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I finally managed to work VK9DWX Willis Island yesterday. They had a great signal on 40M, and I managed to make recordings of my own QSO and a few minutes of totally chaos on the frequency. Listen to the three soundclips below. In case you haven’t been following DX-bulletins, Willis Island is activated by a big team during October 2008. More details on the homepage.

9L1X was worked on 30M on Sunday for a new band country. I did have a go at 40M, but couldn’t break the pile-up. Guess many people need 9L.

Here are the soundclips I recorded from VK9DWX on 40M October 14th 2008:

• LA8AJA working VK9DWX on 40M 35s 34KB
• VK9DWX – chaos on 40M 2m27s 144KB
• VK9DWX on 40M 3m06s 182KB

LoTW brought more confirmations. NH7O 40M CW, thanks Al. P49X and HC8N on 40M RTTY, thanks.

Yesterday we had some aurora up here in Northern Europe. I don’t recall when I last worked aurora, but it was probably some time last year. Since I have most of the square around me worked, I don’t bother that much for aurora, but I noticed Per LA7DFA had been on 6M. I still need JP33, so I turned the yagi and gave a few calls. I worked OH4EA, DJ9YE, OH3MF, SM4IVE, ES1CW, SM4DHF, SM4ARQ, SM1TDE and LA8NK. Nothing new, but it was fun to have a go again. Nothing from JP33 though, but that one will sooner or later get in my log.

No DX in the log down on HF, but did hear VK9DWX  (Willis) and 9L1X on 40M. I tried a few calls, but the pile-up were too big. I’ll give it a go later this week when propagation pics up. Aurora does tend to give us bad propagation for a while.

The official website for the 2009 KP5 DXPedition has been launched. KP5 is currently the 7th most-needed DXCC entity, worldwide! Here you go: http://www.kp5.us/startup.htm

Since I had some time before work today, I checked the cluster. KH7XS was spotted on 40M SSB. I did work him on CW a few weeks ago with a great signal. I tuned in on 40M and there he was with a great signal today again. I gave a few calls and he was in the log very quickly. ZL2SQ was spotted down in the CW band with a nice signal and pile-up. I gave a few calls, but no way I could get through that mess. If he had gone split, he would have worked many more. I decided to go up in the band and give a few CQ’s. VK3XU Drew answered my first call. He gave me my last zone on 40M and a new country on CW. Thanks Drew. KI6LZ George from California called in after Drew. I tried a few more CQ’s, but no reply. An hour later, FO/DJ7RJ popped up on 40M. I was kinda hoping he would show somewhere I had a chance to work him. He was about 559 with some flutter, quite a nice signal when you think about the signal travelling all the way from the Pacific. Several LA’s got through before I managed to work him for a new country. I have the other FO’s, but Marquesas Island was blank in my log. Finally a new country. I can’t say I remember the last time a new country was logged. That was number 319.

I happened to surf by SM3GSJ’s page a few days ago. Here I discovered that he has released a newer version of GcmWin. This is a great program for creating great circle maps of the world. You can also plot prefixes on the map, or create nice locator maps to keep track of your worked locators. Check out the program on http://hem.passagen.se/sm3gsj/

After my last post about Botswana, I managed to work A25/DL7DF on 17M RTTY and 20M SSB. That’s a total of 7 QSO’es. Check the picture for the logsearch. Thank you very much to the team for a great operation. They gave me a total of 3 new band countries and 1 new mode country.

Before work on Friday, NH7O were cq’ing on 40M with a nice signal. I managed to work him quickly. He is an LoTW user, so I guess this one will be confirmed quite easy. Here you can se his qth and his antennas. He runs a 2 element yagi on 40M. Later that day I worked HV0A and 9M6XRO on 20M CW. They were both a new CW country on 20M. I also heard V8 on 20M SSB with a nice signal, but couldn’t break the pile-up. I didn’t try for very long, since he weren’t running split, and the pile-up were quite messy. Yesterday evening, S79TF were spotted on 30M. He wasn’t very strong, but I gave a few calls, and he came back to me, though I’m not sure he logged me, cause I never got the confirmation because of QSB and QRN. 

LoTW gave me severaI new confirmations. 4O3A gave me a new one on RTTY. He is always fast to confirm on LoTW! I also got ZL1BYZ, ZL2IFB and 7K1PTT from the DX I worked last week. Talk about fast QSL’ing.

Looks like an expedition is getting closer! Here is a fresh press release:

Press Release # 1—-Desecheo KP5—-2009

The Caribbean National Wildlife Refuge Complex has selected and announced a team of operators to activate Desecheo Island (KP5) sometime between January 15, 2009 and March 30, 2009. The Team will be co-led by Dr. Glenn Johnson, WØGJ and Bob Allphin, K4UEE.

Background: On June 30, 2008, the Caribbean National Wildlife Refuge office in Puerto Rico sent a letter to persons that had previously made inquiries about an Amateur Radio operation from Desecheo. They announced their decision to allow one group to activate the island and invited proposals that must adhere to strict guidelines and criteria. Applicant’s had 45 days to prepare and submit their proposals.

CNWR received seven written proposals. A panel of three Fish and Wildlife Service employees, from areas within the Service outside of the Caribbean refuge, spent September 24 & 25 reviewing and evaluating the proposals. The selection criteria used were those outlined in the proposal invitation letter. Points were awarded for how well criteria were addressed for thoroughness and documentation.

The proposal with the highest ranking was submitted by team leaders Dr. Glenn Johnson, WØGJ, and Bob Allphin, K4UEE. Their plan involves a team of fifteen operators for a 14-day operation. USFWS has not announced the actual dates of the operation yet, but the DXpedition is expected to take place between January 15, 2009 and March 30, 2009. A Special Use Permit (SUP) will be issued as per USFWS regulations. We
expect that the DXpedition team and DXers worldwide will have a minimum of 30 days notice.

A website is being planned and will be announced in the near future.