QSL from K9W

A very nice card arrived today. It was K9W from Wake Atoll. I worked this rare DXCC entry for the first time in 29 Feb 1980 They was using the call W7KHN/KH9 and worked only on 15 m band. In those Days it was just fine with one QSO for DXCC. Today there are the Challenge Award and you have to work every DX on all band slots. So with K9W I worked them from 30 m all up to 10 m (but not on 15 m as this was already in the log). 160, 80 and 40 my antennas was not with me!!

The atoll looks the same as on the old QSL from the 80's.

I have struggled with FT5ZM and managed to work them on 10, 12, 15 and 17 m. All on CW except 17 that was on SSB. So next goal is a RTTY QSO. And also some more band slots as I have all from 160 to 20 to go.

Very windy still outside. Gusts up  to 28 kt and temperature around 0 C.
But no more White fluff so far. But there are long time to spring yet.

CUL

New IOTA from VK5CE!

Today the QSL from OC-255, Red Island arrived. It was from VK5CE/4. Nice card from Craig as usual. See for your self!

Hope you agree with me.

Managed to Catch FT5ZM on 28 and 21 MHz CW this afternoon. Just when the Power come back after the planned Power cut. So now I'm up and running again.And the QRM:ers have a real ball. They are tuning and doing all they can come up with just to make sure no one can have a QSO with FT5ZM. But no success as FT5ZM is around 599+15 db. So he is stronger than the QRM:ers. Hi Hi Hi!!!.

It is very windy outside today. Wind is gusting up to 18 kt. But temperature is just around freezing.

Back to chasing FT5ZM. CUL

FT5ZM on the air!

The mother of DXpedition is on the air. And as usual the QRM:ers have a ball! Amazing! Where are all the QRM:er getting their energy from? Imagine what they could do if they spent all that energy on something useful such as try to work the DX from inside of the pile instead of jamming the DX frequency!!!!

Picture borrowed from QRZ.com.


I have spent the weekend working some S&P in CQ WW 160 CW Contest. But the conds was not so good. And it is also difficult to hear the rare stations when spot on a EU station is Calling CQ. Might have a bad receiver or antenna. Anyway I did not Catch any new stations for my DXCC for 160. But I will keep on trying to see if I can get some new ones during this spring. I have only a 24 m high vertical with additional 2 X 6 m linear loading giving the vertical a total electrical length of 36 m. And with help of a loading coil I have a fine resonance at 1,825 MHz with nearly a SWR of 1,02. For LSN I use a K9AY system.

I have a small lot so this is the way to go. And it works just fine for me.


So now I will try to Catch FT5ZM on at least a few band slots. And my goal is also to Catch them on CW, SSB and RTTY. Hope my Dreams will be fulfilled. At the moment I'm LSN on 14 MHz and he is so week at 14,023. No use to call.

Within 1,5 hour I will have a planned power cut for the work the Power Company is doing on my 10 KV line. The cut will be for 8 hours. But I will be back later this afternoon.

CUL!

Some new Band Slots.

QSL from Svein, JX9JKA Jan Mayen Island worked on 80 SSB arrived today. This is a new slot for my Challenge Award. Thanks Svein!

Nice photo over the remote Jan Mayen Island.

Next band slots was actually two. 30 and 40 m. This was the team from  Poland working from St. Vincent, using the call J88HL. Here I managed to get the missing slots and also SSB and RTTY.

Thanks to the team for the 4 sided QSL. Very nice indeed.

So this add some more Points to my Challenge Award. But there are lot to do to get to the next level of 2000 DXCC band slots. I Think I'm at 1650 give and take a few. So back to radio!

CUL all of you readers out there. Take care.

New IOTA arrived today!

Now, when I have done my update to IOTA the QSL cards keep on coming!!
Today I received HZ1GV operating from Farasan Island, AS-193.

Nice card! So I will have some cards to include in 2015 update!!??

Now they have started to modify the 10 KV Power line. We had a Power cut of 1 hour today. And this Thursday we will have a cut well over 4 hours. Hope the the temperature is as today. Around -3 C only.

Well that's all for now. CUL

New DXCC as QSL.

Today XZ1Z arrived in my mailbox. Myanmar is not so common on the bands. Thanks to Zorro, JH1AJT for this operation. I've got confirmation via LoTW but I need the card in my file.

Nice mysterious card indeed!

Winter is keeping us Cold at the moment. Temperature has gone up a bit. Just now it is only -6 C but still no mosquito's!!

Take care all of you readers. CUL

Onne more IOTA!

Now they are coming in a stream!!

Today I received confirmation for EU-121, Arranmore Island. They used the call EJ0M and they where 9 operators.

Picture was taken by M0PRL. One of the operators. I worked them on 80 m CW.

Well, the Winter is still on. Temperature is around -6 C at the moment and a clear sky and a very faint sun. The sun rises around 0830 and drops below the horizon around 1520. But since first of January the Daylight has increased by 30 minutes. So it is going in the right direction.

CUL

New IOTA!

Today I received a IOTA. Not so rare but hard to get a QSL from. Finally I worked Jim Duggan from Sandford Tasmanina. Hi is also known by the call VK7SM. A very  nice signal for us in Sweden. The IOTA No is OC-006 and this is now x-ssed out in my list. Thanks Jim!

The Picture is from Trial Harbour, West Coast, Tasmania and was photographed by Jim's wife Sue. Very nice Picture. You have to click on it and enjoy it in large scale.

Well this morning temperature was round -12 c ( 10 F ). No snow yet today.

CUL

An new DXCC and IOTA in one blow!

Today, finally the card from Banaba Isl Arrived. They used the call T33A and I managed to get them on CW and SSB in 4 band slots.

So this gives me one more in DXCC Mix, CW and PH. And a new IOTA as this is OC-018.

THANKS!

Winter is here! This morning I had about 6" ( 12 to 15 cm ) of the White fluff and temperature is around -10 C ( 14 F ). So there are no mosquito's outside today.

Tomorrow I have to visit the local vampire to give some blood. Reason for this is the yearly check-up of the heart.

So keep on trademarking and make Life as difficult for the rest of us as possible !!!??

CUL

Trademark!!??

Are this for real??!!


SouthWest Ohio DX Association (SWODXA) has trademarked "DX-Dinner" and "DXpedition of the Year". Is this true? How can they trademark a phrase?. USA! The land of surprises.


Why not trademark the alphabet and all the possible combinations of the letters. Than no one can write anymore without some agreement and fee to the owner of the Trademark.


Well, I guess this is only valid in US so we, outside US can use this as we please! So I hope any Association outside US start to Use "DX-Dinner" and "DXpedition of the Year" all the time.


More information in this matter can be found on DX-World. http://dx-world.net/


Winter has arrived. Minus 7 C and some fluff in the air. Have to go outside and find and dig out my car so I can go to the store and get some food.



CUL

New Bandslots for Challenge Award

Today I received a few more band slots for C9. It was C82DX operating from Mozambique. I could add 12, 17 and 30 m and by this filled up  most of the C9 slots. Only missing 160 m.

A very nice card indeed!!

I have started to build a device to degauss my spare GU74-b. Hopefully I will have it done this weekend. You do it by connect filament Power and then connect grid, screen and anode electrodes together and after cooking the tube with just filament for an hour you apply low voltage ( 15 to 35 V ) between cathode and the grid, screen and anode. Positive terminal to the anode and adjust the Power supply to achieve about 300 to 500 mA and Watch the current carefully for eventual jumps. Need a power supply with a current limiter After an additional hour the tube should be degaussed.

Well the weather man has promised some Winter this weekend. Temperature at the moment is around 6 C (42 F). But this will change to about -8 C (17 F) and some White fluff. I might have to start my snow blower!!??

Take care all of you readers. CUL

YES! Finally they arrived!

The QSL from HP0INT operation. I managed to work all of them I needed. NA-072 I had confirmed Before. But all other ( 5 ea ) was new for me. Look at the fine Pictures.

Unfortunately my scanner can't take all so I had to split them. Therefore the difference in size.

I've got a very nice e-mail from Steen OZ8SW. Steen made some nice comments  regarding IOTA and QSL. Thanks Steen. I will take your comment's under consideration.

To all of you click on the Pictures and enjoy!!

CUL

I've made some calculations!

If I will receive QSL and work IOTA with the present rate I will have a problem in achieving some Awards. I have at the moment 333 IOTA and to achieve the 750 goal to get the plackets it will take me more than 8-10 years from now!!?? But than I have not taken in account that the rate will go down as the IOTA's will become more rare and not so easy to find. That means I will be over 75 years old Before I even can Think about getting the 750 plackets.
So this is one more reason to quit the program and just slow down a bit. So you rare IOTAS will not receive any more $$ ££ €€ from me. There is no Point. I was to old when I started to chase IOTAS so it is my own fault.

Need a Picture!

This is Balder and he Think I should spend more time with him than chasing IOTA at the radio.
I will continue to work IOTA when I hear them and I will send QSL request via Buro. I will continue to update my account at IOTA but the serious chasing days are gone.

Imagine what I might do with all the Money I will save. It will buy me a lot of gasoline for my motorbikes and a lot of fun with them!!??

CUL!

Times of wonder is not over yet!

I received a QSL from K5T, NA-119 Timbalier Island Louisiana. Worked him in October 2013 and QSL arrived today. And this is super as it will go into my update.

But I still Think that IOTA has to do some major Changes in how get Islands confirmed. Otherwise I Think it will slowly die out. I don't Think I will get to 700 in my Life time with the present rate of speed!!?? But you never knew. Check out DX-World and the presentation from K6VVA. Wonder if he could read my thoughts as we have the same ideas about IOTA and QSL:ing.

Take care all of you readers out there. CUL!

IOTA programme dead or alive?

I have spent a lot of $$$ and €€€ to get QSL from different IOTA expeditions. I have been using SAE with $ £ €. But the replay rate is very low. OK, theft of SAE in some countries so use OQRS. Well I've done that as well. I have supplied lots of $ £ € via Pay-Pal. But the replay rate is almost the same. So what's the point in continue supplying $ £ € to a lot of hams all over the World and get nothing back?
There are exceptions. K6VVA and VK5CE reply very fast. But the last effort as VK5CE/4 has not show up yet.
DXCC is not a big problem. Here we have LoTW. And most of the DXpeditions load up after finished the operation. But it is a different story with IOTA. RSGB demand a paper QSL. And as long as RSGB can't come up with another way of getting islands confirmed we are stuck with the paper QSL. And operators need to understand that every January an update is done to RSGB. And this is done only once a year. So if you will get QSL after January you have to wait a year to get the IOTA confirmed into your credit. This is to slow system.
Why can't RSGB use the IOTA Contest computer system to upload log and in this way get hits and confirmation. Works fine during IOTA contest??!!
Well I will quit supplying $ £ € to individuals operating from rare IOTA's and from 2014 I will only send out QSL requests via buro. And if I will get a reply I will See this as a bonus. It will take to long time to get the Awards I need any way as response time is so slow. For example where is the QSL from HP0INT/3/2/9/4. QSL request was sent 19 September. I have not received any card so far. Hope they will show up Before the annual update. I believe it when I see them in my mail box.

No Picture this time as I'm a Little p----d off. I'm a retired guy and I will save my Money for better purpose than supplying individuals that never or seldom send anything back.

Now I will get a cup of coffee to slow me down a bit.