Another quiet-ish month for me this June, as I was feeling a bit rough for several weeks.
As usual Murphy’s law kicked in just when I started to feel better - the sun flared again. So, no contact with the American Field Day or the King of Spain SSB contests.
I did, however, manage a second 'insurance' contact with Rockall, this time on CW, and I am glad I did as there had been a problem with their electronic log. A simple fault with the wrong time zone being entered, luckily sorted out now and a QSL is on its way.
By way of a cheer-up, I found that I had been awarded a Silver Award for working the Chinese Amateur Radio Festival stations early in May.
I also got some 'wallpaper' for working the CQWW contest, plus I received confirmation of my contact with East Timor (try finding that on the map).
Having more time at home these days, I have been able to dive into the shack at all times of day to check on conditions. This brings up some of the rarer contacts I have been getting. Watching propagation and grey-line times seems to bring success. It also helps when the Mediterranean countries have gone to bed! I was also reminded of the North South seasonal variation when I spoke to Bob, Ken’s mate down in the Falklands. It is our mid-summer, but their mid-winter and their weather was a bit cold and rough!
I did a short spell as a SWL when Cal, out on Rockall, raised a Mayday for an evacuation. Not many are aware that the main coastguard HF daytime radio frequency is close to our 5Meg allocation, so it’s easy to listen in to the emergency traffic. Last time I heard this much action was during the Lockerbie plane disaster when live feeds from the SAR helicopters could be heard here in Sussex. The comments and reactions from the airborne observers cannot be repeated but gave a true impression of the scale of the incident in real time.
So back to my activity, nothing too special but Ethiopia, Singapore, and The Vatican City were added to my score. A chat with Ken and Dick on the lunchtime net reminded me that we have not heard the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for some time. This is a similar entity to the Vatican, and is on the other side of the Tiber in Rome and not in Malta as some might think. The Order also has a presence near Putney bridge in London (not a lot of people know that...) but I’m not aware of any radio activity from there.
As some 'homework', I checked ClubLog and the LOTW for updates and to my surprise I had lots of confirmations. One of these was for a North American island that means I can now apply for the IOTA North American certificate (even more wallpaper).
Next month, if there is room, I will cover slot chasing and other interesting stuff!
Below is a copy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta QSL, and the best I could do on the previous (failed) attempt to activate Rockall.
Chris G4ZCS
