Days 225, 226 and 227 – An unexpected new DXCC

I had one QSO on day #225, I worked IZ5GST, Steve on 40m.  40m was my mainstay earlier in the year but the summer doldrums are making it quite tricky at times on the band right now.  Conditions will change rapidly and one moment I’ll be waiting for someone to finish a QSO and before that happens, they just fade away into nothingness.

On day #226 I first worked GB50RSARS, Sam on 40m and I tweeted that I’d done so.  Within a few minutes I had six replies from other people who had seen my tweet and also worked Sam.  Who needs a DX-Cluster when a group of friends announce via twitter who they’re working!  I run two twitter accounts, one @qso365 which just automatically tweets when I update this blog and the other one is in the name of the Martello Tower Group, @g0pkt and is the account I use for regular day-to-day stuff.   Later I worked EA3GNX, Carlos using PSK31 on 17m.

I had two contacts on day #227, both on 40m.  I first worked DL6EV, Heinz and then tuning around I heard a callsign prefix I didn’t recognise – The callsign was OJ0UR and a quick check showed that he was operating from Märket Island.   Märket is a small island split into two sovereignties with one half being Swedish and the other half is Finnish.  The OJ0 prefix is for Market Reef and it is the Finnish part which seems to be quite a rare DXCC entity, hence the pileup was huge.  I tried for a while but didn’t manage to work them so took a break and later in the evening I tried again and after half an hour or so of calling, I managed to work them.  This was a good one and I’m very pleased to have them in my logbook.

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