This past month of July saw some low solar activity a few times but the DX still was fairly good.  The month of August has shown much improvement and hopefully will continue to improve..  Although we’re not at the peak of solar cycle 24, the DX keeps rolling, especially some of the more exotic places.  South American stations continue to provide a lot of DX fun.

In July, PSK31 was very active on 20 meters.  I was able to work Brazil, Chile and Ecuador on PSK31 consecutively in one day with them all having strong 599 signals.  Europe and the Middle East are always dependable for great signals on any band and mode..  I had a nice contact with SV2FLQ in Greece using PSK31 running 50 watts at 7:55 in the morning..  His signal was strong and his print on the waterfall was excellent..  I was also able to have a short QSO with A25JK from Botswana on the African continent during my lunch break while working on a tower project..  It seemed like there wasn’t much activity from the African continent at my home QTH during the month of July.

There was the International Amateur Radio Union contest that took place from the 14th of July to the 15th of July that provided a change to the summer ham radio routine..  Contests always provide me with a lot of fun and chances to work some of the more exotic countries that are not normally heard from during the rest of the time..  Some of the stations/countries were CX1AA (Uruguay), Philippines (DU9RG), KH6LC (Hawaii), H2T (Cyprus) and ZP9Mce (Paraguay)..  One of the nice aspects of contesting is that it puts you on the same ground as a DX station..  They are searching to work you as much as you are to work them.  Those contest stations get points for each contact so they are looking for anyone to make contact with.

At the end of July there was a big DXpedition to St. Paul Island, CY9M.  St. Paul Island is a small uninhabited island off the Canadian coast near Newfoundland.  I was able to work them on several bands and modes and they gave me a new DXCC entity.  I had a lot of fun working them and it provided me with hours of fun chasing them on the bands.

The month of August showed an increase in solar activity, sunspots and solar flux.  With the solar flux and sunspots rising there’s always a lot of activity on 12 and 10 meters, especially to Europe and South America.  That was welcomed news for me because I really enjoy contacting stations on the other side of the world.  I’d been searching for JX9JKA since he’d been on Jan Mayen this spring and finally on 8/3/2012 I had a QSO with him on 17 meters USB. His signal was coming into my QTH 59+ which was amazing since all other times I could barely get him if at all.

August 4th and 5th brought the Ten-Ten contest on SSB.  The Ten-Ten organization hams are a great bunch of people and I always enjoy their contest and anytime I can contact a member.  I was able to work a few fairly rare stations such as CT1DVV in Portugal, ZL1AFU in New Zealand and HP1AC in Panama.  These are just a few of the stations I worked.  You don’t have to be a Ten-Ten member to participate in the contest but to enter a log you must be a member.

Currently, D64K Dxpedition on Comoros Island is taking place working from 160 meters to 6 meters using SSB and CW so far but say they will do all modes.  Comoros Island is situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar.  Since they plan on operating from August 8th till August 20th, I don’t plan on working them much till close to the end of the Dxpedition.  This will allow the bands to settle down and provide a more leisurely approach to making contacts.

Happy DXing de Randy AJ4RW