Well soon after I got up around 0630 today I turned the 6m radio on to hear a few stations on CW, but no signals or answers on SSB, at around 0715 I left for the office and returned around 1630 to silince on 6m.

After disconnecting the 6m Antenna during a storm around 1900z  (2000 local) I was alerted to 6m being open (a local receiving good DXTV) and found several stations in SM, LA and GM on the band.

4 new squares were worked between 1905z and 2027z including SM5EPO in JP80, Tom GM4LER in IP90, SM3PXG in JP74 and LA2XPA in JP33 (#349).

Some short skip 6m Es appeared on Tuesday just as I had loaded the car for the 432MHz UK Activity contest, however I delayed leaving for long enough for the Amplifier to warm up and make just one contact with Martin GM6VXB in IO97 for square #343 . On Friday the postman delivered a direct QSL card - thanks Martin I will return one shortly.

Today 6m was open for several hours, even if there were just a few stations in selected areas that were being heard, but I did manage a further two news squares with YL2TQ in KO37 (#344) and YO4RYU/MM in JM06 (#345).

If you happen to be around for the next 10 days or so then keep an eye out for YO4RYU/MM as the ship he is on is due in Gibraltar on Sunday and will then be travelling to Canada so it might be possible to pick up the odd wet square with Ginel on his Journey.

Steve G0LFP is also travelling /MM around the Southern Coast of Turkey, but so far does not seem to have managed to make any contacts. I am keeping an eye on both his blog and that of the Yacht he is travelling on, but updates are not very frequent (due to limited opportunities for Internet access).

The only significant log entries since leaving the office on Friday are two contacts on 6m (with S50O and UY5ZZ/A) followed buy one on 2m with 9A5CY/P in JN74 for a new square.

Activity over the weekend was limited to just four SOTA contacts on 2m SSB with Geoff 2W0BTR/P on GW/NW-012 (Cadair Berwyn), Simon M0TTE/P and Chris 2E0RGE/P on G/SE-001 (Walbury Hill) and Iain MW3WJZ/P on GW/NW-011 (Arenig Fawr).

Soon after I got in from the office I was alerted to sporadic on 2m, initially I found nothing, but after a few moments at 1607 I worked YU1EV for a new square KN04 (#108) followed shortly after by IV3GTH and S52FO, whilst I also heard and called 9A1WW he was unable to get my call correctly before conditions changed and he faded out.

Well I had a week off work, so what did I get ?

Over a week of ......

almost total silence (apart from some activity during the VHF NFD when I was trying to beat my score for last years 'sweeper' entry).

Then on the day I go back to the office the band opens !

Oh well I've still got another couple of weeks before the end of the summer !

However I did manage to get 6 new squares whilst the band was open.

JM99, JO32, JO51, KO12, KM37, JM77 (#324).

After taking delivery of the repaired Acom 1000, a large size (but very thin) envelope arrived in the mail yesterday (after I had left for the office), even though it had 'DO NOT BEND' clearly stamped on the front it had been creased in several places, whilst wondering what it contained (as I removed my motorcycle gear) I saw it had 'CQ Communications, Inc' on the label, but that just made me more puzzled (I was thinking why are they sending me something that I didn't ask for).

On opening the envelope I found a leaflet announcing the '2010 CQ World-Wide VHF Contest' then realised that there was something else, this turned out to be a '1st place Certificate' for the '2009 CQ World-Wide VHF Contest' which I had entered back in July 2009 purely because (as I recall) I had heard a few stations on 6m calling CQ Contest and had wondered what contest they were taking part in and after finding the details decided I would submit my few contacts as an entry together with the few QSO's I had made on 2m during that weekend.

So the next puzzle is how do I remove the creases from the paper that it acquired during it's transit of the postal system ?

After 4 days with little activity into the UK on 6m, the 50 MHz Trophy on Saturday and Sunday saw a welcome (by me) burst of activity, as I was busy for most of Saturday just a few contacts were made in the evening, but Sunday I operated from my local hill top (in IO81XV) using one of the lcoal Club Calls for 6hours, managing to beat last years total of 114 contacts quite significantly with 161 completed contacts in 25 DXCC's and 91 locators (Total score 24.6 million points compare to last years 13.8 million), which included 5 new squares (JO99, KN40, KN96, KO15, JN60), the best DX of the weekend was 5B4AIF around 3330Km.

The days activity from the G0LGS shack comprised just 10 contacts on 6m between 0831 and 2312, however this included new squares from LY1CX and UX2SB as well as a new DXCC and new square from OX3KQ.

Current 6m Totals:

2010: 144 Squares in 45 DXCC's

All Time 328 Squares in 71 DXCC's

Other stations heard, but not worked (on 6m) during the day include: EA9IB, W4CCS (just as he went QRT) and VY0HL (23:50) as well as numerous stations across Europe and Scandanavia.

There was also just one logged contact on 2m with EA6VQ in JM19HN, but as this one was also logged in July 2007 it does not increase my all time 2m totals. 7X2 was also briefly heard on 144.300 giving a report to another UK station.

I have this week purchased a used Acom Linear amplifier for HF & 6m (from a dealer with a Warranty), which was deliver on Wednesday, whilst this initially worked fine on 6m, during tests on HF (into dummy load) on Friday evening it went bang and so will now be on its way back for repairs, hopefully it won't be too long before it is back in the shack in full working order.

Some short duration Es heard today with VO1 and HI3, but nothing in the log yet.

VO1SO was worked for a new DXCC (@17:02) - several others in VO were heard, but not worked.

After several failed attempts to get E4X on 6m in the last few days he peaked 59+ early today and is now in the log for a new DXCC and Square.

(Update 22:58) the day also gave me a further new DXCC for TA1HZ (whilst 'portable' for the UKSMG Contest).

After a couple of rather slack days, with little being heard A92SIO was found on 50.205 USB and worked for a new DXCC on 6 - Thanks Dave.

Update (19:30) - Also got C31PP and 7X2GX a little later.

Well yesterday saw some 2m Es over quite a large area of the UK at various times of the day, I heard several stations around 1440 including OE2BRD, HA5CE and HA5UK but having initially thought I had missed out when none of them heard me, a few calls around 144.282 netted OK2PM and OM6NR both in JN99 for a new square on 2m.

6m activity for the day saw stations from OE, SP, I, DL, HB9, UT, OZ, 5B4, SA and OH0 worked with 2 new square (KN77 and KP00) bringing my All-time Total to 318 Squares and 66 DXCCs.

After a disappointing two days of the long weekend with little activity, the bank holiday brought some more significant DX on 6m with 5B4AIF and signals being heard from the Caribbean for several hours. Stations worked include NP3CW and HI3TEJ for a new DXCC on the band.

Seeing as it was the 6m UK Actiivty contest, I was parked in my usual 'portable' location, with the 4 Ele up and ready to go with over 45 minutes to spare before the start, after a little chat with locals on 2m FM and a tune around to see what was happening all seemed dead.

However 6m opened 15 minutes before the start of the contest, stong video signals were all across tha band, but it took a few minutes before any 'DX' appeared, however 8 stations were worked (operating as G1SHM/P) with one new square (KN16) in the bag.

At the start of the contest at 1900z I changed to my regular callsign for the contest (G0LGS/P) and worked 84 stations with a further 2 new sqaures (KN24 and KN13),

Following the completion of the contest I worked several more stations, including a new DXCC (OH0) and a further 7 new squares (KO13, JP90, JP81, JO46, JO56, JP53, JO55), before finally closing down at 0030 (0130 local).

A brilliant evening and perhaps the best contest event to date, lets hope we get some more Es events to co-incide with the next two or three 50MHz UKAC Events.

2010 DXCC's = 29, Squares = 100. All-time: DXCC's = 65, Squares = 312

Arriving in the shack after work I found 6m open with some very strong signals, including lots of video. Stations logged between 1540z and 1905z included YU1EA, OM3ID, S57EA, 9A2PT, YT3N, E73CW, YU1JX, S52DD, 4Z5LA (new one), S53CC, YU1JW, E73BB, EA7IQM.

Totals for 2010 to date are thus 24 DXCC's (1 new), 66 Grids (2 new), All-time 64 DXCC's & 302 Grids.

Following an upgrade of the Web server machine (including a newer Linux OS) a few weeks ago and several evenings work, the website now includes a page for displaying DX Spots, with options for selecting bands of interest and auto highlighting of spots, this is made possible using G7RAU's LiveMUF program and the MySQL server that sits on the web server.

The LiveMUF program runs under a Windows XP virtual machine (using SUN VirtualBox) on the Ubuntu Linux Server which populates the MySQL database with relevant DX Spot information taken from the DXCluster Network, the new page just makes displaying of the spots from the database in the browser possible.

Note: The DXspots page does NOT (and never will on G0LGS) provide any means of sending your own spots to the network, if you wish to do this then I suggest you investigate if/how your logging program can be configured to do this for you (as many can) or obtain one of the many DXCluster clients (or even run LiveMUF on your own system).

I have managed to catch some activity since the beam went up almost 2 weeks ago, however no new squares or countries have found their way into the log just yet.

Several SP and DL stations were worked on 13th, with A92IO being heard on Friday 14th May peaking S3-4 but was not worked (despite trying).

There was just one entry in the 6m log yesterday (17th) with E76C and Today (18th) there are two (I0WTD and IZ5EKV).

Yesterday after I finished at the office I decided that it was time that the 6m 4 Element beam got put up in the air, so I can try to get some DX in the log over the coming weeks.

After repairing the reflector the beam was up around 1800 (local), just in time to make my first 6m E's contact of the year at 1716 (UTC) with HA3LI.

I'm expecting that the beam will be up and down quite a lot over the next 3 months or so as the poles and guys I use to put it up are the same ones I use for all my 'portable' contest activity and the beam itself is the one I use for the 6m contests.

I am however on the lookout for an alternative telescopic mast (that will fit in a small car) for 'portable' use, if you happen to know of or see one that might suit please contact me by email with the relevant information.

This was the third year for me operating in the 432MHz Trophy & May UHF contests.

This year the rain held off until the contest was well under way, which meant that erecting the antenna's was carried out in the dry with very little wind, but despite this it took 3 attempts to get everything up and working. The first time I had failed to leave enough slack RF cable around the 'rotator', the 2nd time the 70cm beam was found to be too loose and kept turning when the pole was rotated, third time everthing was in order.

As in previous years the activity levels (as heard in IO81) where not great, with just a few small peaks in activity with nothing new being worked /heard for much of the time.

I did hear a few ON's and DL's working other active UK stations, but did not get to work them.

When the rain arrived it looked set to stay so after over an hour with no addtional contacts in the log a decision was made to pack up early (at 2015 local) and get away before dark.

Packing up took around 35 minutes in the rain (including explaining to a local  what I had been doing), during which my clothing got soaked for the second time (first time was simply from getting in/out the vehicle to turn the Antenna's by hand), another 20 minutes of unloading the vehicle ensured that I really was soaked by the time it was all finished (2130).

All in All a very disappointing event, with just 3 stations worked on 23cm's and 22 on 70cm's. Best DX on 70cm, as in 2009 (as GX5BK/P) was DF0MU at 639Km.

Well the two old Car batteries and the various smaller old UPS batteries that I have been using for some time to provide some of the power I use when operating 'portable' for contests or SOTA summits have stopped working, so in the last 10 days I have purchased a new 115AH (conventional Lead Acid) Leisure Battery and a smaller 17AH Sealed Lead Acid (deep cycle) Battery, with the intention of using these in my various 'portable' situations.

Hopefully the 115AH one should provide a few hours of continous Radio operation for contests such as the Tuesday evening Activity events without having to run the 1KW generator (thus reducing the kit required to be transported to site), whilst the 17AH one should provide adequate power for the occassional SOTA Summit activation or provide power for the LapTop used for logging (using a DC-DC Laptop convertor) and perhaps 'backup' power for the radio.

Although I have used them already for some SOTA events, the first full test for this arrangement will be in the 6m UK Activity tomorrow, and the next will be for some part of the coming weekend UHF Contest / International SOTA Weekend.

Another recent addition is the 'Voice Caller' unit produced by Barry GM4TOE (as seen in recent magazine and available on the web) which should help my voice last the duration of some of the longer contest events.

Not really anything significant to report, however I was operating for a larger part of the contest (1400-0030 and 0830-1400) and managed a few more contacts than in 2009.

However both bands were so lacking in activity that it was not really aparent that there was any contest on at all.