DX-pedition coming up in December

Well, a week from today, I am off to the British West Indies for a week or so of ham radio fun.  A group of 8 of us are headed to St. Lucia for a mini DX-pedition.  I will be operating 160 thru 6 metres as J6/KO7M.  Here is the email to DX News from the trip organizer, Budd Drummond W3FF.

On Nov 25, 2016, at 3:28 PM, Budd Drummond <w3ff@buddipole.com> wrote:

Travel plans are set for the 8th BIC ("Buddies in the Caribbean") mini-DXpedition to St Lucia (J6).  Eight operators, some of whom have never experienced the "other side" of a pileup, will be operating from Chateau Devaux on the NE side of St Lucia from December 4th through the 12th, 2016.

This suitcase DXpedition will operate QRP to 100 watt radio stations using Buddipole antennas to make contacts from the villa, the surrounding mountains, and (of course) from St Lucia's superb beaches.

The eight operators are:  Paul W6PNG,  Thom W6LDX, Mike KI8R, Matt K0BBC, Harold WJ1B,  Jeff KO7M, Chris J68HF (W6HFP) and Budd J68FF (W3FF).  Ops will preface their own US calls with J6/.

Team members will operate several CW, SSB and/or digital mode stations on 160-6 Meters from the villa while others make contacts with portable setups from remote J6 locations. 

Per tradition, meeting and operating with local hams while on J6 is one of our key goals. 

QSO confirmation and QSLs will be available via LOTW or direct via information on each operator's www.QRZ.com page.

20 metre listening

Seems that 20 metres continues to be active with DX this evening.  Currently listening to OD5ZZ from Tripoli, Lebanon.  The band is much more quiet, but then again the weekend contest has no doubt ended.  UT7UJ is active from Kiev, Ukraine towards the upper end of the band.  It is sure nice to hear DX stations again on the bands after so much lack of propagation.  ZS3CX is on from South Africa, T88XT from Palau, VK4LJ from Australia, and ZL2BQ from New Zealand are all quite loud.

20 metre activity picking up

Managed to get enough of the shack cleared out that I could do some listening on 20 metres last evening.  I was pleasantly surprised how active the bands were, including well into the evening.  The contest weekends raise the question in my mind just how dead the bands are as opposed to just how "inactive" the bands are.  It seems that just about every contest weekend I can hear all sorts of DX but otherwise the bands have the appearance of being dead.

I listened to a number of Kuwait stations, New Zealand and mid-Atlantic stations working pile-ups.  After listening to one particular pileup for about an hour, there was momentary lull and I tossed my call sign out to 9K2WA using QRP (5 watts) on SSB and he came right back to me and gave me the obligatory 59 signal report.  (Yeah right...)  But he was about 20 over S9, so who knows how strong I really was on his end.