For me, May is usually a quiet month with gardening and outdoor jobs to do, so not too much radio.
This year I managed a total of 264 contacts, mostly run of the mill nets and European contacts, but with several surprises along the way.
The month started off with a huge number of Russians celebrating the 78th anniversary of the ending of WW2. Mixed in were a number of Chinese stations on the higher bands, both CW and voice, mostly club stations.
On the 20th the annual King of Spain contest was on, so an opportunity to work The King? No, but I did work the royal station. During the following week, several VK stations, Reunion Isl', and a new island off Hong Kong were contacted on several bands.
On the 27th the annual CQWW CW contest was on, a real free for all! I was a bit sluggish this year so only made just over 100 contacts but had a couple good ones. The best, an ATNO, was KH8W on American Samoa in the middle of the Pacific. These contests give the opportunity to fill the logbook and add to your annual and all-time contact counts. Usually just a quick-fire 59 # but in the midst you get a surprise “hi Chris how’s things?” from a DX station, its all good fun.
To add to the surprises, on the 31st I managed a quick 15m SSB chat with Nobby out on Rockall for a new island, he said he’d been sunbathing (!) and I had been chasing this one for about 20 years.
So, I’m still short of my 200 DXCC target but getting close.
This month’s illustrations are a QSL card from the Spanish Royal station in 2014, and a card celebrating their new King from the same year.
Cheers & 73
Chris, G4ZCS
