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QRV from Pitcairn as VP6T

Nigel G3TXF was part of the January 2012 VP6T operation from Pitcairn, and has therefore joined the small group of DXFCers who have either visited or operated from this remote island in the South Pacific.

Overnight in Norway

QRV from LA5HE QTH on whistle-stop overnight visit, mni tnx to Rag for great hospitality in the LA countryside,
73 de Roger, G3SXW.

My last trip - Sept. 14th to Oct. 23rd 2011

Started from home Molde, Norway to Moscow, Russia to join the Russian Ham meeting. After nine interesting days I continued to Lisabon. This was a new town for me and therefore I made some few days stop before entering the cruise ship "Norwegian Sun" for the Atlantic crossing to Florida. On the way we got one day at Azores. This was a new DXFC.
In Florida we rented a car and drowe about 3200 miles through 18 US states. This makes my score to 35 visited states in total + DC. The trip back home went from Boston to Iceland. We had some nice days there driving around and spent some hours in the Blue Lagoon before we flew back home to Norway.

Ticking off a common one

I went to hike in the hills of northern Tanzania, mainly because a simple extrapolation shows that the nice castor sugar coating won't be there on those hills forever. I had to transit through Nairobi to get there. I tried to extend my stay for a full day, but the change would have cost a lot of money. I ended up spending less than three hours on the ground, mostly in the airport.

I know that most of you wouldn't take a special trip to see snow, but here in Africa snow is not very common. Especially not on the Equator.

In case you're wondering: I didn't make it to the top. I turned around at 5250 m (650 m from the top). Just could not keep enough liquid and food in my body to keep those legs pumping. I hadn't puked for years, but I made up for it in that last night above 5000 m. Seeing four seasons in four days wasn't bad: A day in the rain forest, a day in the marshland above it, then a day in the lunar rockbed. Finally, a nocturnal push onto the snowclad slopes, with the wind howling in my face and the toe-numbing cold despite the sweaty effort, heavy boots and double socks. It's definitely an experience of a lifetime, even if I didn't get to play with my radio.

Balkans report

Lionel G5LP and I are just back from our four-day trip: overnight in Budapest Hungary and in Podgorica Montenegro at airport hotels, then two nights in an Albanian mountain resort. Fantastic fun. The drive from Podgorica into Albania was 'interesting', very rough roads. We saw a lot of infrastructure development, much of it paid by EU. We finished with about 800 QSOs made by the six call-signs. Yet again the Elecraft K2 was perfect for the purpose. In HA and 4O we used a MP1 (4-foot whip), in ZA it was a W3DZZ. Everyone we met was very friendly but not many speak English.

Tha Balkans

Flew London/Budapest, QRV with a low 20mtr dipole then flew the next day to Podgorica (pronounced Podgoritsa) Montenegro and QRV for a short while on 20m. Will drive to Albania tomorrow. The road is 'under construction' - hmm! 73 de Roger/G3SXW, with Lionel/G5LP.

Add South Sudan as ST0 !!

Hi all, now I am in Juba as a team member of ST0R DXpedition.

I was informed South Sudan government did not request their new prefix to ITU, as of today July 23. We will ask the government about the current situation but new prefix does not seems to be allocated very soon.

For the time being add South Sudan as ST0 for my new DXFC score !!

73 and see you all on the air.

Jun JH4RHF in Juba

ZD7XF - St Helena

Great to be able to visit one of the few remaining 'pink spots' (British colonies!) on the world map. It was five days sailing on the RMS St Helena from Cape Town to St Helena, nine days on the island (12,000 CW QSOs were made as ZD7XF), and then a six-day (strong head winds and storms!) voyage back to Cape Town. 73 - Nigel G3TXF.

Doha for a day

I had a choice of several airlines to take me to Paris on business. I chose Qatar Airlines, mainly for the opportunity to see a new one. The airline's "5 star" advertising is presumptuous. They mistake a brand-new fleet for a real airline. The paperwork was painful, the service was pompous and I got fleeced US$ 125 for a hotel room that I didn't need, just to get a transit visa. In any case, it was fun to spend a day there and experience a totalitarian regime first-hand. I got arrested twice by cops who invented rules on the spot, like that it is illegal to photograph a car in a parking lot or that it is illegal to carry a measuring tape onboard a flight. Now I can tick that one off on my DXFC list and use a real airline next time! The upside is that I realised that before you hand in your keys you absolutely must, just once, float on your back in the Persian Gulf while the sun sets...

G5LP and G3TXF attend UCC-21 in Kiev

Lionel G5LP and Nigel G3TXF attended the twenty-first annual Ukrainian Contesters Club meeting (UCC-21) in Kiev in May. As well as having a great time meeting a large number of enthusiastic Ukrainian contesters and DXers, they were able to operate briefly as UT/G5LP and UT/G3TXF from the special event station (EM5UCC). 73 - Nigel G3TXF