Update December 12, 2023: Yes that was me on 60m this morning and this evening. Club Log updates were a little slow as I am not using my normal setup. Everything including LoTW is up to date now. So Club Log updates are manual for 60m and 80m for now but I should have that fixed tomorrow. 60m to EU was very good this morning my time with around 10 DXCC worked. This evening my time was OK but not as good. Look for me from around 1800 UTC if Mr Woodpecker stays away. I might be up a bit earlier tomorrow, will see.

Update November 7, 2023: Will be very quiet for the next week. The utilities provider here currently doing 3 hour rolling outages. They have mechanical issues and this might drag on for some time. I also took down the main antenna 2 days ago because of high winds. In the meantime, all of August LoTW has been uploaded. Hope to try and get the new 40m EFHW antenna up this coming weekend. Stay tuned.

Update October 15, 2023: As I have said before a few times I have big noise problem with streetlights from about UTC 0700 onwards. I’n seeing what can be done but short of finding another QTH probably not a lot. 12m has been really good into EU from around 0400 to 0700 UTC. You will see me stop abruptly at 0700 most nights, that’s when it’s lights on and lights out for me. Street lights came on at 0652 and you can see that after that all I hear is JA. 10m is not so bad but openings to EU seem to mostly by my 1AM. Clear bands mostly for me are 10m, 15m and 30m. Will update if I get anywhere with this. I suspect I also have a new noisy solar installation close by.

Update September 25, 2023: I have internet at home but it is VERY unreliable. Do NOT panic if you are not on Clublog, wait at least 24 hours and check again. I have to play catchup afterwards. 24 hours max we should be good. Please keep your emails civil.

Passed 20K QSO here last night. I stopped using MSHV due to a logging issue. For now I am using JTDX which has superior logic about who to work. I tested this on 30m last night.

It goes something like this, from highest priority to lowest

Not worked you on any band
Distance, furthermost away first, but we work all new ones regardless
Worked you on at least one band
Distance again, furthermost first
Pretty simple really. And it works really well, much better than the MSHV queue system and doesn’t need your grid to know how far away you are. This worked a treat last night falling back to JA etc when it went quiet on the EU front. Was also good to see new calls being worked as they popped up. And almost zero double logging and everything logged !

Almost forgot, I got the OK for 60m, but have to sort an antenna first. Might be on in the next day or 2 around my sunset.

Update September 24, 2023: Someone using my call for spots in EU at 0716 UTC, all these callsigns being spotted by me in western Europe are fake. I’m not hearing anything past China here. Whoever it is also following me as they were spotting western EU on 10m also when I was hearing only 1 or 2 callsigns in I land. Some peoples hatred of FT8 runs deep.

Update September 16, 2023: Good run on 17m last night. Until now had not been able to use 17m much at night because of noise from street lights, however my LMR400 came from Fiji and this cut the noise on 17m dramatically. It didn’t do anything for 12m so still looking for a solution there. Antenna is now up much higher at both ends. Still working on getting EFHW or 80m OCFD up. Have a much longer endfed up right now hence I’ve been on 80m some times. Lots of EU both west and east last night which is promising. Will probably give it another shot tonight at 17m as it lasted a lot longer than 15m. I was still working calls at 3:30AM (local) whereas 15m and 10m usually done by 1-2AM. Super hot here today, hoping for some rain soon. Past 18K QSO last night. Remember this is a spare time operation. My LMR4000 ex KH1/KH7Z so has some history.

Update August 28, 2023: 15M is where I having the best luck with EU for now but that will change. So far the software that’s worked best for me is MSHV with “special message” option, single stream on standard frequencies. 40m 80m and perhaps 160m will come when my second rig and antennas arrive from Fiji. I am using MyAntennas 9:1 Endfed 51′ feet / 15.5 metres long in a inverted V setup at the monet with barefoot FT-891. I have coming from Fiji my 2 main antennas from 3D2TS being MyAntennas 80m OCFD and from same company 80m-10m EFHW. I’ll probably go with the EFHW first up as end fed will be easier to setup here for now.

I am currently only doing FT8 and maybe FT4. I will be using MSHV, so call with signal report if you want. HOWEVER I do NOT recommend that you do this. If you are EU or NA / SA always call with grid square. If I am using MSHV, with a queue sorted on distance, it needs the grid square for the distance calculation. Like that EU, NA and SA will take precedence over Asian callers. EU openings are not that often so if I see they are struggling with a wall of JA, I will go to preference for distance. I go out of my way to work JA as they are almost 24/7 here. EU is not. I also sometimes flip the queue if I have some OC callers. I try to be fair to everyone. I will start on normal FT8 frequencies and if it gets busy move elsewhere. I hope to do some SSB as conditions pick up towards the end of the year. Remember, I am here for the long term so don’t get too excited about missing me or sending me 1000 emails. We are coming into the best part of the year. Just be patient and keep at it. Please don’t ask for scheds, I just don’t have the time as yet.

Update May 29, 2023: It seems that all is going well for this operation, although the dates, length of stay and exact location are still unknown.

Update April 1, 2023: C21TS should be QRV again late July to August 2023. A longer and better equipped operation is being planed.

Update March 24, 2023: QRT. Time to pack up. Will update next week if I am coming back or not to Nauru. 1100 QSOs in the log from 1.5 days of operating.

Update March 15, 2023: It took some time to get everything sorted to visit Nauru and at the moment they are in the middle of a big COVID outbreak, so what I can and can’t do remains somewhat fluid. I’m staying at the only hotel that answered my emails and I don’t know what I will be able to put up antenna wise. Will see when I get there but will take a few options with me, mostly end-fed. I am only taking this time around my FT-891 barefoot and a trusty HP laptop. With a PowerWerx PSU. I have my LoTW certificate for C21TS but nothing is going to happen until I return home. At this stage no plans to use Club Log this time around. Look for me on Sunday the 19th on high bands with some luck.

DX-World publishes the following from Phil, FK1TS: I will be in Nauru from March 18th the 24th 2023. So 6 days on the ground. There is a lot of unknowns but I will have my FT-891 plus my trusty HyEnd Endfed with 22m wire and will take 44 metre wire also. And just in case all else fails a 6m /10m mobile whip with mag base. Worst case scenario I might pop up on 6m and 10m only. Am hoping I can string up some wire though. I will find some way to get updates – probably via a Facebook page or whatever works from there – as internet is a bit of an unknown at this stage. This will be FT8 only, don’t ask for SSB or CW. No skeds. I will be using MSHV on secondaries in multi stream mode. If all goes well I will be moving to Nauru for an extended period, as in more than 1 year some time after June this year.