The ones that got away ... and the others.

What got away? Well on 70MHz Ceuta and Melilla. And on 50MHz Angola, Guadeloupe, Malawi, Namibia and Venezuela.

Eh? Angola, Guadeloupe, Malawi, Namibia and Venezuela? Don't you do VHF?

I cannot deny it, I have called those five and they all got away. Not a contact with any of them. Not even a reply. Most of Europe was calling at the same time and they either never heard me, or I never reached the head of the queue. They were all strong enough to work, I just did not make it.

Time for my usual refrain that I never thought such things were possible, not just when I did my training but even during the last sunspot peak. Or even last year actually.

I did get a few of course. Columbia. Just a place over 8500km away, with which I had a 6m contact yesterday. I tried to mention this quietly, a bit casually, as if to suggest that me working Columbia was something that was an everyday occurrence. 

To fill in since the last blog report I have a map.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 20 to 26 May 2023.

Not a bad week, though the map is a bit skewed because it is a long way to Columbia. That 8527km contact managed to bring my 2023 DXCC count up to 46. Scarily, my all time DXCC total on 6m is up to 89. Will I need to be thinking about 100?

One of those 46 countries was Ceuta and Melilla. I might have missed it on 70MHz but I did bag it on 50MHz. EA9 was not a new country for me of 6m, but Columbia certainly was, and of course a new square too.

Also not a bad week on 4m either. A nice opening bagged 5 countries for the 2023 list, but nothing for the all time list. It was interesting to think about places I still have to work on 4m which are around at the moment. A station from Lebanon appearing was unusual though I did not hear him, and nor did I hear Kosovo. There is still a range of undone places for the 70MHz all time list. The 2023 list has rattled up to 15, at which point it threatens to overtake the 2023 list for 144MHz which stands at 16.

70MHz contacts at GM4FVM 20 to 26 May 2023.

In some previous years I have been looking for squares. This year it is firmly countries, though a few new squares would be nice. 

On 4m at the moment I am using my 8 year old 5 element PowAbeam, while the 7 year old 50MHz 5 element Powabeam is also in use. For 4m though the output power is just 50W PEP at the moment. Will that be enough power if 4m opens into the Caribbean this Summer, now that there are several Caribbean stations to work - at last? On the other hand, with a national power limit of 150W perhaps there is not so much to gain anyway.

I managed to work this stuff during a week in which I took down four antennas and put up three. More on that later. Doing antenna work did mean that I missed a 2m Es opening into Italy, but the work had to be done.

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As I was about to press "publish" I just worked FG8OJ in Guadeloupe. Again, not an all time new country, but one to add to this year's list. 

But hey, at 6600km, hardly worth a mention.

73 Jim GM4FVM

Lost some more, won some more.

Today I heard 3B8FA in  Mauritius calling CQ on 50MHz, again.

This time I was ready and I called him several times.

He did not reply.

That was one I lost.

Others I called and lost on 6m were Qatar, Kuwait and Norway.

Four countries not on my list for 2023.

However, I did work 3B9FR. Not Mauritius itself, but the autonomous island of Rodrigues. So that was a new square, new DXCC and new personal distance record on 50MHz of 10397km.

Why am I telling you this? Is it just boasting? No, the message from this is that you should get moving and working some DX on 50MHz while it is here.

3B9FR helped draw my 2023 DXCC total equal to my total for the whole of last year, and it is only 19 May. In 2022 I was not trying very hard. A better comparison would be with 2018 which had a total of 67. So that is the next target.

It makes a lot of difference when you have something to aim at.

I keep saying this - my station is nothing special. This time I was using an IC-7100, 200W and an antenna with a boom of 3 metres up about 10m above ground level. No full legal linear, no huge lattice mast, no super rig.

Times are good just now on 6m. Sure up to now it has been pretty lacklustre but it really looks like things are hotting up now.

Contacts on 50MHz at GM4FVM 10 to 19 May 2023.

Several other GMs worked 3B9FR at the same time so there is nothing particularly special about my effort. You can do it too.

I can get over missing the other four DXCC thanks to working this one, number 40 this year. However, I still have those four and lot more to reach in the rest of the year.

There have been developments in the radio, antenna and linear departments which I hope to post about soon.

73 

Jim GM4FVM

You win some, and you lose some.

Spring has come at last to GM4FVM land.

View from GM4FVM 9 May 2023

With the crops flowering in the fields, the leaves appearing on the trees, the grass needing cut, we have proof that the weather here has at last turned at last. Better late than never.

Sporadic E has been pretty sporadic. However, it has come in bursts and I have now advanced my 50MHz DXCC total worked for this year to 37. Not far off the target of 40 which took all of 2022 to achieve.

Of course 70MHz lags behind, starting each year late and ending early. On that band my total trails weakly behind at 7, compared to 33 last year. Early days yet, and part of the reason is that I have hardly been active on meteor scatter. However, an all-time new country on 4m was provided by HB9HLM on 8 May.

On the losing side, I was annoyed to miss 3B8FA on 50MHz on 8 May

3B8FA received at GM4FVM on 8  May 2023

...

My fault. He was -13dB on the HB9CV which as per usual was pointing right at the roof tiles. I decoded him 6 times at strengths which should have been workable, but I was fiddling with antenna calculations on the computer. I missed him.

I tried to put up an excuse that the main rig and antenna was pointing the wrong way, but I dug back in the WSJT-X log and it proved that I decoded him on that set-up too, though he was not quite so strong. So there is no excuse. Well, it was a lame excuse anyway.

3B8FA on Mauritius is 10116km away and that would have been a new DX record on 6m for me as well as a new DXCC and square. But it was not to be.

Ah well. If I could work all the countries then I would have nothing left to do.

On the bright side I might work Oak Furniture Land someday, though I believe that the Aisle of Aldi is not a separate DXCC.

73

Jim GM4FVM