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