO!

73

Dennis K7

02 July 2009: another good Es day

Having missed V29JKV on July 1st due to a family BBQ, I was pleased to hear the band being in good shape on July 2nd.

In the early evening I made a more solid QSO with TZ6EI at 17.18utc than the QSO on June 29.

Later that evening it opened up to the Caribbean and the sigs from Antigua where Jimmy, W6JKV, has set up his yearly DXpedition, became audible. The opening was quite wide-spread so the pile-up was kind of chaotic. Many people were banging in their callsigns whereas Jimmy was clearly calling somebody else.

My first QSO with V29JKV was on 18.17utc. Listen for yourself to this recording from my end, and to this recorded by Jaap, PA0O.

Fortunately Jimmy became much stronger a bit later, so I made a second, solid QSO at 18.38utc (I had not Jaap’s recording at my disposal at that time). Although Jimmy initially copied me as PF5K, he quickly corrected that to PF5X as you can hear on this recording. The same QSO was recorded by Peter, PA2V. Listen here.

Some more nice DX on 6m

Here are a few more recordings of multi-hop Eskip contacts made recently.

8R1DB, 22-Jun-2009, 1951z, SSB
8R1TO, 28-Jun-2009, 1801z, CW
JL8GFB, 29-Jun-2009, 0749z, CW
TZ6EI, 29-Jun-2009, 0829z, CW (record starts a bit too late … IW0HEX banging on top of TZ6EI who was working split … Some people never learn to listen)

Huge Eskip openings weekend of 20 & 21st of June; #200 & 201 on 6m

Although still in automutilation mode, this weekend showed some awesome Es openings. Saturday was good for the Caribbean. 8R1DB was worked all over the place. I was lucky to catch him already on the 19th for my 200th DXCC on 6m (!), but Saturday’s opening was much better. I made a “security” QSO just to ensure I am in the log. That QSO was preceeded by YV4DDK in SSB. These QSOs are both on one MP3 track. Before that I was happy to work PJ7/K2GSJ in CW for #201 (no recording). Other goodies included FJ5DX and WP2B.

This morning (Sunday 21st of June) I could work 2 JA4’s. A bit too late out of my bed (Father’s day ceremony first), but still in time to catch JH4IFF and JH4MGU. Listen to the MP3’s below.

Then around late noon a string of East coast USA stations (K1TOL, W1JJ, etc.). First opening from the East coast to hit N-W Europe.

Tonight 8R1DB was heard for several hours again working a large area of Europe. No sign of VP2MRT and J39BS showed up way too late, as usual …

YV4DDK & 8R1DB
JH4IFF
JH4MGU

6m: mental automutilation … ?

Sitting behind the rig, listening with your headphones on to almost eternal white noise. Is this life ? No, it’s called a hobby: chasing new countries on the 6 meter band. Everybody who is involved in this starts with trying to reach the 100 mark. No big deal with all the European countries active. Together with quite a few Asian, Middle-East and North African countries as well as the “easy” North American and Caribbean ones, everyone should be able to make the 100 even without F2 propagation.

But then, the next target is 200, in principle only reachable for those who at least witnessed one solar peak. And if you did not get at 200 during the last peak you now need to collect the last ones with multi-hop Es.

For me this means that this season I need to add 2 of these known active countries: J3, VP2M, VP9, 8R, PJ7, HK0, TN, SV/A, and, if things really go wild, BY, BV, …

So far TN is added for #199, so let there be propagation soon enabling me to add the remaining one for #200.

TN5SN #199 on 6m

TN5SN came through quite good on 6m today. Worked him in SSB at 16.59utc with some difficulty (S3), but later at 17.27utc in CW which was a breeze: 559 both ways. Made 2 recordings after my QSO in which you can hear Nicolas in CW. He peaked S6 at times …

This is my 199th country on 6m so one more to go for the magic milestone of 200 !!

TN5SN, CW @ 17.28utc (15 mins MP3)
TN5SN, CW @ 17.45utc (3.5 mins MP3)

In contrast to the previous post from January, my antenna looks like this again:

Icy antennas in the red morning sun

The Netherlands are enjoying a real winter period like we used to have in the old days. -10 deg C or lower in the nighttime for more than a week now, snow and ice on the lakes and canals.

This morning the sky was completely clear and it was still freezing at -10 C or so. My antennas had a nice layer of ice crystals on them so they looked just beautiful in the red morning sun.

It’s skating time in The Netherlands …

As the sunspots are still refusing to pop up, you’d better visit the local lake for a skate ride … Temperatures have been below 0 deg C for a fair number of days in a row. So there is plenty of natural ice on ponds, lakes, etc. Here is my wife, Marja,  in action on the Hatertse Vennen close to Nijmegen.

Marja ice skating at the Hatertse Vennen (30-dec-2008)

CQWW-cw 2008

The yearly climax of the contest season is the CQWW cw contest on 29 and 30th of  November.

Despite poor conditions on the higher bands, I cranked out 613 QSOs, mostly in S&P mode. I had a few runs on Sunday. On 20m  a short run to the USA and later on 80m a good EU run.

40 and 80m were good in the morning (local sunrise peak), and Saturday evening (USA sunset and Asia/Oceania).

CQ WW CW – 2008-11-29 0000Z to 2008-12-01 0000Z – 613 QSOs
PF5X Max Rates:
2008-11-30 1605Z – 5.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 300 per hour by PF5X
2008-11-30 1605Z – 3.0 per minute (10 minute(s)), 180 per hour by PF5X
2008-11-30 1806Z – 1.5 per minute (60 minute(s)), 89 per hour by PF5X

Band  QSOs Pts Cty ZN
3.5   188  269  58 14
7     139  382  64 27
14    244  690  58 23
21     41  118  31 15
Total 612 1459 211 79

Score :  423,110

Here are a few sound snippets:
29Nov, 0815z, 40m
29Nov, 0832z, 40m
30Nov, 0714z, 80m
30Nov, 1555z, 20m
30Nov, 1719z, 80m

Equipment:
K3, microKEYER II, SPE 1K-FA (running at 400W)
3 ele SteppIR @ 17m
rotary dipole 30/40m @19m
80m inv.vee apex @ 17m
N1MM logger 8.11.0
mp3DirectCut 2.09 (audio recording/editing)

Low band, daylight propagation

Today I had quite a bit of time to browse the bands. In particular 30 and 40m were in exceptionally good shape and yielded unexpected DX during the daylight hours. Here are a few sound snippets of QSOs with some nice DX stations.

P29NI 40m/CW 1300z

9V1VV 30m/CW 1410z

VU4RG 30m/CW 1445z

Local sunset is at 1607z