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The QSL card arrived today and a very nice card it is, befitting the dxpedition itself which was a slick, well run affair.
I was very pleased with my 30m CW contact because prior to the night I made the contact I’d struggled to hear them at all. Add to that the huge pile-ups I was convinced I’d never get through. But, on the night of the 22nd February 2009, they were much louder so I set about making a few calls, trying to find my way through the pile-up. Half an hour later they were in the log.
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The very smart K5D QSL card
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I’ve had some good successes on morse code over the past year or two with VP6DX and K5D as two contacts of note. I next hope to work El Salvador for an all time new one later this month when a British team will be operating exclusively on CW as YS1G. Fingers crossed there is some decent propagation come the time.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures dxpedition, K5D, morse code, propagation, QSL
6Y8XF - Jamaica
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Nigel (G3TXF) made 2,100 CW QSOs operating as 6Y8XF from Montego Bay in Jamaica for the 2009 Commonwealth Contest. One of those, on 40m, was me.
I’d worked Jamaica many times previously but I was still waiting for a confirmed contact. I know Nigel is a serious QSLer so I was pleased to get him in the log and even more pleased when his QSL card dropped onto the mat this morning. |
Thanks to Nigel Jamaica is now confirmed, this despite my earlier moans (see March 15th) regarding my poor antenna setup and performance. It’s fair to say that the antennas at the other end more than made up for my bit of wet string - check out Nigel’s excellent site at http://www.g3txf.com where he has a write-up of his Jamaican trip and some nice pictures of the station he was using.
I also had a QSL card this week from PJ5NA (James) on Sint Eustatius Island in the Dutch Antilles. I was really pleased about this one because it was a very difficult 30m CW contact on a very noisy band. But it seems I got him and it’s one more to the confirmed total - now running at 165 worked, 144 confirmed (by QSL card), 148 total confirmed (I also use ARRL’s Logbook of The World where my total stands at 105 confirmed).
Dean Amateur Radio contest, morse code, QSL
The RSGB Commonwealth Contest, for those of you who aren’t amateur radio operators, is a 24 hour morse code contest where the aim is to contact as many stations as possible in countries comprising the British Commonwealth.
I’d been looking forward to this for a while having done well last year in so far as I managed to work 4 all time new ones over the 24 hour period. This weekend however was a bit of a disappointment with most stations of interest either not heard at all or way down in the noise.
I don’t think conditions were great but I attribute the disappointment mostly to my relatively poor antenna compared to last year. My 2008 efforts from a previous residence were assisted by resonant 20m and 40m dipoles. This year at a new home I am using a simple random length wire tuned by an antenna tuning unit. This makes for a far less efficient receive and transmit antenna. I think it’s time to explore how I can fit some resonant antennas into my new setup.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, morse code