Thanks to the only active ham (Ali, 6O1OO) in Somalia I was able to add this country to my ATNO. Ali is to be congratulated for all his efforts in keeping Somalia on the air. Somalia is my last country to be confirmed in the African continent.
Thanks to improved propagation on 12 meters (24 MHz) I now have DXCC on this band. I now have DXCC on 8 bands (80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters). With my current antennas I am unlikely to make DXCC on 160 or 6 anytime soon.
First new country in MANY MANY months. Between the sunspot minimum (poor HF propagation) and COVID-19 shutting down DXpeditions, new countries have been very hard to come by. Three days ago (11/15) I was lucky enough to work 9V1YC (Singapore) on 30M FT8 for #312 (mixed, current). I have been watching James on PSK Reporter […]
Today I received LOTW confirmation of my initial 20M FT8 contact with VP8PJ, South Orkney Island. This is my #311 country (mixed). Since this initial 20M contact, I have worked VP8PJ on 17M and 40M FT8 as well as 30M RTTY. I’m waiting confirmation on these contacts. Log uploads are difficult from the island because […]
It has been quite sometime since I’ve worked a new DX station. The bottom of sunspot cycle 24 has created havoc with DX. With solar flux almost constantly locked between 68 and 72, propagation on many HF bands has been very poor. Fortunately, Joe Taylor’s invention of the FT8 mode has come at the right […]