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WAE used to be one of my favourite contests. I even have their special plaque (Stations who have been in the Top-Ten/Top-Six list for at least five times can apply for a special plaque.) and I finally won Europe on SSB part in 2001 (@OG1F). I have also won the RTTY leg something like 20 years ago.

This weekend conditions looked quite good. I had anyway a lack of motivation to operate much: I was using my Microham keyer to work Perseids on 2 meters and also our big tower has to be pointed to East to get correct direction for VHF-yagis at the top (with separate rotator). But anyway few qsos were made:

Call: OH1F
Operator(s): OH1NOA
Station: OH1F

Class: Single Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 1

Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
————————-
80: 4 0 3
40: 1 10 1
20: 5 10 5
15: 28 35 15
10: 0 0 0
————————-
Total: 38 55 55 Total Score = 5,115

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

Condx sounded quite good and activity low (30 min of CQ on 15m resulted about 10
qsos).

We will see if I’ll make any qsos in SSB or RTTY parts.

Friday produced some new QSLs:

BBC Radio Leeds 774 kHz
F/up report and quickly I got an email from the morning DJ Johnny I’Anson, who wrote: “…confirm that was me who you heard all the way across in Finland – how exciting, some people can’t even pick us up here in West Yorkshire, so the fact you can is technological magic!”

WBMJ San Juan PR 1190 kHz
This English Puerto Rican is not the most common one. I believe that I heard it only once during the last season. Dalan Decker, Programming Director replied to my f/up report in 2 days.

HJNL La Cariñosa, Manizales 1450 kHz
1450 is not the easiest of SA channels, but La Cariñosa is audible sometimes. Jaime Sánchez Restrepo, Director Artístico Manizales replied to my f/up report.

Last night I was at my listening QTH and did even some “live” DXing. A and K indexes are quite low and so mediumwaves opened to Americas. Propagation was quite funny. Just after midnight UTC I heard the most common Canadians like VOCM 590, CJYQ 930 and CBG 1400 with some easy CAs (1660, 1280). Then just before 0200 the band opened to Venezuela and Colombia. And then in the sunrise few strong Brasilians were heard (I don’t have La Plata/Bra antenna) with Radio Rubí, Rafael Castillo, Matanza BA, Argentina on 1670. Unfortunately VEN/CLM stations were not new for me. There were some interesting possible new catches but all unindentified.

Log:

British Isles

1566 11.8. 0200- G: BBC R Bristol. Own programme and local id: programme was “the best of community station Ujima Radio 98FM”.

North America

590 11.8. 0020- CAN: VOCM St. John’s NL.
1400 11.8. 0010- CAN: CBG Gander NL.

Central America

1280 11.8. 0202- PTR: WCMN Arecibo PR. Very strong.

South America

1070 11.8. 0158- VEN: YVMA R Mundial Zulia, Maracaibo.
1190 11.8. 0200- CLM: HJCV R Cordillera, Bogotá. Good Todelar IDs
1300 11.8. 0155- VEN: YVNS Radio Reloj, Maracaibo. “Exitos, solo exitos en Radio Reloj 1300” [1299.983]. TIK
1340 11.8. 0158- CLM: HJFB Amor Estereo, Bogota.
1430 11.8. 0200- CLM: HJKU 1430 AM, Bogotá. “14-30 AM Radio”. At 0228 Brasilian was heard (probably RB2).
1500 11.8. 0225- PRU: OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima. [1499.828]. 1570 possibly Carraviz with poor audio. New split [1469.761] played More Than Words by Extreme.
1520 11.8. 0155- CLM: HJLI Libertad, Bogotá. Fading with WVOZ.
1670 11.8. 0229- ARG: Radio Rubí, Rafael Castillo, Matanza BA. Weak signal with 290 degrees antenna but ID heard.

The nicest suprise last February for me was to hear PJD-2 The Voice of St.Maarten, Philipsburg 1300 kHz with a good signal and excellent station ID: “This PJD-2 radio celebrating 40 years …”. You can listen to MP3-file here: 1300kHz PJD-2 The Voice of St.Maarten, Philipsburg 260213 0059.

I sent an email to the station and also sent a Facebook message but until today I didn’t get replay. But now MarieClaire, marketing manager, sent me a brief message on Facebook:

Sint Maarten is quite new DX-country. Until 2010 it was a part of Netherlands Antilles, but now it is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The northern part of the same island is “Saint-Martin”, a part of France.

I made a PDF-file with all my DX-loggings (excl. FM) between 01.09.2012-30.06.2013. The file has also TIK/K temporary QTH loggings and PETA1-pedition log.

TIKLOG2012-2013

Radio Free Asia Tinian Island 12140 kHz
RFA was quick! I emailed them on Thursday and on Wednesday QSL arrived via snail mail! QSL from Oceania is always nice. In the photo above is also a QSL card from CRI French service, which arrived today too.

Radio 538 891 kHz
This Dutch station is quite easy to hear here, but I don’t remember if I ever have sent a reception report to them. Now they replied in one day to my Dutch email.

Last weekend I decided to activate my old “home QTH” and pulled up a 80 meter dipole to the flagpole. Flagpole is perhaps 7-8 meters tall and the lower part of dipole’s wires were maybe one meter above the ground level. By using FT1000D’s tuner I got it to tune on every band. Unfortunately it didn’t work very well on 15 and 10 meters. I was on about 7 hrs (of 12) and worked exactly 400 qsos, so I think that around 600 qsos would have been possible after full time operation. But having Sauna and some beers (and listening to BC stations) took their tolls.

Call: OH1NOA
Operator(s): OH1NOA
Station: OH1NOA

Class: CW Only LP
QTH: Kyläsaari
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Mults
—————————
160: 0 0 0
80: 68 0 31
40: 114 0 42
20: 163 0 47
15: 32 0 22
10: 23 0 17
—————————
Total: 400 0 159 Total Score = 63,600

== My EUHFC history ==

I noticed from the old results that in 1996 I worked from same QTH 486 qsos in mixed mode class. That time I had all band vertical which would have been nice also this time. In 1997 @OH1AF I finished 3rd in the mixed mode HP class but next year I won the same class (@OH1AF) – my only victory in EUHFC. That time 1042 qsos was enough to win this contest. In 2002 I operated in CW HP class and finished second behind OH2UA @OH0B. In 2003 I returned to CW/SSB HP and I was 3rd behind YT1AD and UY5QQ. Next year OH0B won again and I was 5th. After years of absence I returned in 2010, this time in CW low power class (my amplifier was broken). I finished second behind 9A3VM, I remember that I lost after log checking – difference was only 20 qsos or 6 mults to 9A3VM. In 2011 I was 9th in CW HP class but only 39 kpts behind the winner.

Today I sent some more f/up-reports for stations I heard last year. Luckily I got two quick responses:

HJKR Radio María, Bogotá 1220 kHz
When I noticed this clip, I remembered that I just received verification from Radio María on 1580 kHz. And for my enjoyment Marina Meza replied to my email and verified this other Maria. This HJKR I have heard only once – last November.

WOOD Grand Rapids MI 1300 kHz
Since last Autumn I have heard WOOD often during the stateside openings. I didn’t got replay to my first report but then today Phil Tower, Director of Programming & Operations replied to my email quickly.

So QSL total 2013 is now 140.

Last week I had some new verifications:

CRI Cerrik
I never got QSL from Radio Tirana in the “old days”. And as I visited in July in Albania by myself, I decided that it is time to get this country verified. I listened CRI’s French programme on shortwaves and after few weeks they replied to my email with a promise to send a proper QSL card via mail.

Radio Iasi 1053 kHz
Follow up to 2012 report resulted a quick email.

Radio Marija 1053 kHz
Second QSL from Russia in a few days! This was also to f/up report. Heard same time than Radio Iasi.

WLCM Holt MI 1390 kHz
This one was heard during the excellent NA-condx in January. Jeff Frank, N8HEE replied to my f/up report.

WHK Cleveland OH 1420 kHz
Brett Patram, Chief Engineer replied 3 months after my report. This was the 50th NA QSL in 2013.

WCMN Arecibo, PR 1280 kHz and WUNO San Juan, PR 630 kHz
Wanda Pereira replied quickly to my f/up report to WCMN. Then I remembered that I heard also another NotiUno station last winter and quickly Wanda replied to my WUNO report too.

ZYH585 Rádio Clube Fortaleza CE 1200 kHz
For this and two other SA QSLs I got v/s information from JHY. JHY had tried to get a verification for Clube 1200 for over 10 years. Henrique Gondim replied to my report very quickly. I heard this Clube in April.

HJDS Ondas del Montaña, Medellin 1350 kHz
German Roldan Lopez just didn’t send a verification but also some photos of flowers. Later he emailed to me a show which I heard.

HJQZ Radio Maria, Barranquilla 1580 kHz
This Maria was heard very often last winter. V/s-info Marina Meza resulted a replay to f/up in one day.

Now I have 138 QSLs in 2013. Maybe I should aim to 200? It needs some propagation anyhow. Just sending f/ups is not enough.

Today I received “QSL-verification” from Hungarian MTVA Kossuth Radio 104.60 MHz, which I heard on the 29th of June 2013 during the excellent Es-opening to Balkan area. Besides Balkan, also some stations from more north were heard. Director Miklos Kenderessy verified my email report with very detailed letter which arrived via registrated mail! Köszönöm Miklós!