It’s a list of the 100 most wanted countries, this year and last.
Now, in just over a year of operating, I thought I had done well with DX.
However, this list has brought me crashing back to earth with a bang!
I’ve only worked 2 and possibly 3 of these countries The definites are Cameroon and Togo, I also think Afghanistan (need to check the log books) all on the 15m band, IIRC
I was somewhat surprised to see Benin (TY) which as well as Togo is the other land-locked country in South Africa, which I managed to work last summer, absent from the list.
So, for a little bit of fun, how many of these rarities have you managed to work?
One things for certain, I won’t be working that lot this summer
DX Sota is something very special & something I have yet to achieve, although chasing Robert VP8DMM/P (G0PEB)on Mount Alice in the Falklands remains the best SOTA DX chasing I have managed to date. I tried the day before from home but could not pull Robert’s SSB signal out of the noise. The following day seeing that he would be active again, after finishing work I dashed home, made a 20m dipole & headed straight for the nearest bit of high ground with a good take-off to the Falklands.
There is a video of my location & antenna on Youtube but the irony is I was only 20 minutes walk away from the activation zone of G/SP-014 Longridge Fell. If there hadn’t been a robbery in Whalley in which the criminals had escaped on a motorcycle & were heading my way, (Information given to me by a policeman who pulled up alongside me just after I was starting to set up my antenna), I probably would have packed up & set off for the summit after working Robert on 17m SSB.If I had worked him from the summit on 20m, this would have been the first VP8 to G summit to Summit, which as far as I know has still to be achieved. The first VP8 S2S of any kind was achieved by Carolyn G6WRW who was on a German summit at the time.
Sometimes being on a summit can actually be a big advantage, especially if your home location is noisy, or you are limited in the antennas you can erect.
Anyway, here is a video of where I chased Robert from, which you may have seen before…
Sorry for the ramble, the original reason for my post is that there is currently a nice opening to South America on 10m for those interested. I would have posted this on the relevant thread but I couldn’t find it quickly enough.
A final PS. Talking of The Falklands, in a few days time it will be 29 Years since the outbreak of hostilities between The UK & Argentina over those Islands. I am not going to pass comment on that, but will say that Bob VP8LP demonstrated what amateur radio is really good at & it was a real pleasure to work him again only a few months ago on 10m.
With all the problems there are in the world, we as amateurs still have a lot to offer in times of crisis.
Here a news broadcast from April 1982 featuring Bob’s transimission. I believe a GM station was at the UK end.
Sorry once again for deviating from the subject a little.
I worked a little DX today from SS-037. EB8AH in the contest on 28MHz SSB when I was checking the antenna and much more fun, KD4UGL on 21MHz CW. 5W to an endfed halfwave on 28 and likewise to an endfed thirdwave on 21. i.e. same bit of wire, just a tweak of the tuner!
I also found conditions good on HF today. I was up on GW/SW-018, primarily for the UHF Fun Day, but found activity on 70cm rather disappointing (11 QSOs in total). However, after working a pile-up of 52 stations on 40m CW I decided to give 15m a try with the 40m inverted V dipole. It works very well as three half-waves on 21 MHz. I managed 20 QSOs on SSB in the contest, including 4 VE’s, 8P5A in Barbados, 5D5A in Morocco and also KG9N on CW. All with 5 watts from my FT-817. No ATU required.
Great to work you on 40m CW earlier, I know you got the (genuine) 599 I sent to you, but did you really give me 577? If not, I will not enter the contact in my chaser log. It did seem a little strange, but that is what I wrote down. My CW is very rusty
Thanks Walt, I am using CW more often now but when I worked you I was in the middle of something else & probably just logged the RST incorrectly. In any case you were genuinly 599 here in Blackburn, very nice to hear on 40m from GW/SW-018.
It was actually the next QSO in my log that prompted my earlier post. Although there was only a contest exchange of 59 both ways + serial numbers, Brazil on 10m will do for me at any time.
Sounds like you really enjoyed your radio today…Good luck.
Well, I’ve just fully charged the 20Ah SLAB as I couldn’t resist activating The Cloud, again tomorrow and try to work some HF before the promised rain from Tuesday onwards.
This really is a great little summit only 12 miles from my home qth with fabulous views, which G1STQ and myself activated jointly on Saturday. The take-off is great on 2m and to work stations in Barrow, the Isle of Walney and the Yorkshire Dales on a summit which is 216m below Shining Tor, makes you understand it’s so popular.
With only Dave M0TUP/P on SP-009 and myself on SP-015 on the alerts so far, this may be a busy day.
I’ve never tried my 40m SOTA dipole on 15m, I must give it a bash sometime. Conditions did seem up because the contest stations were still busy this afternoon and not just calling and calling. My prefix knowledge is very rusty as I don’t chase DX but from the pileup calling 5X1NH I thought it must be a good one and it is of course, Uganda. Humungous pile up on 28MHz. I didn’t bother trying with my setup! 6V7?? in Senegal was popular too on 28MHz.
The station I worked on 21MHz was just a normal Joe who came back to my CQ on 21.058. I was quite surprised and he is my 1st US station worked on CW.
I’ll try the 40m dipole on 15m next activation. I’ll take the EFHW and matcher as it weights so little and gives me 3 bands. I intend to use 21.058, 24.897 and 28.058 from now on on the higher bands.
I know it’s considered bad form to reply to your own post, however, I wrote…
I was somewhat surprised to see Benin (TY) which as well as Togo is
the other land-locked country in South Africa, which I managed to work
last summer, absent from the list.
This of course, is utter bilge.
The two land-locked countries in South Africa are in fact, Swaziland and Lesotho.
I’ve just donned me dunces hat and I’m now standing in the corner of me living room
The two land-locked countries in South Africa are in fact, Swaziland
and Lesotho.
Still not right, though the answer depends on exactly what you mean.
If you mean countries which are landlocked and border South Africa, then there are four: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
However it is possible that you are thinking of enclaves in South Africa, i.e. countries which are totally surrounded by South Africa. In this case Lesotho is the only one. Swaziland isn’t one, because it has a border with Mozambique.
Don’t forget the old trick of resonating a 40-metre dipole on 15 metres by putting loading loops at the 15-metre high voltage points, this will make a tuner unnecessary (for those who have forgotten, due to end effects a 40-metre dipole is actually off tune on 15 metres.)
Don’t forget the old trick of resonating a 40-metre dipole on 15
metres by putting loading loops at the 15-metre high voltage points,
this will make a tuner unnecessary (for those who have forgotten, due
to end effects a 40-metre dipole is actually off tune on 15 metres.)
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a loading loop?
My 40m inverted Vee dipole presented a match of as near 1:1 as makes no difference on 21.100 MHz yesterday. It is cut to resonate on 7.033 MHz.
Hi, Walt, you set me on a search through my books! It is something I was told about many years ago, the harmonics on a dipole are slightly off tune, a dipole resonant on say 7.1 won’t be resonant on 21.3 but on a slightly higher frequency so to get the higher frequency band optimised for the frequency you need, you fix a piece of wire (most conveniently in the form of a loop) to the high voltage node of the higher frequency. You will need to move it around for best effect, attach it with an alligator clip or something like and move it about until you have the right position, and it won’t effect the lower frequency resonance. I eventually found a mention of it in “Backyard Antennas” by Peter Dodd G3LDO, page 19, for the 7/21 MHz version he recommends a 300mm loop as the starting point. The trick can be scaled for 10.1/28.5 and 3.6/10.1. I think something like this is used in some types of multi-band beams.
I’m not sure why your antenna doesn’t show the off-tuning due to end effect but it is obviously very handy!
The definites are Cameroon and Togo, I also think Afghanistan (need to check the log books) all on the 15m band, IIRC
