A non-contester's results of the IARU HF Championship

Sun 12 July 2015

Unless you were asleep at the dial you probably heard a lot of yelling, begging, and contacts being made on the HF bands yesterday.  From 1200Z yesterday to 1200Z today stations were on the air doing what contest stations do - making contacts.  Ahh, yes, it was the weekend for the IARU HF Championship.

I hadn't planned on participating until I started seeing some islands starting to be advertised on the spotting networks.  Since I'm still chasing the islands I immediately seized the opportunity and started making contacts.  80m was also open to Europe in the overnight hours (particularly after 0400Z) so I was able to pick up a few countries there as well.

Here's some of the places I put in the log during the contest:

  • Aland Islands, 20m CW
  • Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, 15m SSB
  • Isle of Man, 20m CW and 40m CW
  • Faeroe Islands, 40m CW
  • Aruba, 80m CW and 40m CW
  • Germany, 80m CW
  • Canada, 15m CW and 80m CW
  • South Cook Islands, 20m CW
  • Portugal, 80m CW

Most, if not all, of these contacts were either new countries, new bands, or new modes.  That brings my current DXCC count to:

  • SSB - 118
  • CW - 65
  • Data - 106
  • Overall - 165

Looks like I will be competing in the upcoming Maryland QSO Party and helping out with the ARRL Rookie Roundup - RTTY, both as K3CAL.  Those contests should be a lot of fun!

Oh, and a checklog has been submitted to the ARRL.

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Tags: DXCC / IARU HF Championship / IOTA / Contesting /

Other articles

N4I QSLs Available

Mon 31 October 2011

I received the QSL cards for the N4I DXpedition today.  Received QSLs have been answered and will go out in tomorrow's mail.

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Continue reading …

Preparing to leave for Core Banks NA-067

Thu 28 July 2011

The Core Banks (Cape Lookout) DXpedition team will be heading to the island tomorrow morning.  We plan to have at least one phone and one CW station on the air this weekend (digital modes are an option as well). We will be QRV as N4I beginning Friday through Monday and …

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Continue reading …

Mini-DXpedition to Hatteras Island NA-067

Wed 27 May 2009

Mini-DXpedition to Hatteras Island NA-067 I had the pleasure of doing a mini-DXpedition over the Memorial Day weekend on Hatteras Island. The YL and I setup a 20m SSB station in the tent using a MFJ 20m SSB Travel radio, a hamstick rotatable dipole, a 12ah battery, and a 18w solar panel.

Overall, the test …

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Continue reading …

New DXCC entity confirmed

Fri 30 May 2008

Got a return QSL from EA6SX today. Before you say "You didn't have Spain?" you should know that this isn't exactly Spain. Turns out it this is from the Balearic Islands in the Med. Contact was made on 16 Mar on 17 meters.

Grid JM19ik
IOTA EU-004

Thanks Mike for …

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Continue reading …