Day #296 was the day of the aerial work although before we started tearing my aerials down, I had a quick ‘banker’ QSO just in case things didn’t go well. I worked JG1WNO, Hiro on 10m JT65 early in the morning.
After all the work was done and my beam was up, my first QSO with it was a new DXCC entity, VR2XMT, Charlie in Hong Kong on 12m. I was pleased with that. After that quick test I left the shack while we cleaned up outside and returned an hour or so later to have a tune around. I was surprised to hear T32C with a decent signal. I’d been listening for them for the entire course of the DXPedition and apart from one instance, I’d not heard them at all. They were nicely strong and calling CQ so I gave a shout, not really expecting to be heard but I was picked out first time for another new DXCC. I listened for a few minutes and then called David, M6DHU into the shack who also worked them with just ten watts. That was a struggle but I’m really pleased that he managed to make the QSO. After that I had two contacts on 15m JT65 with W5WWJ and KA9SWE. Following that I had a quick chat with Peter, 2E0SQL on 40m to test out the new OCFD I’d put up as well. Later I spoke with KE9RY on 15m and then had a chat with Tony, G0MBA on 10m FM whilst turning the beam to see how the side and rear nulls were doing. Later in the evening I worked W4LT, Luis on 10m and then managed to get through the pileup to work MU/PA9M on 40m. I jumped back to 15m to talk to CO6LP and then finished the day by working CN8QN, Achab on 20m SSB.
I only had three contacts on day #297, first I spoke to Odinn, TF2MSN on 15m and then spoke to Yuriy, NP2/N2TTA on the US Virgin Islands for yet another new DXCC. After that I had a quick word with 7X5QB on 20m.
On day #298 I was in the mood for some data. I worked K0KC on 20m JT65 and then SQ8KEZ using the same mode on 15m. I then changed back to 20m and had two more JT65 QSOs with OZ1TMK and EA2DCF. After that I swapped to PSK31 and worked an odd callsign that I didn’t recognise and neither did my logging software – 1B1AB, Soyer. Some investigation showed that perhaps this is an unauthorised callsign and it all looks like a political mess which I’m not prepared to go into. Still, I worked the station and so the callsign is in my log but I doubt this one will count towards DXCC! After that, to round the evening off I spoke with IZ6ERS on 40m SSB.
