Worked Baker Island 2018 DXpedition - KH1/KH7Z

I haven't been able to be on the air much lately...at least on the HF bands.  Last night I kept seeing Baker & Howland Island on the DX cluster.  They seemed to be running many station because they were working several bands and modes.  I could hear them on CW (but I don't know code), and could barely decode them on FT8.  I couldn't hear them at all on the few voice spots I saw.

Finally after checking all the spots, I found that I could hear them calling on 14.210mHz and listening 5kHz to 10kHz up.  I was getting some very heavy QRM from an overmodulated signal on 14.205.  I waited a while until the QRMing station stopped transmitting and then I can gave my call.  To my surprise, they answered on the first call!

After logging them, I started to worry that perhaps in the excitement I had not heard if my call was copied correctly.  However, today I checked their online Club Log and verified that I was in it!

Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about 1,920 miles southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, 42 mi to the north-northwest; both have been territories of the United States since 1857, though the United Kingdom considered them part of the British Empire between 1897 and 1936.

This DXpedition commemorates the 81st anniversary of Amelia Earhart's disappearance on July 2, 1937 near Baker & Howland islands -- as well as the commitment and sacrifices made by the Hui Panalā’au -- students from Hawaii who lived on Baker, Howland and Jarvis from 1935-1942. Read the full story HERE

73 and good DX de KG4LST sk

Fun Father's Day Weekedend DX on 6m and 10m

For some reason on Saturday morning, my eyes popped open fairly early.  By 7:30AM I was already playing radio for a few hours before I had to do some yard work.

I noticed that the E-Skip was rolling again and checked out 6m.  My first contact of the day at 7:42AM was CT1GVN in Portugal on 6m FT8.  I worked a few more stateside before jumping over to 10m FT8.  There I saw and worked EI7HDB in Ireland and F5RJM in France!

I moved to the voice portion of 10m and had a few fairly lengthy QSO's with some stateside stations.  It was enjoyable to make those contacts during this low part of the sunspot cycle and without much QSB.

On Sunday (Father's Day), I went back to 6m for a bit and worked VP5DR in Turks and Caicos and CU3EQ in Azores.

The contacts I made over the weekend were very exciting.  At over 4,100 miles, Portugal is now my furthest contact on 6m and I think Ireland is my furthest on 10m.

KG4LST 6m and 10m contacts from 6/16/18 and 6/17/18

73 and good DX de KG4LST sk

Worked Mexico on 6m E-Skip - XE3N

Last night at almost 9:30PM, I was using the computer in the ham shack. I noticed that I kept hearing some distant stations breaking the squelch on 2m FM on my scanner.  This is usually a good indication of E-Skip propagation. I checked the solar terrestrial data from N0NBH and it confirmed that there was Sporadic E Skip on multiple bands.

I tuned over to the 6m FT8 frequency and listened for signals. I heard some weak signals.  WSJT-X decoded XE3N calling CQ from grid EL60 in Mexico.  I answered his call and we were able to work the QSO and I logged it.  The conditions were not very strong and I only decoded a few other stations that were all fairly close. I tried working one more, but I lost conditions and couldn't finish the QSO.  Since it was late, I went QRT after working just that 1 station.  

I have previously only worked stateside and Canada on 6m.  I was glad to get a new county in the log on that band.  Geographically though, XE3N in Mexico was closer to my QTH than the contacts I made in California recently.

KG4LST 6m contacts as of 6/15/2018

73 and good DX de KG4LST sk

3 New Countries and More FIFA Stations - ER18FIFA, HD18FIFA, TC179JAN, JY4CI, OD5ZZ, SV9KRU

I spent part of yesterday evening playing radio.  I only made about 12 contacts in total.  But the contacts were pretty good in my opinion! I worked 3 new countries and more FIFA World Cup Special Event Stations.

I worked ER18FIFA in Moldova, HD18FIFA in Ecuador, TC179JAN in Turkey, and JY4CI in Jordan (new country) all on 20m SSB voice.  Then I switched over to 20m FT8 while I participated in the local ARES net on 2m.  On FT8 I made contact with TA6P in Turkey, several stateside stations, E74EBL in Bosnia, then OD5ZZ in Lebanon (new country).

I was about to go QRT for the night when I saw SV9RKU in Crete (new country) spotted on the DX cluster on 20m SSB voice.  I called for Gil and made contact.

KG4LST QSO map from 6/13/2018

What a fun afternoon of DX and multi-mode operating!

73 and good DX de KG4LST sk

All KG4's Are Not Guantanamo Bay

I've gotten a couple emails asking me why I show up as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in their FT8 software...

I assure you I'm not in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  My software is also not configured incorrectly.  I am in the U.S. in the state of Georgia in grid square EM84.  I guess there is a bug in some FT8 software with regards to KG4 callsigns.

All KG4's are not from Gitmo.  The FCC issued KG4XXX in "4 land" in 2001.   I got my callsign in 2001 and kept the same call all these years and up to the Amateur Extra Class.  I believe Guantanamo Bay calls are KG4XX (2x2 only).

WSJT-X 1.9 has a fix for this, I'm not sure about any others.

73 de KG4LST - EM84 Georgia

Worked Grenada Football World Cup 2018 Special Call - J32FIFA

I had a good time yesterday on the air.  It was one of those days that I ended up having QSOs on every radio that I own.  While I was working some 20m FT8, I saw a spot on the DX cluster showing Grenada.  I had never worked Grenada before so I finished my FT8 QSO, and tuned over to the extra class phone portion of the band.  I had some pretty heavy QRM, but I was able to copy J32FIFA pretty well.  59 in fact.  I turned on my amplifier and I listened for a few minutes.  I heard him call "J32FIFA QRZ listening up 2", I set the split frequency, and I called.  After only 2 calls, he returned and gave me a 59 report as well.  I'm always glad to work a new country and special event stations!

KG4LST to J32FIFA

Grenada is a sovereign state in the southeastern Caribbean Sea consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. It is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its size is 134.6 sq miles, and it had an estimated population of 107,317 in 2016.

73 and good DX de KG4LST sk

6 Meter Contacts on the West Coast

6m is a very interesting band. It's mostly dead quiet.  But occasionally it will open and provide some good propagation.  I've caught a couple 6m band openings and made some contacts in New England and Canada.  But last weekend we had an opening that lingered for a while and provided some propagation to the West Coast!  Since I've talked around the world on other bands, you wouldn't think getting my signal to the West Coast would be so exciting.  6m is such a mystery and I only have my Maxon off center fed dipole for 6m. I was super exited to work a couple California stations at around 2,000 miles away and several others in a different direction than previous 6m contacts!  Most contacts were made with 50 watts on FT8.

Below is a map of my 6m contacts.  I'm not sure why there is one mapped far into Canada.  According to what I saw, my only Canadian contacts were near the US boarder...

KG4LST 6m QSO Map (hrdlog.net)

73 de KG4LST sk