Alex – Page 9 – Swains 2023

12 October 202313 October 2023

Life can be full of surprises….

Timestamp: 2023 10 12 at 02:43 UTC

It was the start of the shift of Operator Johannes PA5X, when he started calling CQ on the DX pedition frequency 14.181 on 20m SSB. As most of the time nobody is scrolling on the bands anymore and for minutes W8S Swains DX pedition called CQ without any response.

In need for a cluster spot, Johannes turned the dial to 14.188 where he heard someone with the call EA5JZ 20dB over S9 having a conversation with another Ham. The conversation was, believe it or not, EA5JZ (Paul Thomson) wanting to work the Swains DX pedition and telling to the other Ham that it was an ATNO for him. It was at that time that W8S OM Johannes PA5X started to call EA5JZ and told him that he was the luckiest Ham of the moment, with the DX pedition calling him and asking for a cluster spot.

EA5JZ Paul couldn’t believe his ears and was wondering if the W8S call was genuine. Assuring EA5JZ that this was really W8S, Paul was a really happy OM and was able to log W8S as an ATNO! The cluster spot was made and the pile-up started! Thank you Paul! 73 de W8S

12 October 202312 October 2023

Live stream of our 10m CW pile-up

10 October 202310 October 2023

Topband, Greyline and 6m EME

The latest news from Swains:

Top Band:
The weather gods are in favor of the W8S Team today!
Lots of overcast make it possible for the Team to work with 4 operators (off-duty) on the 160m vertical. While others are operating some of the operators take some time from their scheduled rest to built up the last antenna!
The 160m vertical stands and is ready for action.

6m EME:
The first attempts on 6m were unsuccessful. There was a one-way copy and that is not enough. There will be another attempt in a few hours if there is a moon pass suitable for Europe. The team is confident that their learning curve will result in QSOs.

Greyline:
The team is aware that this morning they missed the last hour of the European grey line and the first hour of the East Coast grey line on 80m. This was necessary because they all had to do antenna work. Since all antennas are now up and working, expect full attention during the greyline on 80m and top band.

The team is fully aware that not everything is going as expected and therefore the expectation cannot be fully met yet.
Despite the extreme conditions in which to work, the ambition is as high as ever and the team is doing everything possible to meet expectations.