Saturday, August 27, 2016

Hi everyone

The first attempt to operate on Granite Island is now complete with 845 QSO's over 9 hours of operation on 0500-0800 UTC August 26 and 0115-0730 UTC on August 27.

It was encouraging to see a short opening to various parts of North America on 20m at 0400-0500 UTC. Long path to Europe was open from 0400-0730 UTC on 20m and it was very good in the 0600-0700 UTC period. I know its tough for everyone chasing in Europe with such a short and ferocious feeding frenzy.

I spent 0115 to 0400 UTC on 15m to give JA the chance to work me. Just a few North Americans were around on 15m which isn't really a surprise considering current band conditions. It was good to do this 15m session though as I'm pretty sure all the JA's that are serious island chasers that needed OC-228 are now in the log. So I won't worry about going on 15m again anymore and I'll just focus on 20m for future visits. If there are JA's that still need this one, they have a good chance on 20m at 0700 UTC.

Remember that as per island visitor rules, I can't be there at dusk or later and so 40m/30m is not viable. If you struggled to hear me this time, just remember band conditions may be better at different times of the year for future visits.

With the next activation, I'll be operating on 20m SSB in the period of 0330 to 0730 UTC on a non-major contest Saturday or Sunday or possibly on a weekday to avoid contests.

The breakdown of QSOs were:

58%     Europe
31%     Asia
  7%     North America
  3%     Oceania
<1%     Africa and South America

There was no time for photos. QSL cards are about to be ordered. Thanks so much for those sending in sponsorship to help fund future IOTA activations, OC-196 and another one I'm working on....

73s de Craig


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