Unless you were asleep at the dial you probably heard a lot of yelling,
begging, and contacts being made on the HF bands yesterday. From 1200Z
yesterday to 1200Z today stations were on the air doing what contest
stations do - making contacts. Ahh, yes, it was the weekend for the
IARU HF Championship.
I hadn't planned on participating until I started seeing some islands
starting to be advertised on the spotting networks. Since I'm still
chasing the islands I immediately seized the opportunity and started
making contacts. 80m was also open to Europe in the overnight hours
(particularly after 0400Z) so I was able to pick up a few countries
there as well.
Here's some of the places I put in the log during the contest:
- Aland Islands, 20m CW
- Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, 15m SSB
- Isle of Man, 20m CW and 40m CW
- Faeroe Islands, 40m CW
- Aruba, 80m CW and 40m CW
- Germany, 80m CW
- Canada, 15m CW and 80m CW
- South Cook Islands, 20m CW
- Portugal, 80m CW
Most, if not all, of these contacts were either new countries, new
bands, or new modes. That brings my current DXCC count to:
- SSB - 118
- CW - 65
- Data - 106
- Overall - 165
Looks like I will be competing in the upcoming Maryland QSO Party and
helping out with the ARRL Rookie Roundup - RTTY, both as K3CAL. Those
contests should be a lot of fun!
Oh, and a checklog has been submitted to the ARRL.