Despite the "sunflower" radar interference from Russia and China on 60m these days there is still some DX that can be worked. Though it is difficult and most DX is of course at night. 15W on the bottom of the solar cycle and limited antennas even with FT8, JT9 or JT65 is though. But a real die hard DXer is never giving up. I recently viewed the 60m online website
achievements list and noticed PA2S Henk already got 142 DXCC worked. I don't know how much of it is confirmed? Well done! And I guess he is one of the top here in the Netherlands.
I don't have information from PE5T and PG0DX who are also big DXers on the 60m band. My own efforts are mainly in the evening and early morning. I'm not fanatic enough to stay up all night to work a special DX station. The shunt fed tower is a improvement for shure. I was surprised by a signal from ZL of +1dB last week. Also last week I spotted HD8M from Galapagos, he had a good signal but I didn't have the time to call for a long time and shure there was a big pile-up. The pile-up for PJ6/NM1Y (Saba&St.Eustatius) was big as well. Looking at Jeff's signal and is behaviour it was like he didn't know what signal to choose, frequency hopping all the time. I had no trouble receiving him although strangely enough I didn't see his trace in the waterfall all the time? I also viewed the pile-up side and found a clean spot around 500Hz. Decided to call and saw was spotted by Jeff around -10dB. It was just perserverance and transmitting his report for over 30 times till he finally noticed and I was in the log!
It took a long time but in the end this is the way I like it and gives more satisfaction compared to one call in the log contacts. This was DXCC nr. 81 on 60m in the log. Given the amount (9) of "new" DXCC I worked already in the first 2 months of 2019 it is not bad for 15W and a inverted-V or now a shunt fed tower. Will I get to 100 DXCC this year? Well, I do my best...some interesting DXpeditions/DX stations are on my list in March. I'm shure I will be able to work a few. I never thought 60m is such a fun DX band.
Here my list if you're interested:
9G2DX (Ghana) 9-20 March
9G5GS (Ghana) till 12 March
HD8M (Galapagos) till 6 March (worked 6-3)
VP5/AA5UK (Turks & Caicos) till 8 March (spotted me!)
KG4SC (Guantanamo Bay) 5-13 March
5T5PA (Mauritania)
6W7/ON4AVT (Senegal) till 30 March (spotted)
ER3MM (Moldavia)
It took a long time but in the end this is the way I like it and gives more satisfaction compared to one call in the log contacts. This was DXCC nr. 81 on 60m in the log. Given the amount (9) of "new" DXCC I worked already in the first 2 months of 2019 it is not bad for 15W and a inverted-V or now a shunt fed tower. Will I get to 100 DXCC this year? Well, I do my best...some interesting DXpeditions/DX stations are on my list in March. I'm shure I will be able to work a few. I never thought 60m is such a fun DX band.
Excellent progress, Bas! I am not making nearly enough effort on 60m!
ReplyDeleteJohn, even I am lazy making DX on 60m. You need to be up at night to make DX and that is not always possible. I already notice that DX propagation is going to get worse now the days are getting longer. Within a few weeks I might put the 6m beam in my tower again to hunt DXCC on 6. 60m is a typical wintertime band. 73, Bas
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