<- April's blog
May 1: a good start to the month, I worked A45XR on 80/CW. I've heard Chris on 80 at dawn during the past week or so but have either been too sleepy, too late or too busy to call, until this morning. He was working a steady stream of JAs who were mostly zero beat with him and stronger than him, so it was hard to distinguish his call from theirs. S7 to S8 QRN didn't help matters. Eventually, one of the JAs called a bit HF and I followed suit, hoping the rest of the pile would take the hint. A couple of calls later he sent ZL ZL? ... then ZL2IFX ... then ZL2IFB 5NN and we completed a few minutes after ZL dawn, for my first ever A4 on 80m, the 219th DXCC. Cheers Chris! The confirmation came through on LoTW later the same day. Job done.
May 3: two direct QSL cards arrived in the post today, one from a French scientist on Kerguelen Island and another from a Norwegian in Equatorial Guinea. Thank you guys! Checking through my QSL card album, I'm short of about 30 cards including the dozen or so DXCC countries I haven't worked yet, of course. Some cards from countries that I have worked (some many times, such as 4U1ITU) have been outstanding for years, despite repeated requests - very frustrating. They have confirmed on LoTW but not on paper. I only want one card per DXCC country to complete the postcard set and gloat over. I'm idly thinking about going to Europe to collect my cards!
May 9: working 90 DXCCs on the low bands in March was enough for 8th place in the CDXC LF Challenge and a certificate:
The winnner, Lionel G5LP, is also leading the CW section of CDXC's annual Marathon Challenge:
I'm trailing Lionel by 4 countries, snapping at his heels, but check the slots: Lionel has filled 500 more band-slots than me this year, very impressive given that he lives in a surburban house with a small garden without the advantage of my ZL callsign. Hats off to Lionel! Awesome!
Lionel and I are passionate about our hobby, verging on obsessive ... but it could be worse.
I really enjoy the DX challenges, even more than contests these days. It's still fun to blast away at full throttle for a weekend but there's not much finesse to contesting, whereas DXing seriously takes application, skill and oodles of patience. As I write this, I'm monitoring 20/SSB for CY0/VA1AXC who has been spotted about 4 times in the past 10 minutes, straining my ears for any hint of him. I heard nothing of him on the short path, nor it seems on the long path, although I hear some East coast Americans making easy QSOs. CY0 will be a new DXCC for me this year so I've been stalking him for a few days with the same nil result so far ... but I see from my log that we worked on 15 and 20m last May, so there's still hope that the ionosphere will come up trumps at some point. The A-index at 17 isn't helping. C'est la vie.
My VP8STI card arrived today:
May 10: My VP8SGI card arrived today:
And thanks to QSL manager Tim M0URX, I also received a card for CY9M:
That's my first and only card from Saint Paul Island, which leaves me needing 28 more cards to complete my DXCC postcard collection.
May 11: I've been monitoring the NCDXF beacons on 20-10m today with Faros, mostly using my 80m loop. I don't presently have an omnidirectional antenna for the high bands, though I have the parts to build an amplified wideband vertical when I get the time. Meanwhile, the 80m loop is good enough, apart from 15m it seems where it is so badly mismatched that I didn't hear anything on the band. Despite the poor conditions, 10 and 12m opened today, so tomorrow I will probably spend some time listening or CQing on those bands.
May 15: an email from John K9EL told me my claimed score for the 2015 CQ Marathon has been confirmed unchanged ... but I'll have to wait for the official results to see if I have won anything. The tension is unbearable, worse than Eurovision!
May 17: while patiently listening to and sporadically calling an extremely weak station in the Congo via the long path on 20m this evening, my eardrums were repeatedly assaulted by a local with a very strong signal, calling out of time and often simplex on top of the Congolese chap (who was working split). At first I thought maybe he just made a simple mistake, forgetting to split, but then I heard him calling up about 500 Hz, then up about 1kHz or 1.5kHz before returning to simplex ... so I can only presume he was doing it deliberately. A couple of Europeans in the pile took it upon themselves to send "UP" at him, one sending his callsign twice to be sure he knew he was the one they were telling off, but that had only a temporary effect. At one point, he proceeded to send the TN station a report, several times on simplex, and then started sending his callsign or the suffix repeatedly with "CFM?" because, I presume, the DX was working someone else (thanks to the QRM and my rig's AGC, I couldn't actually hear the TN during this episode). Looking at the well appointed shack on his QRZ page and his association with some local DXpeditions, I'm reminded of the phrase "All the gear but no idea ...". Oh well, we all had to start somewhere. I just hope one of his pals reads this, figures out who I mean, and has a quiet word with him about his technique. He needs a mentor, a session with the clue fairy.
May 20: a nice certificate turned up in the post for winning the Oceania section in the REF contest.
This evening I finally caught TN2MP. I've been stalking them for about 2 weeks. Previously when they were spotted on DX Cluster, all I could hear was their pileups, maybe the odd ESP hint of someone in there but far too weak to copy and hence to call. Tonight, for a change, I heard them marginally above the noise floor on 20/CW calling CQ VK, via long path, simplex. Best of all, the EU zoo were behaving themselves so we had our shot. It took several calls to make him realise there was a ZL calling, and several more to get my full call across. I gave him 519 and received 559 with QSB - nice! I've worked TN on 20/CW before but only the once - it was TN2T back in 2012. This was my first TN QSO for 2016 ... and probably my last!
May 29: I had a play in WPX CW this weekend, rather half-heartedly due to having to work too. I discovered that the WinKeyer USB memory trigger keys don't work when N1MM is connected to the keyer. So, I can't simply minimise N1MM to catch up with emails, pressing a keyer button occasionally to send CQ or send my callsign and quickly restoring N1MM to log a QSO. I'm not sure whether this is a limitation (a 'feature') of N1MM or the keyer, possibly both. Annoying anyway.
May 30: K1EL Steve emailed me to say the keyer memory button lockout issue is not an inherent limitation of the WinKeyer itself, so I guess it must be something in the N1MM software. I'll pester the N1MM support krew about it.
Despite that, I made about 200 half-hearted QSOs in WPX, 150 on 15m using my contest call ZM4G and another 50 on various bands under ZL2iFB. I heard Ixi ZL4YL doing nicely on 15m: she's Holger ZL2IO's teenage daughter and I guess has her dad's CW contesting genes.
May 1: a good start to the month, I worked A45XR on 80/CW. I've heard Chris on 80 at dawn during the past week or so but have either been too sleepy, too late or too busy to call, until this morning. He was working a steady stream of JAs who were mostly zero beat with him and stronger than him, so it was hard to distinguish his call from theirs. S7 to S8 QRN didn't help matters. Eventually, one of the JAs called a bit HF and I followed suit, hoping the rest of the pile would take the hint. A couple of calls later he sent ZL ZL? ... then ZL2IFX ... then ZL2IFB 5NN and we completed a few minutes after ZL dawn, for my first ever A4 on 80m, the 219th DXCC. Cheers Chris! The confirmation came through on LoTW later the same day. Job done.
May 3: two direct QSL cards arrived in the post today, one from a French scientist on Kerguelen Island and another from a Norwegian in Equatorial Guinea. Thank you guys! Checking through my QSL card album, I'm short of about 30 cards including the dozen or so DXCC countries I haven't worked yet, of course. Some cards from countries that I have worked (some many times, such as 4U1ITU) have been outstanding for years, despite repeated requests - very frustrating. They have confirmed on LoTW but not on paper. I only want one card per DXCC country to complete the postcard set and gloat over. I'm idly thinking about going to Europe to collect my cards!
May 9: working 90 DXCCs on the low bands in March was enough for 8th place in the CDXC LF Challenge and a certificate:
The winnner, Lionel G5LP, is also leading the CW section of CDXC's annual Marathon Challenge:
I'm trailing Lionel by 4 countries, snapping at his heels, but check the slots: Lionel has filled 500 more band-slots than me this year, very impressive given that he lives in a surburban house with a small garden without the advantage of my ZL callsign. Hats off to Lionel! Awesome!
Lionel and I are passionate about our hobby, verging on obsessive ... but it could be worse.
I really enjoy the DX challenges, even more than contests these days. It's still fun to blast away at full throttle for a weekend but there's not much finesse to contesting, whereas DXing seriously takes application, skill and oodles of patience. As I write this, I'm monitoring 20/SSB for CY0/VA1AXC who has been spotted about 4 times in the past 10 minutes, straining my ears for any hint of him. I heard nothing of him on the short path, nor it seems on the long path, although I hear some East coast Americans making easy QSOs. CY0 will be a new DXCC for me this year so I've been stalking him for a few days with the same nil result so far ... but I see from my log that we worked on 15 and 20m last May, so there's still hope that the ionosphere will come up trumps at some point. The A-index at 17 isn't helping. C'est la vie.
My VP8STI card arrived today:
May 10: My VP8SGI card arrived today:
And thanks to QSL manager Tim M0URX, I also received a card for CY9M:
That's my first and only card from Saint Paul Island, which leaves me needing 28 more cards to complete my DXCC postcard collection.
May 11: I've been monitoring the NCDXF beacons on 20-10m today with Faros, mostly using my 80m loop. I don't presently have an omnidirectional antenna for the high bands, though I have the parts to build an amplified wideband vertical when I get the time. Meanwhile, the 80m loop is good enough, apart from 15m it seems where it is so badly mismatched that I didn't hear anything on the band. Despite the poor conditions, 10 and 12m opened today, so tomorrow I will probably spend some time listening or CQing on those bands.
May 15: an email from John K9EL told me my claimed score for the 2015 CQ Marathon has been confirmed unchanged ... but I'll have to wait for the official results to see if I have won anything. The tension is unbearable, worse than Eurovision!
May 17: while patiently listening to and sporadically calling an extremely weak station in the Congo via the long path on 20m this evening, my eardrums were repeatedly assaulted by a local with a very strong signal, calling out of time and often simplex on top of the Congolese chap (who was working split). At first I thought maybe he just made a simple mistake, forgetting to split, but then I heard him calling up about 500 Hz, then up about 1kHz or 1.5kHz before returning to simplex ... so I can only presume he was doing it deliberately. A couple of Europeans in the pile took it upon themselves to send "UP" at him, one sending his callsign twice to be sure he knew he was the one they were telling off, but that had only a temporary effect. At one point, he proceeded to send the TN station a report, several times on simplex, and then started sending his callsign or the suffix repeatedly with "CFM?" because, I presume, the DX was working someone else (thanks to the QRM and my rig's AGC, I couldn't actually hear the TN during this episode). Looking at the well appointed shack on his QRZ page and his association with some local DXpeditions, I'm reminded of the phrase "All the gear but no idea ...". Oh well, we all had to start somewhere. I just hope one of his pals reads this, figures out who I mean, and has a quiet word with him about his technique. He needs a mentor, a session with the clue fairy.
May 20: a nice certificate turned up in the post for winning the Oceania section in the REF contest.
Despite referring to 2015, I think it is actually for the 2016 event since I already received the 2015 certificate, last year. Oops.
This evening I finally caught TN2MP. I've been stalking them for about 2 weeks. Previously when they were spotted on DX Cluster, all I could hear was their pileups, maybe the odd ESP hint of someone in there but far too weak to copy and hence to call. Tonight, for a change, I heard them marginally above the noise floor on 20/CW calling CQ VK, via long path, simplex. Best of all, the EU zoo were behaving themselves so we had our shot. It took several calls to make him realise there was a ZL calling, and several more to get my full call across. I gave him 519 and received 559 with QSB - nice! I've worked TN on 20/CW before but only the once - it was TN2T back in 2012. This was my first TN QSO for 2016 ... and probably my last!
May 29: I had a play in WPX CW this weekend, rather half-heartedly due to having to work too. I discovered that the WinKeyer USB memory trigger keys don't work when N1MM is connected to the keyer. So, I can't simply minimise N1MM to catch up with emails, pressing a keyer button occasionally to send CQ or send my callsign and quickly restoring N1MM to log a QSO. I'm not sure whether this is a limitation (a 'feature') of N1MM or the keyer, possibly both. Annoying anyway.
May 30: K1EL Steve emailed me to say the keyer memory button lockout issue is not an inherent limitation of the WinKeyer itself, so I guess it must be something in the N1MM software. I'll pester the N1MM support krew about it.
Despite that, I made about 200 half-hearted QSOs in WPX, 150 on 15m using my contest call ZM4G and another 50 on various bands under ZL2iFB. I heard Ixi ZL4YL doing nicely on 15m: she's Holger ZL2IO's teenage daughter and I guess has her dad's CW contesting genes.
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