Thursday, May 28, 2020

Contacting the Dodecanese islands on FT8.

Last evening I wandered down the hall to the radio room someplace I have not been for about 2 weeks or so. I have been taking advantage of the great weather here to get some outdoor projects done.  There was a shed to level and rebuild and also a deck to level and refinish. Doing those projects during the day left me with no real energy to get on the radio in the evenings. For some reason last evening I just had a nice kick in my step and it was off to the radio room for some FT8 adventures. I found myself on 30m and it was hopping with activity at 0200 UTC. One of my contacts was to the Dodecanese and I had never heard of this location. I looked it up and it is a group of 15 large islands and 150 smaller ones. SV5DKL was from Rhodes which is the capital of the Dodecanese islands. These set islands are a part of Greece but it was very cool to contact this off the beaten path location. Overall I was very pleased with the conditions on 30m and I was on making contacts until 0300 UTC and then my internal clock told me it was time to hit the sack.

4 comments:

PE4BAS, Bas said...

A well known station Mike, he has a blog as well: http://sv5dkl.blogspot.com/
I've seen you were QRV on 60m as well. So unfortunate I was on 40m tonight.
73, Bas PE75FREE/PE4BAS

MadDogMcQ said...

Hi Mike, I sure do know what you mean about energy levels. Just last night I found myself failing to log into our Club Net because it was just too warm and humid to sit in the shack, so I switched off the radio, grabbed a chilled beer and flopped onto the couch, LOL. I'll play radio in the morning (Saturday) when my energy reserves are higher, hi-hi.

I've worked quite a few Greek stations but not from the Dodecanese.

Take care, 73, Tom, M7MCQ.

VE9KK said...

Good morning Bas, yes I was at his QRZ page last evening and it mentioned his blog there and I did go and check it out. I will be watching DX summit today and checking with PSK reporter today and search out where you are at and try to scoop a QSO.
73 and have a nice weekend,
Mike
VE9KK

VE9KK said...

Good morning Tom and very nice to hear from you, well it's good to know I am not alone. This weekend I plan to be radio busy as it's the CQ WPX CW contest weekend.
73,
Mike
VE9KK