A little bit more Es down to Italy on 6m this evening but perhaps the highlight today was working ET3AA on 17m CW for a new country. I'd heard ET3AA on 21MHz a little earlier - not too strongly but I found him on 17m with a good signal and after a few calls managed to get him in the log.
First 6m Es QSOs of the season for me today down to the south to EA and CN8.
Caught an opening to Italy on 6m in the evening - just worked a few stations remotely from Broad Haven - waiting for a pizza at the beach!
In other news, the Alpha tripped the power to the shack again today - it had been over a week since the last occurrence, so I'd hoped it was fixed! I cleaned it out a bit more thoroughly this time. This morning it tripped as I turned the band switch. I assume it was something physical moved, but it's hard to tell.
It's May Day, so there are a bunch of '81' callsigns from Russia and Belarus this morning. Worked a few for fun.
Highlight of the day was working D60DX on 15m CW for a new country. Very happy about that one as I made a good few QSOs from there as D68C way back when. Looked at D60DX's QRZ page and the pictures looked familiar.
Another misty morning here, so I started off on 2m with a nice easy QSO with M0JBM and then a little later with EI3EBB.
Bit of fun and games this afternoon with the Alpha. It was in standby mode and started tripping the shack supply. It wasn't on load or anything, so I could only conclude there was dust or fur in it again. This time, I took the top off and gave it a vacuum out. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I put the top back on and so far, no tripping....fingers crossed.
Despite the higher solar flux, I can't say conditions have seemed great. Nice to work Chuck K4QS on a SOTA trip on 15m as well as a couple of QSOs with Z66SP. Worked XQ3SK on 10m CW quite late on, so nice to hear the band open. Got a bit of a hint as the 10m FT8 SDR/Loop was seeing a fair bit from South America.
Most of the QSOs today on 2m - nice to work a few stations, nothing terribly distant. M0JDK in IO92 and M0JBM in IO81 the best. Did hear G4LBJ (JO02) and M1GEO (JO01) well this morning, but they couldn't hear me today.
A few UK/EI CW QSOs in the morning and then in the evening, some Florida QSO Party contacts on 20m.for a little DX.
From the east coast, 2m is going well. I was pleased to work Dan M0MST in the Cotswolds on 2m FT8. I'm guessing he was beaming east originally as when I called him, he came well up. Also nice to work TM8DW in JO00 on 2m. Not often I work that far on 2m with the vertical. Looking at the QRZ entry from TM8DW, it's a Marconi Day station, but more significantly, F4FET is involved, who always has a good signal on 2m.
A bit more than usual on 2m so it was nice to make a few QSOs.
Worked a handful of stations in the UKEI CW contest on 7 and 14 MHz in the evening.
Noticed last night as I was playing around that the DX Commander had an SWR of around 1.5:1 on 40m. Not the end of the world, but it's normally better than that and in case of QRO operation, it's better to keep the amplifier happy by reducing return power! When I went out on my rounds (chickens, Polytunnels, birds etc) I pulled the aerial down and had a quick look and the problem was what I hoped it was - the very top section had collapsed down a couple of inches. I extended the section, put the aerial up and the SWR is now as it usually is at just over 1:1.
I suppose I could super glue that top section. I've got clips on all the joints below, but this bit of pole is too small for one of the clips.
2m still seems decent although no DX here (on the vertical at least). When I got to the shack TX9W were on 20m FT8, but it seems they went QRT just as I came on!
Actually - got back late afternoon from a trip out and noticed the top of the DX Commander had slipped again! I've put some tape on it for now and that should hopefully keep the top of the pole extended. More drama when the Alpha amp seemed to trip the shack electric supply - probably a bit of dust or fur (Pippi the cat...) in the EHT. Firing it up again seemed to clear the problem after a second.
Not much of interest on HF today; Z66SP - you don't hear many of those. And UN8JNZ on 20m - a nice QSO.
HF again seemed poor! Some 2m tropo across the Irish Sea with some big signals fairly locally.
Pleased to work 3B9G from Rodrigues on 15m CW this afternoon. It's always nice to work 3B9 and brings back happy memories, well over 20 years ago of operating from 3B9C. Of course, that was the follow up to the D68C trip. I still need D6 from GW!
Had a near miss on 2m FT8 with M7EMH in Gloucestershire - via aircraft I imagine. Reminded me of Ernie G0EMH who used to be very active in the mid 1980s on 2m SSB from the west of Gloucestershire. I seem to remember putting an aerial up on a Scots expedition in perhaps 1986 and Ernie was the first station we heard up there.
Pretty busy day, so didn't get much radio time until the sked with Roger GW5NF in the late afternoon. Good signals although the bands have been noisy today which of course was worse on phone than on CW.
The 19z CWT was better on 15m than I'd expected, given conditions through the day. Managed to work a few west coast North Americans including Jim K6AR on 15m and a couple of the other usual suspects. At the start, good signals from AA3B, N3RD and VE3EJ in quick QSOs before the contest started. 20m seemed poorer into North America than last week.
Justin G4TSH messaged to remind me of the 80m SSB session going on this evening, so popped on there once I'd had enough of the CWT and worked a handful of stations including Justin, Keith GW0ARK ,Roger G4BVY and Andy G4PIQ.
Some nice feedback from the talk last night. One of the guys had already got his Quansheng going on 2m FT8 and had a QSO with it. Fantastic!
Not a lot of time to look around the bands so far - Welsh lesson today and I've a VHF talk to give to the Yorkshire Mesh Radio Club tonight. I'm looking forward to that but haven't had a lot of time to prepare for it! So, there's been hasty updating of slides today when I've not been in Welsh.
It was an enjoyable talk with the Yorkshire Mesh group - at least it was enjoyable for me. A nice group who seemed genuinely interested.
Not much doing on 10m today though I did manage to work XQ6CF.
Bands noisy here today. I changed from the DX Commander to the home-brew vertical in case it was something loose on the DX Commander. I didn't really think it was and it's not. It's fairly windy, so I guess it's a power line/tree thing or similar.
Really pleased to work VP9KF on 20m CW this evening. He's Paul G4BKI, old friend from the GW8GT days and we haven't worked in years and years - probably well over 20 years.
