During the CQ WW CW contest the end of November I made my one and only contact with a station in Guernsey via a CW contact on 20m with GU4CHY. I sent Dick a QSL card direct with return postage and he quickly sent me a nice QSL card and note back.  Thanks for the contact and quick return of a QSL card for a “new one”!

73 & Happy Holidays!
K2DSL

After getting home from work tonight I was sitting down at the computer and noticed a spot for KC4AAA in Antarctica at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. I had seen Antarctica spotted before but never had a good copy on them. Tonight the station was coming in a good S5-S7 and fully copyable.  I listened for a bit and he was on 14.177 listening up on 14.240. I tried calling for about 30 mins and he worked 2 or 3 stations a minute but I wasn’t able to get through. He went off the air for a bit and I turned the radio off and did a few other things.

Just before 0200z I turned the radio back on to get on a local 10m net and he was still there. I tried again and on the second call he came back to me. I completed the call and gave him a 5-7 report. He indicated I wasn’t moving his s meter but he was able to copy me fine. He asked where I was located in NJ as he’s also in NJ and told him where I was.

Thanks so much Andy, WA2DKJ, for the contact!

73,
K2DSL

I have 1/2 a dozen contacts with Panama but none were confirmed yet until today when a QSL card arrived from HP3DX via W4WX.  The other contacts did not QSL via LoTW and I’m sure return QSL cards via the bureau are en-route. Since HP3DX uses a local QSL manager in W4WX, I was glad to be able to get this one checked off.

Bill, thanks for the contact and new DXCC confirmed!

73,
K2DSL

I have more then a dozen contacts with Macedonia in the logbook with 3 different operators, but none had yet been confirmed until today. Over the weekend was the 1 day TARA RTTY contest and a contact with Z36W in Macedonia was confirmed overnight on Logbook of the World (LoTW).  Thank you Venco for the contact and confirming a new DXCC for me.

73,
K2DSL

Today in the mail was a card from D2NX (Koji) for a contact made in Oct 2008. It’s my only contact with Angola and now it’s confirmed.

73,
K2DSL

Following on yesterdays nice contacts resulting in 2 new ham radio DXCCs logged, I was able to work 5W0KH on RTTY today. I saw Karl (DL2FAG)  spotted on the cluster and fired up DM780 and after a few attempts was able to log him on his DXpedition to Samoa, an island a bit more then halfway between the west coast of the US and Austrlia and about 7,250 miles from me in NJ.

This was my first contact with a ham radio operator on Samoa so that makes 3 new DXCCs logged in the past 2 days. It’s probably all due to a lot of activity and testing of stations before the CQ WW contest gets underway in a couple of hours.

Thanks for a new one Karl – my QSL card is on its way to your home call.

73,
K2DSL

Today was Thanksgiving in the US, so as we got ready for our feast today (I’m stuffed full as I type this), I did some CW. It started out with logging a new DXCC with a contact with Faroe Island on 20m.  I then logged 16 more contacts on CW across different bands. I’m guessing a bunch of folks are just getting warmed up for CQ WW coming up this weekend, but it was great. In most cases it was nothing more then a single call to get each one logged.  The contacts for today were:

1) OY2J – Faroe Island – 20m * New DXCC *
2) P49V – Aruba – 17m
3) YS4/W0OR – El Salvador – 15m
4) CT3NT – Madeira Island – 15m
5) PJ2/WI9WI – Bonaire, Curacao – 17m
6) EA8/DK9TN – Canary Island – 15m
7) YS4/N0STL – El Salvador – 20m
8) V31WV – Belize – 20m
9) P40A – Aruba – 15m
10) 5N7M – Nigeria – 20m [Can’t find info on this call]
11) ZS6BQI – South Africa – 20m
12) FM/D6ARC – Martinique – 17m
13) PJ4/K4BAI – Bonaire, Curacao – 15m
14) VP5/W5CW – Turks & Caicos – 15m
15) HI3A – Dominican Republic – 30m
16) A25NW – Botswana – 20m * New DXCC *
17) J79WE – Dominica – 30m

A lot to be thankful for!

73,
K2DSL

Saw a spot on the DX Cluster on 20m CW for Vietnam so I tuned to it but didn’t hear anything. I then tuned down a little bit and hear a loud station coming in and it was OY2J on Faroe Island. I put out my call and Johan came right back to me. After a couple more calls he was spotted on the cluster and had a good pileup going. It’s nice to find a station “in the wild” and make an easy contact with them especially for a new DXCC.

Faroe Island is located between Iceland and the UK so it’s not a tough contact for me on the east coast but it’s the first time I think I’ve heard a station on from there. Maybe they are prepping for the CQ WW contest this coming weekend. Looks like I need to send direct for a QSL card so time to fill one out.

This is a nice start on Thanksgiving for me!

73,
K2DSL

Was just tuning around the ham radio bands before the ARRL Sweepstakes contest started and found 9G5TT on 14.210 calling CQ with no one coming back to him. Gave my call out once and he came right back to me. Great copy on him.

Looks like the maidenhead grid square for the 9G5TT DXpedition to Ghana is IJ94at and the QSL is direct only via I2YSB with $2 USD. Since this is a new DXCC logged for me, I will definitely be QSLing this contact.

73,
K2DSL