Day #79 was the second day of the Russian DX contest I mentioned in my last entry and I was hoping to make it up to 100 QSOs before the end. I didn’t quite manage that as I only added another twenty to my previous total, bringing me up to ninety.
The additional QSOs were all on 15m and they were: UA4PT, RT2M, UA4NC, RG6G, YP9W, UA3AIU, UA9UZZ, UC0A, RU9WZ, UA0SJ, US7IB, R3CW, RM4HZ, UA5A, RA3DAD, 7Z1SJ, UV5U, RW4NJ, P39P, RZ4CWW
In the middle of those I decided to see how the vertical/tuner combo worked on 24MHz so I switched over to there, tuned up and had a listen. I soon heard BX5AA, Jimmy in Taiwan calling CQ so I replied and we had a quick QSO. That’s a very welcome new DXCC entity for me.
After the contest was over I worked VE3WLD on 15m JT65 and then SV1CQN, Kostas on the same band using SSB.
I only had one QSO on day #80. I got home from work, switched the wireless on and it was still sitting on 15m. I had a tune around and heard 7X4AN, Med in Algeria so I worked him for another new DXCC.
A similar thing happened on day #81. I put the wireless on after work and hards a very strong signal from Antonios, SV2FLQ in Greece so I called him and we had a quick QSO. Later I struggled to complete a contact with Paul, M3JFM on 40m JT65 because the band was very noisy. We exchanged locators, callsigns and signal reports though so that’s enough to constitute a completed QSO.
I did attempt to give away a few points in the 50MHz UKAC event on day #81 but even though I was able to persuade the 10m 5/8 vertical to tune on 50MHz, I had a good listen around the band and didn’t hear a single station. I’m not too surprised by that because I know how difficult 6m can be. I thoroughly expect to be able to work some decent DX later in the year when there’s Sporadic E about though.
