Tuesday 22 October 2013

EA8/G7DIE and eQSL

Less than a week to go before I fly out to Gran Canaria for six months, I've been considering how I will maintain a logbook and how people can get a QSL card. 
I don't currently have any plans to produce a specific QSL card for my time in Gran Canaria, as a result I've decided to use eQSL and design an electronic QSL card, I'll be using HamLog on my iPhone as the log source and this will be uploaded to eQSL at regular intervals.

The callsign I plan to use if EA8/G7DIE and have set this up as a profile in eQSL, see the link below for the eQSL website







Wednesday 16 October 2013

Gran Canaria

So my line of work sometimes takes me overseas, I've had the pleasure of being able to operate from Canada, USA, Crete, Mainland Spain and Gran Canaria previously, but never for more than a month or so at a time, however this Winter I get to spend 6 months on the island of Gran Canaria, I'll be operating holiday style from my apartment and portable at the beach, I'll be using around 80W at the apartment and 10W when on the beach with the following equipment:

Icom IC703
100W portable amp
Buddipole antenna system
MFJ1979 telescopic antenna
LiPo cells portable
Mydel power supply at the apartment
Bands 10-40m

I'll also be taking a paddle key with me and hope to brush up on my CW skills, it's probably 11/12 years since I last used CW, so it's going to be a steep learning curve, again!

My equipment has already been shipped out and I fly out on 28th October, returning to the UK on 28th April.

Hope to work you as EA8/G7DIE/P

Tuesday 15 October 2013

New DXCC total

A little effort on my behalf, checking my phone log from last year, and some recent DXpeditions, have taken my DXCC total to 225 all time and 174 for the year, this was bolstered by working TN2MS yesterday morning in the Democratic Republic of Congo, here's the morning session:

20m
YT1ET
YO6PSD
OH01
VK2WWE
VK2WC
VK3SIM
VK2DX
OE2LIP
GW0BTB
VK2NN
F4GHB
IZ2VAJ


17m
TN2MS
9L1JT
OH6LME
OE1/AH6CY/QRP
TF2MSN
EA7/G0WHX

On the subject of yesterday, what a great opening on 10m, sadly I didn't get in on the action until late afternoon, but made up for lost time by working the following:

10m
W8DLD
HI8JQE
K3RA
PY4ZE
ZY5Y
W0WM
EA8BCP
WB0ISK
VE2XIP
NF9V
W4IOW
EA8AZD
W9PT
LU6FOV
LW7DUC
LW6DG
PJ2/K5JP

12m
N1QEH

15m
TO2TT
PJ2/NT5V
ZS6BAF
3B8FA

17m
WV1H
2E0JOB/M
WJ2R
M5FHJ
KD2BMX
LU1ECZ
KB3USC
K2ZF

20m
VU2VID
VU3WIJ
VP8LP
VU2PHD

Monday 7 October 2013

Fiji

Another all time new one thanks to the Scorpion SA680 antenna, 3D2RA/P on the Pacific Island of Fiji, he wasn't too strong with me at the time and there were plenty of people calling, and to be honest I didn't expect to be heard, but thought I'll never know for sure unless I try, anyway I did, and now it's in the log, two Pacific Islands I've never worked previously Samoa and Fiji are added to my DX list so far this year, with my total around 222DXCC, I say around, because they are a couple I haven't finished moving to my log yet from last year.

I also worked a few Californians yesterday on 15m, the California QSO party was in full swing so I saw the opportunity of adding a few counties worked, in fact I don't recall a time I worked so many Californian stations in one session, I think I might try and work all counties during next year's QSO party.

A couple of other good contacts yesterday was New Zealand whilst driving home from work on 40m, I also managed Mayotte, Angola, Trinidad & Tobago, and Hawaii, here's the summary:

40m
9Y2LAS
ZM4G
DL/G8OFQ

20m
D2SG
3D2RA/P
TO2TT

15m
NM6G
KW8L
KE6ZSN
WH7Z
K6Q
W6YX
N6OJ
KG4N
W0HJW/6
W6PZ
N6NF
N6N
N6O
WA6FGV
CY0P
PY3UK
W6AFA
K6ME
W6T
K6T
W6UE
NN3V/6
W6ML
WB6HYH
K6Z
PT7VB