Turkey on 30m CW

I have just received the eQSL from Turkish station TA3AX (operator: Ahmet) from Canakkale for a QSO on 30m CW.
Çanakkale (pronounced [tʃɑˈnɑkːɑle]) is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern (Asian) coast of the Dardanelles (or Hellespont) at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 96 588 (2009 estimates.) [1]
Çanakkale Province, like Istanbul Province, has territory in both Europe and Asia. Ferries cross here to the northern (European) side of the strait.
The city is the nearest major town to the site of ancient Troy. The "wooden horse" from the 2004 movie Troy is exhibited on the seafront. Çanakkale is the second city to be situated on two continents after Istanbul. However Çanakkale is closer to mid-division than Istanbul.
Troy is a 2004 epic action film concerning the Trojan War. It is loosely based on Homer's Iliad. The Iliad (Ancient Greek: Ἰλιάς, Iliás, IPA: [iːliás]) is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege.

Another 10k on 15m (LU2DO)

Last Thrsday I made another 10k QSO, in this case with Argentinian station LU2DO (Andrés) from the city of Pilar. I also made a QSo with Brazil (PY2CX) and Ukraine (UY3LA).
Nick (UY3LA) from Lozovaya also made a contact with José Luis (EA1HNP) later that day and told him about our QSO. Then José Luis sent me a text message and we talked about it on 2m and 10m.
Lozova (Ukrainian: Лозова, Russian: Лозовая, translit. Lozovaya) is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Lozivsky Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is an important railroad junction in the oblast.
The current estimated population is around 64,300 (as of 2001).This makes Lozova the 2nd largest city in Kharkiv Oblast after Kharkov. The city was evacuated on August 27, 2008 due to a fire in a military warehouse. However there were no serious casualties and deaths.

The Falklands on 15m (VP8LP)

Yesterday I made some QSOs on the 20m, 17m and 15m bands. On this latter band I made a contact with the Falkland Islands (VP8LP) and got a signal report of 54. With a distance of 11,500km, that can be considered real DX, especially for 100w and a vertical antenna.
It was a quick QSO but I heard Bob (VP8LP) talking about the weather with some Dansh colleague (5P5BK), and he said it was snowing there in the Falklands.

PRC320 on the higher bands

Today I made some QSOs with my PRC320 on the higher bands. I started with a QSO with Porqtuguese station CT2JUT (Miguel) from Lisbon, who was using 100W into a 20m-long wire antenna. Miguel hasn't been a ham for a long time, but he has loved radio comunications since he was a very young boy. It all started as a MWL/SWL when he asked for a radio as a birthday gift at the age of six. He studied electronics and today he works as an electronics technician. He felt it yould be a good idea to make use of his knowledge with the ham radio hobby. He is an antenna/feedlines enthusiast and also tends to build his own equipment.
Then I made contact with English station M5AFD (Dave) from West England. His QTH is on the NW of the city or Birmingham, near the Welsh border. He was using 150W into a 4-element yagi beam.
Finally I made a QSO with English station M3AFF (Alan) from Devon on the 15m band. Alan is a truck driver: VOLVO FH12 460 BHP and he is always on HF from the truck. He was born in 1967 on Fair Isle in Scotland. His dad was a part-time lighthouse keeper and farmer on the island. His interest in radio began when he used to listen to his dad's Eddystone EC10 receiver at the lighthouse. Other hobbies are motorcycles,photography, gardening and trying to mend anything that breaks!

Italy with an indoor wire

This is video of a QSO with an Italian station using my battery-operated FT-897D (20W) and an indoor wire antenna.

This special event station celebrates the 30th anniversary of the ARI Club of Treviglio.
Treviglio is a town and comune in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, northern Italy. It lies 20 km south of the capital city, in the lower territory called "Bassa" marked by the Adda and the Serio rivers.
With approximately 29,000 inhabitants, the comune is now the second most populous town in the province. It is also called "the tractor town" for the presence of the Same Deutz-Fahr headquarters.
Benito Mussolini married Rachele Guidi in Treviglio, in a civil union, on December 17, 1915, after the future duce had recovered in the local hospital. They already had a daughter, Edda.

More competition in electronic QSL business?

I have just seen that QRZ.com plans to enter the electronic QSL business. This move will add another player to the current eQSL-LotW duopoly. I think this is good news because it will force the other players to improve their service.
So far, the QRZ.com logbook feature is in only experimental form, but its appearance looks good. Certainly QRZ.com has potential to be a big player in the online QSL business.

ON4FB operating from France

This is a video of a QSO with ON4FB when he was on holiday in France. I was using my PRC-320 with a 4m whip.

Propagation was not very good those days, and France has never been easy on the 20m band, but it was nice to be able to keek contact.

England on 10m: M0HKB

I have just received this nice eQSL from English station M0HKB. I made this QSO from my car with a 4m whip and the FC40 antenna tuner with my friend and fellow ham Ernesto (EA1LQ).
As you can see by the signal report, propagation conditions were not ideal (I gave him the same signal report), but it is always good news to have some openings on the 10m band.
That day Ernesto and I also made QSOs with Morocco (Rachid, CN8YE) and the Canary Islands (EA8ACW/P), the latter on the 6m band.