Following on from my ST2AR contact on Friday night (all time new one #172) I worked another new one on Sunday evening, this time it was Tajikistan in central Asia worked on 40m CW. Two new ones in three days but two very different situations.
The Republic of Tajikistan in central Asia
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Further to my previous comments about pile-ups - this was very much the calling until blue in the face type scenario rather than the ‘getting lucky’ type scenario (see below, ST2AR recently worked).
Ken (K4ZW) is in Tajikistan for a little over two weeks and operations commenced on the 27th so it’s no real surprise that the pile-up was pretty intense last night (it being Day 1 of Ken’s operations as EY8/K4ZW).
Signals were up and down but he was peaking over S9 with me and working stations at a good rate at the bottom end of 40m, listening 1-2KHz up (more at times if you believe some of the DX cluster spots - pinch of salt works for me). |
Having listened up the band to see where other stations were calling I found what seemed to be a relatively quiet spot and started calling, commencing about 22:20 UTC. Ken had a good rhythm and he did seem to be tuning up the band repeatedly working stations before dipping back down to his stated UP 1 listen frequency. I spent a while at +1.5KHz and heard him work many stations close to my frequency but for whatever reason he wasn’t hearing me - either too weak or just overwhelmed by bigger signals.
At times I tried my luck just below the pile, around 950Hz up but this was also unsuccessful. As time wore on he did at times ask EU and Asian stations to stand by while he worked a run of NA & SA stations and I could again hear stations being worked but nothing below his stated 1KHz up.
During one of these NA/SA periods I found what appeared to be a relatively quiet spot around 1.25KHz up and waited. When next Ken started working any station I still seemed to be in a pretty clear spot so with fingers crossed (at was getting late and bedtime was looming) I began calling again and around 55 minutes after joining the pile I heard Ken come back to me with a G0RIF 599 - I replied with R TU 599 73 and that was that, another all time new one in the log.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures CW, DXCC, G0RIF, K4ZW, Tajikistan
Worked this evening, 30m CW around 10.105MHz (split). I’d heard him loud and clear (with some QSB) earlier as I tuned up 15m in the SSB section of the band - he was running quite a pile-up and I called many times with no luck. He eventually moved to working exclusively west coast US stations and gradually faded into the noise. I resigned myself to not logging Sudan today and set about doing other things.
Having done those other things and then decided to see what there might be of interest on 30m and 40m I noticed ST2AR spotted on 30m CW on the DX clusters. I had a listen and he was good copy with me peaking a good solid S9 so I decided it was worth trying for a QSO. He was working split so I set my TX frequency about 500Hz up and sent my call.
I must have had a lucky guess because he came straight back with “IF 599″ so I sent my call again and he came back with “G0RIF 599″. I replied with a quick “599 tu” and that was it, another all time new one in the log! It just goes to show that sometimes you can call until blue in the face and not get the QSO when at other times you just get lucky in the pile-up and drop your call in exactly the right place, just where the DX happens to be listening. Of course it’s not always just luck…but that’s a whole other discussion.
Dean Amateur Radio CW, DXCC, ST2AR
It’s always a nice surprise when a batch of cards arrive from the bureau, as much as anything because there doesn’t seem to be any particular kind of schedule that’s adhered to. They just arrive unannounced 2 or 3 times a year, about 70 or 80 cards a batch spread over three envelopes in my case.
This collage shows a selection of the cards received. Of particular note are those confirming new ones for me, V51XG (Namibia) and 3A/DL3OCH (Monaco). This brings to 159 the number of DXCC entities now confirmed by QSL card (of 171 worked).
some of the QSL cards received from the bureau recently
These and other cards are also shown in the QSL picture pages linked from the menu above.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures bureau, DXCC, QSL
A little over a week ago I wrote that I was hoping to get on the bands for this contest. The only requirement was that I’d need to fix my wind damaged antenna. Well that was done and I did enjoy several hours giving away points seeing how many countries I could rack-up during a bit of casual operating.
Conditions (on the bands I used, 40/20/15m) seemed to me to be better than for the CQWW CW contest last November with 15m in particular showing increased activity (with only 1 contact there in the CW contest).
My 107 contacts yielded 46 DXCC entities which are shown in this table:-
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. 46 countries worked (36 on 40m, 21 on 20m and 11 on 15m)
I adopted my usual (for now) contest approach of seeing how many countries I could work while giving away points to those who are looking to compile a competitive score. I reckon on 50 countries being a sensible target given my compromise antenna and to that end I am pleased with 46 countries worked in what amounted to some 5 or 6 hours operating over the 48 hour contest period.
Quite unexpectedly the highlight of my operating occurred within the first 5 minutes of my first stint early on Saturday morning. I’d popped outside to [quite literally] lash the far end of the antenna (which remember is a random length sloping end fed Zepp) to the back fence and then fired up the rig (Yaesu FT-950) on 40m, which just happened to be tuned around 7.080MHz, higher in the band than I’d usually go looking for RTTY signals, and there he was, PJ4R (Bonaire & Curacao) calling CQ WPX. I worked him within a few calls for one of the easier new ones of recent years. Having not been on the bands previously this year (due in part to the broken antenna) this was also the very first log entry of 2010. What a way to kick-start the year!
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. Geographic spread of the 46 countries worked,.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, DXCC, FT-950, RTTY, WPX, Yaesu
A review of outstanding QSL requests early in 2010 shows that I still need cards to confirm the following DXCC entities :-
Antarctica, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Monaco, Montserrat, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and UAE.
Some of these have been outstanding for some years now (Monaco since 1992!) so hopes of cards being received for all of these contacts are fading over time. However, I remain optimistic (dare I suggest confident) that I will receive cards from most of them, in particular Antarctica, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Indonesia, Montserrat, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines and UAE. Time will tell.
Dean Amateur Radio DXCC, QSL
I wrote back in June that I was making good progress toward working 100 countries since moving to Lichfield in September of 2008. Well I can now report that coming out of the CQWW CW contest this past weekend I have now reached that milestone - 100 countries worked from this location.
The details are 100 countries worked with 74 on CW, 66 on RTTY and 60 on SSB. This includes 8 all time new ones in the form of Anguilla, Desecheo Island, St. Maarten & St. Eustatius, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Alaska, Montserrat and the British Virgin Isles.
This brings the overall numbers to 170 worked with 119 on CW, 122 on data modes (RTTY & PSK31) and 111 on SSB. Here’s to the big push towards 200!
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog CW, DXCC, G0RIF, Lichfield, RTTY, SSB
A bit of a mixed bag really with no new ones, not even one, but some nice DX worked, especially on 40m on the Sunday evening. Overall I made 85 contacts (a result of more tuning & listening than transmitting) with 48 DXCC entities logged over the weekend in several sessions on 15/20/40m bands. Details on a separate page which is here - CQWW CW contest 2009 - summary - or linked from the Radio menu above.
the 48 countries logged - CQWW CW Nov 2009
On a less serious note I have to award my ‘biggest signal on the band’ award to G3WW who was booming into Lichfield at S9+60db at very least. I’d be interested to know just what antenna was in use to get such a big intra UK signal.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, DXCC, morse code, propagation
Following the recent post regarding countries worked since moving to Lichfield, I had a quick check last night to see what progress I’d made towards my DXCC objectives.
Just to recap - I aim to work at least 100 countries on SSB, CW and datamodes (RTTY and PSK31). I also want to work 100 countries on each of 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30 and 40m bands (basically all the bands where my antenna works).
In the first instance I’m concentrating on getting the 100 countries on each mode and the scores to date are:-
- 109 countries on SSB
- 116 countries on CW (morse code)
- 129 countries on datamodes (117 RTTY, 74 PSK31)
- 168 countries worked in total
Of the 168 countries worked I have 151 confirmed (QSL received) with 146 by paper card and 110 LOTW (Logbook of The World).
Dean Amateur Radio DXCC, G0RIF, morse code, PSK31, QSL, RTTY, SSB