Heard Island

Just worked Heard Island first try on 30m CW.   100 Watts into my 1/4 Vert got me 17901 km away!

Just a few Heard Island pictures ...

A little RF Humour

I find this particularly funny ...

First the South Pacific now Africa on 40m

Not as far as the South Pacific but grey lined Africa working the Western Sahara for the first time.   Yet another surprise 40 m cw QSO working S01WS.

On a roll....

OK ,  this is real cool just worked FW5JJ Jean in Wallis and Futuna Islands yet another South Pacific Island on 40 m CW.  Yet another new country ...YIKES.   40m isn't know for that sort of thing but the Sun was just going down there so grey line had allot to do with it as 40m was just opening up!  

Quite the morning .... New Caledonia

Just worked Sam FK8DD in New Caledonia an Island in the South Pacific 13,500 km on 30m CW running 100W into the 1/4 Vertical Antenna.

First VK in forever

Just worked Niel VK2IZI SSB in the Blue Mountains near Sydney.   Used 100 w to my 1/4 Vert and got and received a 57 ...YIKES.  Neil commented that it was quite rare to work a VE3...very cool!  

CQ SSB Contest + Log Book Update

I am not big on SSB but the CQ SSB contest combined with some pretty good conditions made for allot of fun.    Fri eve before it started at 00:00 gmt work a bunch of stations " getting ready".  There is quite the excitement and energy leading up to the start of the event.    Saturday mornign into the afternoon I worked mostly 15m.  Signal were really good and most of the time the "59" was really a "59"...for the most part if I could hear it I could work it.   Sunday the  conditions were not as good but still worked a little on 15m and even some on 20m.    Condtiosn were not great and I really could have used another 6-9 db on the TX side of things.    I have 3 antennas to choose from on 20m ,  the 14avq,  1/4 GP and 5/8 GP.    Forget about the 5/8 its coming down in the spring and and I think I will replace it with a fan dipole.  The 14avq is OK but loads not so good.  The TS520s antenna tuner doesn't work so well on 20m so I need a decent antenna.   The 1/4 GP on 20m works OK and loads with a 1.5 - 1.6 VSWR avoiding the antenna tuner.    I was going to fire up the old FT101 for 20 meters not nearly as finicky to load up and a db or 2 more in power bit I decided to head out for a run instead!  

Log book update...its a biggy!

Log Book Update and Spring Propagation

 Propagation has been changing.  Its been sometime  since I work through the regular seasonal changes so I am not sure if thats what I am observing or its the waning sunspot cycles.   DX has shifted down to 20m and 30m vs the 17m and 15m DX that I had been working through the Winter.   I didn't think anyone hung out on 20m any more but it sure has come to life recently.


So here is the log to date .....

Log Book Update

 Made some great contacts since my last log book update.   Worked 3B9FR Rodriguez Island 15734.7 km bearing 61.9 deg ENE.   100 Watts into my 14AVQ at the top of the hill and a little patience working a pile up was all it took.

 Speaking of pile up I am getting very proficient working a split lining up my TX with the last station contacted  ( when I can hear that station  ).

 Another couple of notables and pileup splits  were KH2X Guam on 17m and LU1ZI an Argentina Antarctica station on 17m.

 Been having great success on 15m and 17m  as we roll towards the spring solstice.