I had a nice lot of QSOs on day #337, largely on the higher bands again. I was up at a reasonable time and had a couple of CQ shouts on 10m, first working UV3QF, Igor and UA6BCB, Vlad. I was then nicely surprised to be called by ZL4CZ, Steven who was a nice loud […]
Category: Contesting
Days 331, 332 and 333 – One more CW QSO in the log
Day #331 started off with some QSOs on 12m, I worked EA9IB, Pedro, EK6TA, Hovik, EW6DX, Igor and SV2HTI, Ilias. After that I spoke to WV4X, Don and IZ0VXL, Federico on 15m before going back to 12m to talk to YO3RU. I then had my eighth QSO of the year using Morse code. I worked ZD8N on […]
Days 325, 326 and 327 – Three average days on the wireless
It’s getting to the time of year now that when I get home in the evening, the bands have largely closed down and with an aerial which doesn’t seem to be performing too well on the lower bands I’m starting to struggle a little bit. I’m aiming to take the OCFD down and replace it […]
RSGB UKAC ‘Activity Contests’ – My thoughts.
As a member of the Martello Tower Group, we operated in the RSGB UKAC contests from June 2009 until March 2011 and were reasonably successful for the full year of 2010. However the introduction of the M5 multiplier rule in 2011 really affected us badly and so we decided earlier this year that we would […]
Days 323 and 324 – The LZ DX contest
I’d planned in advance to make a bit of an effort in the LZ DX contest and so on the Saturday morning I attempted to re-route the coax that currently goes to the OCFD I have up and replace it with a mono band 40m dipole but unfortunately due to bad planning I wasn’t able […]
Days 317, 318 and 319
I worked a few RTTY stations in the early hours of day #317 on 40m carrying on with the contest from the day before, they were W3LL, VA2UP, IK4CLF, UA9OG, OM7OM, Z37M, WA2TMC, K9NR and IW1QN. In the morning I spoke to RW9JZ, Leo and EW6DX, Igor on 10m SSB. Later I switched to 12m […]
Days 314, 315 and 316 – More great conditions and new DXCCs
I had a very good start to day #314, I heard two stations on 10m from New Zealand talking to each other and passing the DX they were working backwards and forwards between them. I called a few times with no response and then the stronger of them said “I’ll take one more call and […]
Days 309 and 310 – The Ukrainian DX Contest
Day #309 started as any normal day, I had a few QSOs. I first worked UA3QBL, Vlad and UA4NX, Eduard on 10m PSK31 and then spoke to UN7BEW, Alex on SSB. I also worked IZ1DGG, Alf on 20m and then RA9KY, Nick, HZ1SK, Samir and Z21BB, Fernando in Zimbabwe for a new DXCC. A while […]
Days 302 and 303 – CQWW SSB weekend
This weekend was the CQWW SSB contest, arguably the largest HF contest of the year and it was an event I’d been looking forward to for some time. Last year I just gave away a few points using a relatively low and inefficient aerial but with the beam up, I knew I was going to […]
Days 287, 288 and 289 – A bit of (almost) everything
There’s a bit of everything in this update. Variety is the spice of life! I only had two QSOs on day #287 though, I first worked KD4FNI, Glenn on 15m and then I heard EA3JW, Jim calling CQ DX on 40m. I wound the power down to 10 watts and asked if he’d mind working […]
