Some Upgrades, Some DX

The weather’s been beautiful in the National Capital Area. We’ve broken some temperature records, not just in the last few days but for most of the month of March. The winter was mild too. There have been robins in south Greely since Christmas week. They stayed all winter this year. Temperatures were 16C yesterday and reached a high of 15C today. With the warm weather comes antenna maintenance and improvements. I spent yesterday running 130 feet of new coax to my Cushcraft R6000 vertical. It was long overdue and I kept putting it off in typical ‘ham’ fashion. I did spend most of the winter on 40 meters because conditions were very good and my PAR EF-40 End Fed dipole performed very well.

After terminating the coax with connectors and checking my work I got it all connected and working. 20 meters was full of signals about mid afternoon and I snagged a DXpedition – TM7CC – Ouessant Island IOTA EU-065. Ouessant Island is the western most part France’s territory out in the Atlantic. They had a potent signal into Greely on RTTY and I snagged them on the second call. Signals on 20 were strong until well after dusk.

Today, signals were pounding in on 17 meters. Around supper time the JAs dominated the band with RTTY. It’s great to see the bands coming alive again and staying open late. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that much DX on the upper bands. There are some exciting times ahead for us hams – all over the world.

Young DXpeditioners Wanted!

Hey, I'm still young, I'm a ham, can copy some CW, but don't even fit the upper end of their age criteria. Youth is wasted on the young. Read on -

The crew of VK9DWX wants to invite two young hams who have a passion for Ham Radio, DXing and contesting to take part in the DXpedition to Willis Island in October this year.

One young ham from 6th October till 19th October and the other one from 15th October till 28th October.

You can reside in any country in the world, you hold a valid amateur radio license in your country, you have some experience in working pile-ups and you are between 18 and 29.

For qualification you have to send an email to contact @ vk9dwx.de which must include an essay of 500 words minimum (in English) describing how you got started in ham radio, who your Elmer was and why you should be selected for this DXpedition opportunity. Please include also you full name, callsign and home address.

The VK9DWX crew will pay for all expenses except your flight from your home to Cairns, Queensland, Australia. (VK9DWX)

Send us your application now to contact @ vk9dwx.de. We will receive applications until September 15th and will make a fast decision.

Are there any readers that meet the criteria??

Willis Island is an island in an external territory of Australia, located beyond the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea some 420 km east of Cairns, Queensland. It is the southernmost of a group of three islands, which with their associated sandy cays stretch in a NNE to SSW line for about 12 km. Willis Island itself is aligned NW to SE and is about 500 m long by 150 m wide, 7.7 ha in area, rising to just under 10 m above sea level. It is the only permanently inhabited island in Australia's Coral Sea Islands Territory. (Wikipedia)