It has been less than four weeks since Alex (EA8DBM) activated Andorra on the 23cm band via EME using his portable station. After a three-day journey covering over 2,000 km, his current destination is Moldova. From there, he is active via the moon not only on 23cm but also on 2m and 13cm.
Just minutes after he appeared on his usual frequency of 1296.100 MHz, I managed to make contact—marking another new country on the long road to the DXCC Award.
What a fantastic weekend: Inspired by another DXpedition by Alex (EA8DBM), I returned to 23cm Moonbounce (EME) activity after a long hiatus caused by travel and a technical issue.
This time, Alex wasn’t alone; he was in Andorra with other fellow hams. The goal was to activate the 2m, 70cm, 23cm, and 13cm bands via EME. After the initial pile-ups involving the “Big Guns,” I finally got my turn on August 08, and the contact was quickly logged. Now Andorra is confirmed on all Bands from 160m to 23cm. A big thanks to Alex for his neverending effort!
Just a few hours later that same day, Hamad (A71AW) appeared in the HB9Q chat. He has a home-built 3.2m dish and a BEKO power amplifier. A quick request for a test run, and things got underway. It was practically a formality, and the day was saved with a second new DXCC!
Alex, EA8DBM / LY3UM, has been a well-known VHF- and EME operator for a very long time. About two years ago, he started his “One Man DXPeditions” and has activated more than 20 DXCC entities over 23cm EME to date.
This fall, Alex was active with his 2.4m foldable dish, initially from the Åland Islands as OH0/EA8DBM. From there, he traveled to Latvia (YL/EA8DBM) for a few days, then on to Lithuania, where Alex operated under his home call sign LY3UM. But this wasn’t enough, and he drove across Europe to the first 23cm activation from Albania (ZA/LY3UM). Even that wasn’t enough, so he went to Turkey for two nights, where he operated as TA1/EA8DBM.
Many thanks to Alex for his endless effort and patience, and of course, four new countries for my log.
Working stations from Hawaii is always a thrill, no matter on what band. It is the mixed feeling of long distance and the exoticism of the tropical island. To made a contact with Hawaii is even more difficult, because there is only a very little time slot every month, when both stations see the moon. Today I get very lucky as I saw Frank, KH6FA, on the EME-Chat. He has a 3m mesh dish and a 400 W amplifier. After I asked him for a try, the contact was done strait forward with reports -23 / -21 exchanged. Great feeling and another DXCC in the bag.
A great, enjoyable afternoon and small JA3-EME-Meeting happened in Kyoto / Japan today with my friends (left to right) Taka-san JP3EXR (2m EME), Koji-san JE3GRQ (6m/2m EME), myself and Kay-san JH3AZC (2m/23cm EME).
In addition to the large amateur radio fairs in Friedrichshafen / Germany and Dayton / USA, the Tokyo Ham Fair in Japan is by far the largest of these exhibitions. In 2024, it recorded a new record with around 45,000 visitors.
I had long planned to travel to Japan and visit the Ham Fair. This year, it finally worked out. The new exhibition hall “ARIAKE GYM-EX” is located directly on the Pacific and is convenient and easy to reach by public transport.
The following pictures give a small impression of this great exhibition.
It was a great pleasure for me to meet many well-known DX’ers in person and to make new friends.
See you in Tokyo or see you again on one of the amateur radio bands.
During my stay in Bangkok in November 2023, I had the opportunity to meet probably the most famous and successful radio amateur in Asia: Champ E21EIC and his lovely wife Goi, E20NKB.
Champ is not only known by his own call sign, but also by E2A, under which he and his crew wins almost every major contest in Asia. In addition, he is probably known to most active DXers through many DX expeditions like XW1IC, XW4XR, 3W3B, OJ0A, HS60RAST to name just a few.
Thank you Champ and Goi for the lovely day and the meal together. We’ll meet again soon!
After a break of a few years, I took again part in my favorite contest, the “Marconi Contest VHF” this last weekend. In just a few hours on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a total of 120 QSOs and a total of abt. 43,000 points with an average of 363 km/QSO were made. And it was a lot of fun working old friends and pounding the brass again!
These are the best DX contacts:
Nice surprise: The ARRL DXCC Challenge Medallion 2500 was in the mailbox today. Just a small round sticker, but so much time and work went into it. Challenge 2500 means an average of 250 DXCC Entities on each of the 10 Bands from 160m to 6m. The next and final level is 3000, but I’m out of business now. Unfortunately it is more difficult nowadays to get the confirmation for a QSO than to make the contact itself. Not to mention the cost of requesting QSL cards or LotW confirmations. Now it has a dignified place on the wall and will remind me of so many nice contacts.
50 MHz: Also the month of July brought some nice Es openings to Japan and minor openings to Florida and, after a very long time, again to Brazil. No new DXCC could be worked in July.
Overall the year 2020 ended up with 9 new DXCC Entities. Particularly worth mentioning are those 82 stations from Japan, never worked that much before on the Magic Band.
144 MHz: Regarding Sporadic E July was also a disappointed month. Only OH7RJ was heard and worked during a very short opening on July 3rd.