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As you probably guessed by the title, I worked a few new iota's. Last weekend, I was up early and thought I'd check the cluster for anything interesting. The first one I noticed, was YP1S in EU-183. They were on 40M CW, but as I was ready to chase them, they dissappeared. The next one I checked was YW5B on 30M CW. They had a good signal and I got them after some minutes in the pile-up. The iota was SA-037. When I entered it in the log, it turned out that I had worked that island twice before and had it confirmed. So much for assuming that I don't have stuff.

Anyway, RV6LAI/p in EU-185 was the next one. This was a new one and was easy to work on 20M SSB.

I noticed KL7/K8GU in NA-039 spotted on 20M CW and off I went. The signal wasn't too bad, though not too strong either. The problem was no split, and people calling over and over again. Finally, when he wen't split, the signal started to go down. And if that wasn't enough, he went qrt some minutes later. Hopefully I'll get another shot before he goes qrt.

YP1S showed up on 15M CW, and after a few minutes in the pile-up, my second new iota was logged.

Soundclips:

• YW5B 30M CW – SA-037
• KL7/K8GU 20M CW – NA-039

A few weeks back, I got Malpelo HK0NA confirmed on LoTW. That was #304 confirmed on LoTW only. I had a paper card, so it wasn't an all-time new though. Confirmations are slow these days, but that's to be expected when I have 300+ confirmed. Thanks a lot to the expedition, and I'm look forward to watch the expedition video when it's out.

After the big 6M North-American opening I reported about last time, I have barely worked anything. July 22nd did have an opening where I worked A9, UT, YU, HA, E7, YO, 9A and I. Nothing of that was new, but at least the band was open.

On July 23rd, I worked YL/OH5LID from KO36 on 6M MS. That was a new grid for me. I've lost count on how many new grids Janne has given me, but once again, thank you!

Since then, we have had a few minor opening, but nothing interesting for me to work. I know OX was worked in LA, but I had gone to bed at that time.

On August 1st, I turned my attention a little bit to HF again. RI0K was active from AS-061. The qth was Big Diomede right at the border between Russia and USA (Alaska). I have watched a show called Flying Wild Alaska, so I know where this island is located, and it was quite exciting to work them for a new iota. They were also active from a few more rare iota's, but unfortunately, I wasn't active so that I could work them.

August 10th did have a surprising opening on 6M. I wasn't lucky enough to get in on that opening, but LA3EQ managed to work D64K on ES+TEP. That was an LA-D6 first, and would have been a new one for me.

Soundclip:

• RI0K 20M CW – AS061

I must say that for me, this was the opening of the season. I didn't get any of the west-coast stuff that others in Europe was working and I missed the nighttime opening in June too.

In the evening on July 19th, I was listening for North-America. I heard one CQ from K1TOL in a burst. A few minutes later, I heard N3DB out of the noise. I quickly worked him and started calling myself. That resulted in 5 more qsoes with USA. 2 of them were new stations. The opening lasted around 10 minutes or so and was right around midnight local time.

Friday July 20th, I came home right around midnight local time. I noticed spotlines on ON4KST-chat passing my head. I quickly turned on the gear and started listening. I didn't hear much, but K8WW was in here very weak. I called him a few times, but couldn't get his attention. I started calling myself and VE2XK was the first one in the log. What followed was one of the best opening to North-America I have had. I worked 3 new states with KC0CF in IOWA, KT9T in MINNESOTA and K8UT in MICHIGAN. I was parked on the same frequency all night and worked station after station. Some of the stations were very weak and had severe qsb on them. I'm sure there were several stations I just could not get through. 

I worked a total of 58 qsoes in this opening. If you look at the picture, it was quite a spread from Florida in the south, Prince Edward Island in the North to Iowa and Minnesota in the west. The longest qso was with W9DR in EL86 at 7566km.

I've plotted them in a map in Google Earth for you to see. Just click the picture above. All stations are not shown, but I've tried my best to make them visible. I also made a quick map in DXAtlas too.

Stations were worked in CT, FL, GA, IA, IL, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN and VA. That makes 19 different states and 41 gridsquares in one opening! I sure wish I could have more openings like this on 6M.

The picture pretty much says it all, but on July 15th I worked a big 6m aurora. The aurora started early in the morning and lasted the whole day. I didn't bother to work all the time, but at one point the aurora got too far south for me to be workable. That doesn't happen very often though. I also worked into a JN square for the first time on 6M aurora. Nothing new was worked but several new stations in the log.

I added a map made in DXAtlas to show all the gridsquares I worked. 84 different stations in 64 gridsquares were worked in this opening.