Here is the fortnightly bulletin of DX information for Australian DXers. Solar and ionospheric news, DX observations, announcements of DX activations, operating tips, and anything else that may be of interest to DXers in our part of the world may be found here. Reader’s observations and suggestions for content are welcome.
Propagation notes
The sun was mostly quiet over the past two weeks, and the geomagnetic field was also mostly quiet, apart from a brief geomagnetic storm around 9th September. Radio propagation did seem to lift a little over the past week.
Around the bands
Forty, thirty and twenty metres have been going quite well over the past week or so, with signals from most parts of the world.
Low Bands were still patchy, with good propagation some nights and poor on others.
DX Heard or Worked
Diego CX4DI was active last week on the 80 m DX Window, Pavel ZA/OK1MU was worked on 30 m CW, Tony 3D2AG continues to be active on the low bands, OJ0DX was a DXpedition to Market Reef, and WH0RU Northern Marianas Contest Club was active around the All Asia Contest.
Upcoming Activations of Interest
ZD9CW Tristan da Cunha (AF-029), 20 September – 22 October. G4EDG plans activity on 40 – 10 m, CW and RTTY. Do your best to get this quite rare entity. Hopefully we will get some propagation to this very remote island over the next month. QSL via LotW or LZ1JZ.
TO6OK Mayotte (AF-027), 21 September – 6 October. Seven Czech operators plan activity 160 – 10 m, CW, RTTY and FT8. QSL via LotW, OK6DJ or Club Log. For more information see: http://www.cdxp.cz/
H88X Panama. 24 September – 9 October. A team of five ops plan activity from Playa Farallon, Provincia Cocle, 160 – 6 m (except WARC 79 bands), CW, SSB and Digital. QSL via I0SNY direct, or 9A5URI bureau.
9X0T Rwanda, 26 September – 10 October. The Italian DX Team will be active 160 – 10 m, CW, SSB and RTTY, with callsign 9X0Y active only on FT8. QSL via LotW, OQRS, or I2YSB diRect. For more information see: http://www.i2ysb.com/idt/
5W0GC Samoa (OC-097), 28 September – 14 October. Active 160 – 6 m, CW, SSB and RTTY, with a focus on low bands. QSL via LotW or LZ1GC direct.
VK9XT Christmas Island. 29 September – 6 October. Team of four operators will be active 160 – 10 m, CW, SSB and Digital. QSL via LotW, eQSL or QRZ.com logbook. For more information see: http://vk9xt.qsodirector.com/
C21GJ Nauru (OC-031), 30 September – 12 October. Lance W7GJ will be operating on 6 m EME, mostly using JT65, with some SSB, CW and FT8. QSL via W7GJ. For more information see: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/
3DA0A0 Aborted
HA5AO was unable to get on air from eSwatini, as he was not allowed to put up his antenna. He has left his radio gear there, and has gone back home to Hungary, with plans to return to eSwatini.
Every QSO is Appreciated
Sometimes one finds it a bit of a chore when those stations just keep lining up in the pileup, and it is all pretty routine DX calling, such as from Europe. After one such session recently, I found an email message in my inbox from a French station who let me know just how excited he was to make the QSO using low power and an indoor dipole cut for another band from his rented house near Paris. This reminded me just how magical our hobby is, where two stations on opposite sides of the planet can communicate using the resources we can muster as hobbyists, and the natural phenomena that enable our little bits of energy to reach each other.
-end-
73 Luke VK3HJ