FT-817nd QRP 1W: QSO with EA8JK

EQSL from 5T0SP (Mauritania)

I have received this beautiful eQSL card from Mauritania. It is a new confirmed country for me. Now I have 85 for my eDX100 award.

The government of Mauritania was overthrown on 6 August 2008, in a military coup d'état led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009, General Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections, which he won.
In Mauritania about 20% of the population live on less than US$1.25 per day.

Ten DXCC entities from a public park

On this video I call CQ from a public park in Acea de Ama with my Yaesu-SGC manpack radio and make 12 QSO with 10 differents DXCC entities.

I made QSOs with EA1LQ, SV2HXX, PA2CVD, ON7HLU (Hakim), RA1OD (Dima), RV1CT (Genna), R3BT, F4HDI (Franck), HA5OKQ (Jozsef), G6UKV (Phillip), EA8OT, IW0HLE.

Pantelleria Island (IH9YMC)

Last Sunday I made a QSO with Pantelleria Island (AF-018) on 15m SSB.
Pantelleria, the ancient Cossyra , is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, 100 km southwest of Sicily and just 60 km east of the Tunisian coast. With an area of 83 km2, it is the largest volcanic satellite island of Sicily.

Zimbabwe (Z21BB): The number 74

I have just received an eQSL for a QSO with Z21BB (Fernando) from Harare, Zimbabwe. This makes my 74th DXCC entity confirmed for the eDX award.
I made this QSO on 15m SSB from my car, with 100W and a 4m whip. I owe this QSO to Ernesto, EA1LQ, who told me about this opportunity when I has parking my car at the university.

Testing the FT-857D manpack: Beiramar

Here are some videos testinf my light Yaesu manpack. The first QSO was with Germany (Mike, DB1JAW) on 17m SSB. I didn't get a very good signal report because the band was not in very good shape.

Here you can see a demonstration of how easy it is to use the automatic antenna tuner, the SG-211 by SGC:

On this video you can see a very good QSO with the Canary Islands (Jean, EA8/ON5JV), on 20m SSB.

Finally, a QSO with Scotland (Kevin, 2M0ONW):

All the QSOs were made with 20W, a 2.9m whip, and a single wire as a counterpoise.

Breamo: The best SOTA activation so far

Some months ago I tried to activate the summit of Breamo (EA1/CR-035) without much success. The day of Christmas Eve I went to try my antenna setup.

The day was special and the lace as well. The summit, which only has 1 point, turned out to be my best SOTA activation to date.

Pico Ribón II (EA1 LU-028)

On Christmas Day I went with EA1AQ to activate Pico Ribón (1051m) and I made 17 QSOs on 17m SSB. On this video you can see a sample.

As you can see, it was a very productive activation. Overall, I am very satisfied with the performance of my manpack.
Special thanks to HA7UG, DL3JPN, and all the other colleagues who are always ready to help with an activation.

Canary Islands (EA8CBC) from Pradairo - EA1/LU-031

This is the video of my second QSO from Pradairo on the 20m band, with EA8CBC (Antonio) from the island of Tenerife. I was using my FT-897D with a 2.9m whip.

We started with the 20m band because we could not hear any stations on higher bands. The efficiency of the 2.9m antenna is not very high on that band but at least on this case propagation was more important than radiated power.

Senegal (6V7Z)

I have just receive this very nice eQSL for a QSO with Senegal on the 15m band. 6V7Z is now back@home now and doing homework.
The operation took place between 8 and 18 November 2010 from Somone, about 80 km south of Dakar "Le Calao" (http://www.le-calao.com/).
The operators were Jo (DL4MAQ), Matt (DL5MFL), and Sven (DF9MV). The QSL-Manager is Fredy DE0MST (mor ederails on http://www.qrz.com/). These guys really know how how to choose their activations!

Morocco by night on 20m SSB (CN8ZG)

This is a video of a QSO with Moroccan station CN8ZG (operator: Hassane) from Salé on 20m SSB. The QSO was made by night.

Salé (Berber: Sla / Sala, Arabic: سلا‎; from the Berber word asla, meaning "rock") is the twin city to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Today it is home to approximately 500,000 people, mostly impoverished factory workers. It was once a self-contained, self-ruled Republic with international scope, situated on the mouth of the Bou Regreg river on the Atlantic coast.

Activating SOTA EA1/CR-028 (Monte Francoi)

Today I went with Ernesto (EA1LQ) to activate Monte Francoi for the Summits On The Air programme. The summit was far away from the road so we had to carry the radios for half a mile or so, with spiny gorses and slopes up to 100 per cent. But in the end it paid, as you can see on this video featuring a QSO with EA8UP (Chano) from the Canary Islands:

We made five QSOs each on the 20-, 17- and 15-metre bands, with countries such as Italy, Germany, Greece and Israel.

South Africa (ZS1AX)

This is a video of a QSo with South African station ZS1AX (Ben) on the 10m band.

The recording finished early because the camcorder run out of storage space.

Canary Islands on 12m (EA8CQW)

This is a video of a QSO with EA8CQW (Oscar) from the Canary Islands on the 12m band. It was raining in Tenerife.

Tenerife is known internationally as the "Island of Eternal Spring" (Isla de la Eterna Primavera).[37] The island, being on a latitude of the Sahara Desert, enjoys a warm climate year-round with an average of 20° - 22°C in the winter and 26° - 28°C in the summer and high sunshine totals. The moderate climate of Tenerife is controlled to a great extent by the tradewinds, whose humidity, principally, is condensed over the north and northeast of the island, creating cloud banks that range between 600 and 1,800 meters in height. The cold sea currents of the Canary Islands, also have a cooling effect on the coasts and its beaches and the topography of the landscape plays a role in climatic differences on the island with its many valleys.

Carary Islands on 6m (EA8AQV)

This is a video of a QSO with EA8AQV on the 6m band, with my FT-897D and a 2.4m whip.

It took me until the end of the QSO to copy his complete callsign. However, in the recording you can gear it clearly from the beginning. This is probably due to ambient noise. I think that some kind of headset would help.

Canary Islands (EA8CEQ)

This is a video of a QSO with EA8CEQ (Manuel) from La Palma in the Canary Islands.

I promised him I would post this video to show how well his signals arrive in A Coruña.

Melilla (EA9IB)

This is a video of a quick QSO with EA9IB (Pedro) from Melilla.

Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic establishment under the name of Rusadir. Later it became a part of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. As centuries passed, it went through Vandal, Byzantine and Hispano-Visigothic hands. The political history is similar to that of towns in the region of the Moroccan Rif and southern Spain. Local rule passed through Amazigh, Phoenician, Punic, Roman, Ummayyad, Idrisid, Hammudid, Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid, and then Wattasid rulers. Melilla was part of the Kingdom of Fez when The Catholic Monarchs (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos) Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon requested Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, known as Guzmán el Bueno, the 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia to take the city.
The duke sent Pedro Estopiñán who conquered the city virtually without a fight in 1497[2], a few years after (1492) Castile had taken control of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last remnant of Al-Andalus.

Graciosa Island, Azores (CU4/CT1FMX)

Yesterday I made a QSO with CU4/CT1FMX (Jorge) from Graciosa Island on the 20m band.
Graciosa Island (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡɾɐsiˈɔzɐ]) (literally "graceful" or "enchanting" in Portuguese) is referred to as the White Island, the northernmost of the Central Group of islands in the Azores. The ovular Portuguese island has an area of 60.84 km², a length of 10 km and a width of 7 km. It is a volcanic island, dominated by a 1.6 km wide central caldera (the Caldeira) located in the southeast.
In addition to the other islands of the Central Group, Graciosa was explored by Portuguese navigators during the first quarter of the 15th Century. Although there exists no accounts of the first sighting of the island. May 2, 1450 has frequently been referred to as the date of the islands "discovery", although there exists no documentation to support this date. Paradoxically, it is clear that in 1440, by order of Prince Henry the Navigator, cattle and swine were settled on the island in order to facilitate colonization.
Similarly, it is unclear the names of the first settlers to colonize the island, although around 1450 the first colonists were probably slaves (but formal registries did not exist at the time). The first group of settlers of note to be mentioned were led by Vasco Gil Sodré, a former resident of Montemor-o-Velho, who arrived from Terceira accompanied by his family and servants around the middle of the 1450s. It was this pioneer who inaugurated the official phase of continuous settlement on the island.

This is the video of the QSO I made using an FT-857D and a 4m whip.

Nigeria on 17m (5N7M)

Today I just made a QSO from Monte de San Pedro, but it was a good one, with 5N7M from Abuja, Nigeria.
Abuja is the capital city of the West African nation of Nigeria. It is located in the center of Nigeria in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Abuja is a planned city[2], and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos, the previous capital. As of the 2006 census, the Federal Capital Territory has a population of 778,567.

The city of Varela (my surname) in Guinea-Bissau (J5UAP)

Looking at J5UAP's QRZ.com entry I just found out that his QTH in Guinea-Bissau is called Varela, exactly like my surname.
Varela, a prosperous holiday resort in the Portuguese colonial days, today is just a few ruins of the past splendor. The beach maybe even more beautiful, the noise level lower than in Senegal.
No wonder, since in Guinea-Bissau, including Bissau, the capital, there is no mains supply, the very few electric appliances are powered by small diesel generators or solar panels.
Though it was a flourishing seaside resort a few decades ago, today, there is only one campsite in Varela, hosting J5UAP's QTH as well. Fortunately, there is a cellphone relay station on the site, providing 230V mains supply 16 hours a day. For the eight remaining hours, they can run battery powered or use their own small generator. Compared to the noiseless bands, marvelous surroundings and last but not least the great Italian cuisine of their host, these are only marginal annoyances.
From Cap Skiring, there are two ways to reach Varela: on the road, through the town of Ziguinchor (capital of the Casamance region in Senegal), it's only about a hundred miles but takes more than 5 hours due to the border crossing and the difficult dirt road on the Bissau-Guinean side, or by crossing the border by boat, greatly reducing the distance and time needed to get there.
You can see very interesting pictures at J5UAP's website http://www.cqafrica.net/.