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The 6M sporadic-e season started out pretty early for me this year. Usually the good openings starts well into May.

On May 4th, I worked UB7K on 6M CW. Since Russia hasn’t been allowed on 6M, except for a few special cases, this was the first contact with Russia that had a valid licence. UB7K is also on LoTW, that means that I finally got Russia confirmed on 6M. A bit later that day, TEP lined up with sporadic-e. The surprise was that I could suddenly hear 3B9FR. After a few calls, I got him in the log for #148 on 6M. Robert is also on LoTW, so I got that one quickly confirmed as well.

On May 8th, we had a small aurora on 6M. I worked OH, LA, SM, ES, YL, OZ, OY and G.

On May 15th, I worked R6KA on 6M CW. He does also have a valid licence for 6M.

On May 21st, I worked SU1SK on 6M CW. SU is pretty rare on 6M, and I heard him for a while.

On May 25th, I worked IT9PQJ on 6M CW.

On May 26th, I worked EI, SV, OE, CN, C3 and Z3 on 6M.

On May 27th, I worked UN6T on 6M CW. I did copy 3A2MW with a good signal, but I could not break the pile-up. I still need 3A on 6M, and I have only heard a signal a few times from there. This was the best ever heard.

On May 29th, I got a surprise opening to Japan on 6M. I managed to two stations, and heard a few others. The opening didn’t last more than perhaps 10-15 minutes. That’s only my fourth opening to Japan on 6M.

On May 30th, I worked EX8M on 6M CW.

On May 31st, I had an opening to JT1CO on 6M. But I didn’t manage to work him. I was out for around 30 minutes, when I got him, another LA had worked him. I checked my CW Skimmer, and it was clear that I had copied him quite well. It only shows that 6M can be a frustrating band. You have to be in front of the radio all the time if you want to get all the action. This is just not possible.

Soundclips:

• 3B9FR 6M CW
• 3A2MW 6M CW

Here is the DX report from April till today. The 6M report will come in another post.

On April 1st, I worked VK0EK on 40M CW for a new one on 40M. I haven’t worked them on any higher bands, and the conditions hasn’t been too good for propagation to that area from my QTH. But they have been quite good on 40M and 30M at times.

On April 2nd, I worked Nicolas TY2AC on 30M CW.

On April 5th, I worked FT4JA on 15M and 30M CW. That was a new dxcc on CW, and a new country on both bands. They have had quite a good signal, but the pile-up has also been quite big.

On April 7th, I worked FT4JA on 12M CW. 9M0O was worked on 30M CW.

On April 8th, I worked FT4JA on 15M SSB and RTTY. That was a new one on RTTY and 15M. 3B8MM was worked on 40M CW.

On April 9th, I worked ET7L on 30M CW and ZF2LC on 20M CW.

On April 14th, I worked A25UK on 17M CW.

On April 16th, I worked EP2A on 30M CW, 15M CW and 20M CW. T88SM was worked on 20M CW for a new one on 20M.

On April 17th, I worked A25UK on 10M CW.

On April 18th, I worked EP2A on 17M CW, 40M CW and 30M RTTY. V55DX was worked on 15M RTTY for a new one on RTTY.

On April 19th, I worked Dima 1U4UN on 30M CW. Read the story about the King here.

On April 20th, I worked EP2A on 20M SSB. RT92KA was worked on 20M CW from iota AS-092 for a new iota.

On April 21st, I worked EP2A on 15M SSB.

On April 22nd, I worked 5W0XG and KH8/KC0W on 20M CW. Both were new ones on 20M. That means I have over 300 dxcc’s worked on 20M.

On April 28th, I worked A91HI on 15M SSB and 30M CW from iota AS-202. That was a new iota for me.

On May 20th, I worked J68GU on 20M RTTY for a new one on RTTY.

On May 29th, I worked SV2RSG on 20M CW. That’s the new ham that is active from Mount Athos.

Soundclips:

• FT4JA 30M CW
• 1U4UN 30M CW

I just noticed today that my logsearch seemed to be broken. I don’t know when that happened, but I think it was because of the upgrade to PHP 7 on this page. I don’t remember when I switched over. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to rewrite the logsearch for a long time. I never got around to it until today. The logsearch was something I wrote several years ago. That was before I really knew too much about programming, and most of it was hacked together code from some search script I found on the web.

Today it got a major rewrite. It really needed it. While doing it, I found out that some functions were deprecated. I think that was why it was broken. The search still uses text-files, but that will change as soon as I rewrite it to use MySQL instead. For now I refactored and rewrote most of the code.

The search is a plugin for WordPress. It’s pretty basic and crude, but it does what I want it to do. I’m not sure if I want to release it or not, but we’ll see. It needs to be rewritten for MySQL and it needs a lot more polishing. Only time will tell.

Wow, it’s been 3 months since my last post. Let’s get this show running again. I’ve been quite busy, but hopefully I’ll get around to write some more stuff here for those that read this page. I have worked some more radio this year, than the previous year. And the 6M season has started again.  Ok, let’s get on to the radio reporting stuff. Several LA’s has been qrv from exotic places, and I managed to work them on several bands. I also have some soundclips for you to enjoy.

On February 29th, I worked VK5MAV/6 on 40M CW from iota OC-243. This was a new iota for me.

On March 2nd, I worked 3XY1T on 12M CW. C91IJ was also worked on 12M CW.

On March 4th, I worked C92CC on 15M CW for a new one on 15M. 4S7RTG was worked on 30M CW.

On March 5th, I worked HS3NBR/P on 30M CW from AS-145. RI1PA was worked on 40M CW from EU-085 for a new iota.

On March 7th, I worked PZ5W on 30M RTTY.

On March 9th, I worked TX7EU and T32WW on 30M CW. S01WS was worked on 40M CW. 5J0P was worked on 15M CW. 3DA0CC was worked on 12M CW for a new one on 12M. 3DA0IJ was worked on 10M CW for a new one on 10M.

On March 14th, I worked N5WR/4 on 15M CW from NA-213 for a new iota. 3C7A (LA7GIA) was worked on 15M CW for a new one on 15M.

On March 15th, I worked 3C7A on 10M CW for a new one on 10M.

On March 16th, I worked VK9CK (LA-team) on 17M CW.

On March 19th, I worked VE7ACN/7 on 30M CW from NA-051 for a new iota. 3C7A was worked on 20M CW.

On March 20th, I worked VK9CK on 10M and 20M CW.

On March 21st, I worked VK9CK on 40M CW and 20M RTTY. The 20M contact was a new one on RTTY and 20M.

On March 22nd, I worked VK9CK on 30M CW and 20M SSB.

On March 24th, I worked VK9CK on 15M CW. VE7ACN/7 was worked on 30M CW again, but this time from NA-061. That was also a new iota. 5V7D was worked on 15M RTTY for a new one on RTTY.

On March 29th, I worked VK0EK on 40M CW for a new one on 40M.

On March 30th, I worked YS3/DL5YWM on 40M CW from NA-190 for a new iota.

I’ll report more in a future post, but I must say the dx activity has been quite nice the last few months with new dxcc’s, iota’s and bandcountries.

Soundclips:

• VK9CK 80 CW
• VK9CK 10 CW
• 3C7A 15M CW
• VK0EK 30 CW

These three confirmations didn’t really come as a big surprise. I knew they would come on LoTW. That makes a total of #331 confirmed on LoTW, which includes deleted. Of those I have worked, there are 7 that I have not confirmed on LoTW. And I only need 5 more countries to have worked them all.