2 QSO into Brazil and heard in Argentina and Paraguay.

Good path into Bosnia-Herzegovina.

During these tricky conditions on HF I have been enjoying a little 6m activity as we start to see some Sporadic E appearing. Sadly, most activity seems to be on FT8 these days, but I have managed a few SSB QSO also, including some shorter range inter-G stuff for VHF WAB square.

For those who are not aware, these are some useful 6m resources:

Make More Miles on VHF: https://www.mmmonvhf.de

Jim Bacon’s 6m Blog at Propquest: https://www.propquest.co.uk/blog.php?date=2024-05-13

DX Maps: Real QSO mapping https://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php

6m Desktop: https://uksmg.org/desktop.php

The 6m desktop is hosted on the UK Six Metre Group pages (membership of the UKSMG is highly recommended if you get bitten by the 6m bug)!

10th May 2024. Like many others across the whole of the UK I was amazed to see the light show!
Some CQA calls heard on 6m.

Northern lights illuminate the skies across the UK and the world

Skies over the UK and across the world were turned shades of pink and green as the Northern Lights produced incredible displays for skygazers. The impressive Aurora Borealis, usually only visible from northern parts of the British Isles, was visible across large parts of the UK overnight, including Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and, unusually, southern England.

Great to work Paul MM0TZR and Julien MM7JTN on their Scotland adventure to UKBOTA Bunkers (for Bunkers on the Air). Lot’s of bunkers worked including some all time new ones (ATNO) with both the SES call GB0BOA, the Scottish Club Call MS0BOA and their own callsigns. Thank you guys!

Not the best conditions for trying out a new QRP radio!

Awards from United Kingdom Bunkers on the Air (UKBOTA)

M0DXT/P, Bill, activating the nuclear bunker at the former Royal Observer Corps post at Threlkeld in the English Lake District. More information on UKBOTA, United Kingdom Bunkers on the Air, at www.ukbota.org

Amateur radio activation from ROC NUCLEAR BUNKER .@ THRELKELD IN THE LAKE DISTRICT

Uploaded by M0DXT BILL on 2023-10-12.

Whoop whoop!

I’m very please to be part of the team who have established the UK BOTA Awards scheme. Look us up on www.bunkersontheair.org and https://www.facebook.com/groups/bunkersontheair

Tested only on 20m and 40m so far. 200mW power. Pretty cool to be heard in Australia on 0.2W, huh!

This Ultimate 3 is based on the mostly completed one I picked up at the Newbury Rally.

Enjoy rally / radio flea market this morning at the Newbury Showground.

Very hot, must have been over 30deg C by the late part of the morning. Picked up a few baragins, pictures to follow:

• Heil Pro Set Elite headset (for Icom) with adapter cable
• Daiwa DC7055 rotator controller, for the 6m beam and to replace an identical controller in the shack which recently went kaput!
• Small Wonders Labs 40m QRP CW transceiver
• QRP Labs Ultimate 3, don’t really need another and this was a bargain, think I may put this one on 630m
• 70cm transverter
• A massive bag of capacitors (for £1!)
• A few vintage ARRL books
• Mini ATU Kit
• A fex project enclosures
• A bag of used 18650 batteries
• A WAB Book, mug and newsletter sub
• DG1JAN Balun PCB

eQSL received from my Japanese ‘namesake’ JA4ICR in Hiroshima, Japan.

Tuning across 20m this morning and trying to work MM0PLX/P in the Shetland Islands, probably a bit close at the moment for 20m. Nevertheless, tuning across the band I was very pleased to find Peter in Jamestown, St Helena. Good copy 54 both ways.

St Helena …

DXpedition 20 to 27th May 23.

Market Reef, or Märket, is a small reef with a lighthouse on the Swedish/Finnish border, just outside Åland in the Baltic sea. The border zig-zags through the island, making it a special DX entity. The OJ0 callsign prefix was issued in 1973, and has since that day been wanted in the logbooks of many DXers. At the time of writing, it currently holds the #162 on ClubLog’s DXCC most wanted list.

In May 2023 a team of four Norwegian operators will activate the entity once again, and hopefully give many operators world-wide a new (or maybe ATNO) contact with OJ0.