Good news

I gave up with 6E4LM. No chance for me and most Europeans I think. It seems that these guys they have no idea for propagation patterns or they do not like to make QSO with EU. Sorry if I am so bitter but so many days on the air and I have never heard them. Fortunately check my old logs I found out that I have XF4 cfm from some previous expedition. So no big deal.

But the real good news is that I worked E4/OM2DX CW on 40m this morning. This is a real new one for me, and I worked them the real first day of operation. Of course they are in the neighborhood and that makes job quite easier. So now I have 325 countries, just 2 countries away of Honor roll. And 3D2AG/P, Rotuma, it is ante portas…I hope it will show up next days. By the way sun is waking up. December did not have a day without sunspots. It seems that 2008 will be a very interesting one. Happy New Year to every one!

Wanted!

These guys are really wanted. As soon as the Dxpedition of 6E4LM had announced, I thought that it would be relativity easy to work them. Many operators and enough equipment to activate three full stations. It is a new one for me and so much wanted. But they are there more than a week now and I never heard them. What is going wrong then? I saw some sporadic spots in the cluster mostly from USA stations and that is all. Europe has not heard a whisper yet. I am getting anxious and I have a bad feeling that it will turn out to be very hard for me to make a contact. Does anybody have any info what is going on out there? We urgently need some hope.

Under a sleeping sun

The winter is coming with big paces. The temp outside the shack dropped to one digit numbers and it is very nice sitting in a cosy shack in front of your microphone. The sun is still sleeping and propagation poor. Nobdy knows yet when the 24th cycle will start. So it is a challenge trying to catch a new one. 6E4LM is going to show up in the next hours.

Spiros, SV8CS, is already in Morocco for CQ WW CW contest. They will run the test with Stefano, IK2QEI from Safi with CN3A call. So far all the antennas are up waiting the big event. Check the photo. SV8CS will be also active in 2m and 6m EME as scheduled. I will pass any recent info in the well known chat rooms. So take a look there.

By the way the EPC PSK63 was very cheerful. All the members were present. I made 401 QSO and 511000 points. My best score ever in a PSK contest. Comparing with TARA Rumble I had made only 64 QSO, it was a great deference.

Party

The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the EPC PSK63 QSO Party. The objective of the competition is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world by using the BPSK63 mode. Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit. Rules in EPC club page.

PSK mode is my favorite among digital ones. Our club invites you all to join the party on Sunday 18^th November. Last year it was a very nice party. My friend Spiros, SV8CS took the first place worldwide but this year is very busy to prepare his expedition to Morroco for CQ WW CW contest and EME activities, as CN3A. So I will be alone in the party. Please keep me company and have a drink with me. Propagation is not so good but participation counts.

Halloween

I intend to spend next weekend in my shack joining the great CQ WW SSB contest. I remember three years ago this time, I was in USA. I visited 5 states in that trip: Massachusesetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Illinois and Indiana. All were wonderful, especially Vermont. Fall had given all these marvelous season colors to trees and flowers. Cold and rain were present. Halloween time had dressed towns and villages with special costumes. For a stranger it is was a really good time to be there.

But most of all these things I remember well my visit to HRO ham shop in Salem, New Hampshire. Salem is a small village just 40 miles north of Boston. I got my FT1000MP Mark Field from there! Only $1750, no VAT at all in this state. The guys were very friendly with me. George Varvitsiotis, the owner of the shop, is also Greek and probably that was an additional reason to be so good with me. Anyway I left the shop with the best impressions. I was really so happy with my purchase that all the else seemed insignificant details to me. Back to the hotel I got it out of the boxes and put it in my suitcase. And so it came all the long way back to Greece through four different airports fortunately without any problem.

Three years now I have this transceiver in front of me serving me in all great ham events. And many times, in the middle of a QSO as I stare its display, I recollect all this wonderful time I spent to USA and mostly just the time I got the opportunity to acquire it.

October in the shack

The first clouds after months appear in the sky. Some of them dropped even rain. What a nice feeling the changing of the season. Ham radio keeps me pretty busy. Unfortunately the propagation was very low. Sun spots refuge to appear to cheer bands a little bit up. So the Tara Rumble PSK contest turned out to be a great disappointment. I join Rumble every year but this was my worst one. Only 67 QSO, no USA, no Japan, no VKs this time. On the other hand some rare DX showed up the first days of October. It needed to sweat to work some of them but everything went ok after all. ACOM1000 helped a lot. Two new ones 3C7Y and H40MY among them left me happy, as I am approaching the final target of ARRL Honor Roll. Actually I have 321 countries confirmed till now in LoTW. With a little luck and better propagation I hope to get it in a couple of years. Be healthy all of you and enjoy the hobby.

The mother of contests

Last weekend we had a lot of fun with the CQ WW RTTY contest. It’s the biggest in the world. Every year a lot of stations participate from every place around the world. Some expeditions go there on purpose, just to have a good score. So it is a very good opportunity to work rare dx station on RTTY. That is exactly the reason I participate. I have no any chance for championship but I always enjoy it.

I always use the MixW, which it is an excellent tool for this job. This year I made 532 qso’s in all bands and 293643 points. This is my best score ever, so I have all the reasons to be happy. Rare stations on RTTY were heard and worked, like: 9U0A, HC8N, VK9LA, PZ5RA, KH6ND, D4C, KP2/NP3D and many others I cannot recollect. Some of them sent already the logs to the LoTW, which I found an excellent idea. Even propagation conditions were poor without sunspots on the sun and SFI lower than 70, I had no trouble working all these exotic stations. So let promise a sked for next year when situation will be much better. Till then we have a lot of marvelous event to join. So stay tuned.