30m: 8J1RL - Antarctica - KC90 - Worked

 

30m: T6AA - Afghanistan (ATNO)

 My first time working Afghanistan on any band.  Using my new 30m junk-box 1/4 wave vertical.  When confirmed this will be my 99th DXCC country on 30m (confirmed).  I checked today and I actually have 132 worked on the band, but I'm missing quite a few confirmations apparently.  I never QSL for HF normally...so I guess that's bound to happen.  Anyway seeing and working T6AA was a major thrill for me!

(woot!  there it is....one more please :-) )

30m - "and now...for something completely different!"

(24 hrs of 30m on this new antenna)

A few days ago I decided instead of just turning my radio's off for the whole winter as I have in the more recent past 20+ years, instead I would try to fill gaps in my HF DXCC.  I spoke to a good friend of mine K1CP (Clif) asking him abound suggested antenna designs for 30 meters (10 Mhz) among other things and he suggested that I do a simple "1/4 wave Ground Plane".  These are nice and simple, and don't even require any matching network.  So in the course of about 30 minutes I raided my junk box and gathered enough bits and pieces to put something together.

Another 1 hour later and it was done, and hanging in a tree outside my Ham Shack.  

Now I started out with 48 DXCC on 30 meters, all done with CW from year gone by whenever I happened to feel like getting on HF.

It's now been 24 hours and I actually pulled an all-nighter.  I stayed up 36 hours working DX on 30m using this new antenna.  My DXCC count is now up to 92!  Confirmed.

Here's a few pix of it as-is.

BTW I added an HF Choke at the bottom so I could tune it up on 40m without getting RF in the shack.  (it doesn't seem to work so well on 40m tho!  I think when I get to 100 confirmed on 30m that I'll just extend this antenna another 10 ft and work on 40m!)

Just a NOTE about Europe in October on 50 Mhz

 If you ask any of the old timer 6m (50 Mhz) folks about hearing or working EU in October, you likely won't hear any of them regaling you with grand DX QSO stories.  In fact, those I know who've been on 6m longer than 20-30-40 years have never heard of it happening.

So what we're witnessing is indeed unique / first.  

Based on hearing VO beacons and no 'band noise' I suspect this is Pure foEs.  But I'm not a prop-mode expert.  I am fairly knowledgeable at finding DX on 6m tho!

Anyway, in case you were wondering "what's all this October excitement" - we're witnessing 6m history.

I suspect FT8 is a big reason why this is being noticed NOW, and not in the past since the digital mode "FT8" has really shown us a LOT of previously unknown things about what's possible.

So that's it kids...history right before your very eyes :-)

EU in October (10/29)

 Furthest I got today was ON4GG seen on the right.  Opened at 14:19z and closed about 16:18z.  I had GB3MCB/b in IO70 in here for a lot of this time as well.   I'm told this beacon uses 25w to a folded dipole, although I'm not sure on it's AGL.  The following video has a good audible section 1/2 way through it to hear it's CW.  It's starts however with it's PI4 digi-mode.

EU in October (10/25)

For the second day in a row we had another very strong opening into Europe.  This one was even more intense and more steady at high signal levels.  HA2NP was the best one of the day for me today, worked him FT8, FT4, and CW.  He was in for well over 1 hour.  The opening began at 14:56 and ended at 16:26.

EU Beacons heard: F4ZKY/b, EI0SIX/b, PI7SIX/b

I worked quiet a few on FT4 @ 50.318 Mhz as well.

And on FT8

EI3GRB - IO52 - Ireland