GW4VXE's Station Diary

Bit of 6m Es to the south of Spain and Portugal this morning. J51A appeared too, but not that strong here, or not at least when I was in the shack. TZ1CE appeared a couple of times too - though not too strong.

3Y0K appeared from Bouvet. Heard them on both 12 and 17m, at least I think I did - there has been some pirate operation too. Assuming it was genuine, the signals were decent enough and given time, hopefully I can make a QSO.

Bodged an adapter to make the 80m dipole into a T with a view to tuning it on top band. It's very noisy, but I managed to work Pete MM9SQL operating as GM5G.

After being heard in Japan on 80m FT8 last night, I thought I'd hang out on 3574. Only heard 2 JAs all evening at tiny strength. Not wasted though, both 4K6SA and TA2NEH were new band countries. Heard DU2W as well, but no luck.

Picked up J51A on 40m FT8 (just missed them on CW) for the last band - except 6m.

A few weak decodes from J51A on 6m this afternoon - we were out! A couple of decodes, also weak, from TZ1CE on 6m around 1700z.

ZD7AQH was a nice one on 18MHz this evening - heard earlier on 24MHz with a big pileup.

Delighted to work J51A on 80m FT8 this evening. Used the Alpha to avoid PTT issues. Interestingly I was heard in JA on the grey line on 80m, so might explore that over the next few evenings to see if there are any new countries to be had. Could hear ZD7AQH on 30m (on short vertical) but he couldn't hear me. Worked him on 20m though.

Nice to work J51A on 10m CW - very loud. in the early afternoon. KP5 audible on 15m late afternoon but already have them there. CA4OMQ worked on 40m in the evening - marginal QSO on the dipole - also heard a PY so guess 40m was decent to South America.

Bands a bit uninspiring today so chased a few SOTA summits which was fun. 10m quite interesting on southerly paths in the afternoon. Nice to work 3B8 and a weak (for him) CX5FK. Tried to work YB0ECT on 12m in the afternoon, but he couldn't hear me (or an EI that was calling around the same time).

Oh, and a nice chat with Wlad, US7IGN. Wlad was on Radio 4 early on in the Ukraine war with a documentary of how he operated from his flat in Kyiv and how the radio kept him company. It's always nice to hear him.

Power switch on the GW3NWS PSU seems a bit intermittent. I've left it on all day but will probably need to open it up and have a look in due course.

3Y0K from Bouvet due to be on in the next day or so.

Finished up with 30 minutes in the 80m CC once we got in from Haverfordwest. Worked the usual suspects. Listened to J51A coming through on 80m FT8 at the end of the contest - they were loud. Should be workable!

Good start today with J51A - first on 12m CW and then, bit of a surprise - they were a huge signal on 30m FT8 - worked on the short vertical.

13z CWT nothing special but made a decent amount of contacts.

19z CWT was a bit random - called a bunch of stations on 15m to start with who didn't hear me. It turned out to be that the amp was mistuned! With that solved, conditions still seemed poor. 20m was odd - initially, very little from the USA. Went off to 40m and worked a few Europeans and then came back to 20m and it was much better. Might just have been beams not pointing to Europe or something odd with propagation.

Two nice chats on 40m just before turning in. VE2DHS (Peter) near Montreal with 1m of snow on the ground. He said he was mid 80s but gave up skiing at 80. Reckoned 62 was young! And with Tom K4AEN who called to say hello. Their weather has improved and they are looking forward to coming to the UK later in the year and we will hopefully meet up.

J51A have been very easy to work today on the higher bands - 10 & 12m. No sign of them on 6m in peak hours so far although EI3KD worked them quite late on yesterday, at a more classic TEP time. Saw a couple of decodes from them and they were obviously reaching IO83/IO93 around 1715. Worked them on 17 CW too in the evening.

Pleased to pick up KP5?NP3VI on 17m this evening. Would be nice to get them on 30m too, but the DX Commander has been down for a few days because of reasonably strong winds. Might give it a go over the next day or two.

We were working in the Polytunnel this afternoon, but J51A was visible on 6m for about 15 mins. Not mega strong. They're there for about 3 weeks, so hopefully there will be another chance. They were very loud on 15m around 5.30pm - so happy to pick them up for a new one.

Looks like the evening path to J5 is good! Worked them both on 17/20m FT8 with decent signals.

Also CT9ACF seen on 2m FT8. Not too strong, but there. EI8KN has worked him on both 2m and 70cm.

40m poorer this morning - only east coast stations, nothing from the midwest. 10m noticeably poorer this afternoon - some loud stations from Florida, but east coast stations were pretty weak.

ARRL CW this weekend.

Enjoyed finding 40m open to the USA quite late this morning, with a couple of stations workable in Montana around 1000z. They were louder than the East Coast, which when you think about it makes sense, as they are further into the darkness path. (Was using the dipole on 40 as the winds have been reasonably high this week)

Other than that, 10 and 15m seemed quite poor towards mid and western North America.

Pleased to pick up the KP5 on 10 and 12m FT9 around lunchtime. Better signals than seen before - suspect they were running more power today.

9Q5ZZ was a new WAFOCC too.

No sign of TZ1CE on 6m today. Apart from early signals from CT - very little on 6m at all.