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As I wrote two posts ago, I worked VK9HR on 30M CW July 29th. I was happy to get them, since they use LoTW. They were very quick to upload to LoTW as well. Only a few days after my qso, they confirmed it on LoTW. My total now on LoTW is up to #291. Others I've been getting on LoTW has been FP/K9OT on 40/17/15 all CW. S21YZ also uploaded the log. They were active back in March this year. That was a new one on RTTY.

On August 4th, I got ST0R on 30M RTTY for my 4th band. I haven't used much time in chasing them, and I'm happy with my 5 qsoes.

This was surely one I didn't have much hope in working. I've barely been watching 6M at all in July. Seems I need to pay more attention. Especially when an expedition is on. I noticed that last week SM6CMU had managed to get them on 6M. I think also a few other SM stations made it in the log too. On Saturday, OH2MA managed to get them on 6M. 

To my surprise, I was alerted by LA8HGA that he was hearing ST0R late Sunday afternoon. Almost before I had turned on the radio, he had worked them. I heard them here, but they were not too strong, and they did have a pile-up. I tried calling, but I couldn't get through. The qsb took them, and I thought I missed them. Luckily, they were in and out of the noise several times. I still could not get through to them, and suddenly he sent QSY SSB. I really thought that was it. No way that I could get them now. Even more to my surprise, I heard him and he was stronger. I worked ST0R on 6M SSB for #132 on 6M. And you know… after I worked him, the signal came up even more. It seemed like there were few takers and he went back to CW where I quickly worked him this time.

I don't know what to say really. The band didn't seem to be very well open, but 6M proves again and again that it is the magic band. I'm sure we have more openings on the band than what we are aware of.

Soundclip:

• ST0R 6M SSB – new one on 6M
• ST0R 6M CW

Early on Wednesday July 27th, I checked the radio before work. I worked FP/K9OT on 40M CW. He had a nice and strong signal and was easily worked. A few minutes later, I worked IM0P in EU-165 for a new IOTA.

On Friday July 29th, I had some time before work. I got VK9HR on 30M CW. They are qrv from Lord Howe Island. I have them confirmed on 30M from an expedition in 2009, but this expedition will use LoTW. As I need Lord Howe on LoTW, I was quite happy to get them in the log. ST0R was going good on 20M CW and after maybe 10 minutes in the pile-up, I worked them for an all-time new one. My DXCC total is now #333. Thank you for the expedition.

LA/OE9ICI was on 6M this morning too. He is qrv from JP43em. I heard him on tropo on JT6M and worked him for a new grid on 6m. He also called me on SSB after our JT6M QSO. Thank you for the new grid on 6M Chris.

ST0R was also on 17M RTTY. They were even easier to work here than on 20M. I think I got them after around 5 minutes.

In the evening I worked FP/K9OT on 15M CW for a new one on 15M (#239 15M).

Saturday July 23rd, I had some time to play radio. I knew there were a few IOTA's on in Alaska that had never been activated before, so I was looking for them. K6VVA/KL7 NA-242 was on 30M CW early in the day. He was fluttery and not too strong. I heard an SM station working him so I quickly found his frequency and I got through fairly quickly after that. I started looking for KL7RRC in NA-232. They were on 20M CW, but too weak to be able to work them with my station. Then I noticed K6VVA/KL7 was on 20M CW. The signal was stronger than on 30M and easy to work. To my luck, KL7RRC was on 17M SSB. The signal wasn't too strong, and the pile-up was obviously not very big as I quickly worked them for my second new IOTA in Alaska.

This was yet another one I didn't expect that got uploaded today. The qsoes with 8R1K was worked back in 1997 and I do have a paperqsl for those qsoes. I see I have only 5 qsoes with 8R total, so it's even more fun to get it confirmed via LoTW. That brings my LoTW total to #290, only 10 more to go for 300 LoTW only!

No radio worked here since my last post. I'm hoping that will change for my next post. If you haven't read the latest DXCC news, South-Sudan has been added to the DXCC list as entity 341 and it's valid from July 14th 2011. Read more about it over at DX-World. As it happens, an expedition started up from there today with the callsign ST0R. I've been listening to them on 30M and making a few calls, but the pile-ups are quite big. I think I'll just wait this one out a few days. The expedition page for ST0R can be found here. Happy hunting!