2019 statistics @PE4BAS. Surprisingly this was a real DX year. Low propagation due to the solar minimum? Well, it didn't stop me. I worked 8 ATNOs (All Time New Ones). 2 new ones on WSPR bringing the total on 92 DXCC that spotted my 1W signal. Eleven new 6m band DXCC and 60 new 60m band DXCC.
This was the first year that has a change in the amount of QSOs. 51,33% of the QSOs were made in data mode (RTTY, FT8, FT4, JT65 etc.). For me personally and for others FT8 is a real game changer. I worked a incredible 163 DXCC in total and 3690 QSOs, compare that to previous years. I'm shure I would not have worked the amount of ATNOs I worked this year if there was no FT8. The only one of the ATNOs I worked on 20m SSB was CY9C after I worked them on FT8.
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Most of my DXCC efforts were on 60m. I actually love this band as most of the DX can be worked at night. Ideal for those that have a daytime job. The majority of DX can be made with FT8 which is ideal for remote operation. Most time I work with a laptop from the living room, with my tablet from anywere in the house and garden or when I'm away and really need to remote control my station I use my smartphone. I use teamviewer and google desktop for this task. Another big advantage is the possible use of a QSO robot, controversial, more about that in future posts.
I've been very active this year so it seems. I always have a high rate of QSOs in February and March due to contests. Then the amount of QSOs was steadily growing.
Last year I wrote SSB would always be my favourite mode, it actually still is. But these days the majority of QSOs are made with digimode. You see I entered MFSK as mode, but in reality this would be FT4, WSJT-X does convert the mode to MFSK in the ADIF file to get mixed up. For 2020 I hope to work many more new DXCC, the solar minimum does not affect low bands that much and even on 10m there is still activity.
The amount of QSOs on 30m still is very low. It has a reason. In the Netherlands we are officially not allowed to do digimodes below 10.140MHz. Yes, you will find Netherlands stations on the FT8 frequency there, they are transmitting illigal. But we are allowed on the FT4 frequency, unfortunately I don't find much activity there yet. But things could change in 2020 of course. The amount of QSOs on 60m has exploded
compared to 2018 when I worked 219 stations on this band only. I even made VHF 2m QSOs last year, on FT8 that was of course...
Curious what 2020 will bring? Will FT8 win from SSB this year? I'm certain that the majority of DX will be worked with FT8 again. Will there be a slow change to FT4? Radio activity is were the stations are...
