Comparison of my entry between 2021 and 2022:

DXCC in one contest!

Despite that on Saturday morning the conditions were not great:

28.680MHz / Scottie 2 …. worldsstv

Then this one popped up out of the noise!

Disappointing!

FT8 Fox and Hounds on 14.088, 18 Sep 22

I’ve been enjoying a bit of SOTA chasing recently:

The Drowned Rats were out in the field for the 2m Trophy contest last weekend from JO01JA in Kent. Good weather, a first class station and fun with friends, throw in a hot-tub and a few cold beers for good measure and what more can you ask for!

Radio: Anan-100 Transverter: Khune DB6NT (14MHz IF) Ampilfier: Beko
Antennas: 4 x 9 Ele LFA, 4 x 4 Ele OWL, Logging: Minos
The team: G7LRQ (Anthony), M0SAT (Dave), G0CAG (David), G0GQT (Mark) and myself M0ICR (Carl)
ODX: 9A2L (in Croatia) 1277Km Total QSO: 518

Seems were were also SN7L ODX, nice!

Nice meme by M0SAT …

Sweltering here in the middle of a heatwave I thought I’d put up the 6m Moxon and see what conditions are like on the band. Pretty dire to be honest, a couple of Italians worked and not much else heard.

A pleasant Sunday morning at the McMichael Rally today. A bit of a heatwave today at c.32C (and expected to get to 40C tomorrow!!!). Perhaps it was the weather but the number of sellers and buyers seemed to be somewhat lower than previous years. The RSGB bookstall was notable for its’ absence (pity as I was hoping the buy the new Nano VNA book).

Delighted to meet a few Drowned Rats (Anthony G7LRQ with Debbie his XYL accompanying him and keeping him in check), David G0CAG and Don G0ACK. Also good to see fellow VHF contesters Charlie G0SKAC, Pete G1DFL and Peter G4YPC.

Not too many purchases today but I did pick up a bargain bundle of a Sotabeams (Funkamateur) DYC 3.0 speech compressor for the FT817 (I lost my original long ago!), a Morserino 32 morse trainer, and a Chinese copy of the N7DDC 7×7 ATU-100. I also picked up a very clean Yaesu G-650C rotator controller (with the very fine ERC rotator controller board fitted for PC control over USB) and finally a bunch of quality N and UHF Connectors.

http://www.carnut.info/ATU_N7DDC/ATU_N7DDC.html

http://www.morserino.info/

https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/speech-compressor-for-ft-817-818/

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Woop woop! This one’s for you Dave (G8LZE)

Couldn’t sleep so thought I’d have a tune around the 20m band. Delighted to see VK0 popped up in FT8, my first VK0 QSO on any band 🙂
From DX news: “Matt, VK5HZ will be active as VK0MQ from Macquarie Island, IOTA AN – 005, starting Mid June 2022. He will operate on HF Bands, SSB, FT8, using ICOM IC-7100 transceiver and tuned whip antenna.”

https://dxnews.com/vk0mq/