NEWS UPDATE by Remo:
We are settled down in our bungalow. Me and my HAM stuff downstairs and Christa (XYL) with painting stuff upstairs. Raising antenna was easy. Locals already prepared 3 bags of sand to secure the tripod (last year fell off and broke pole) also prepared 3 pieces of wood to secure the legs. Comparing to last year, noise floor is raising high. On 30m start rising to about S5 on 40m its S9+. I was surprised and got good signals with antenna around the globe, but hardly any station RXing here due to this high noise floor. Reason is, last year due to corona only very few guests on the island therefore only some LED light burning whole night. Noise floor was much lower (S3 on 40m) than today. Maybe a small BOG could help or a small directional receiving antenna. I do not have experience in BOG and need to check when I’m back home.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 – Remo HB9SHD will again be active from Kandolhu island, Maldives as 8Q7RM during the month of November. QRV daily for several hours, especially at night for NA & SA. QSL via H/c.
OCTOBER 21, 2020 – Remo, HB9SHD plans activity from Kandolhu island, Maldives as 8Q7RM during November 2-29, 2020. QRV holiday-style on HF; SSB & Digi. *Remo was previously active as H44SHD.
Remo here 8Q7RM QRV since 2.11.2020 . Whenever you want to do something too fast something happens. On the second day tripod fallen down mast broken. With the little help of good old duct tape mast repaired upnrunning again. I am pleased with performance and possibilities of the CrankIR. FT-991 does its job. What I miss most is the waterfall display and the possibility to watch several frequencies at the same time like on my FlexRadio at home. Conditions are good despite the cycle. It goes around the world depending on time of day and band. Some openings on 10m and 12m. on 6m my favorite band nada 🙂 The biggest challenge on the island is manmade noise caused by all the electrical devices. Every LED, power supply you can turn off reduces the noise level. The AC -12dB, LED in the pool -15dB outdoor lighting -8dB etc. SSB and cw operation is hardly possible, what remains is digital and thanks to FT8 there are good QSOs. I have trouble with CW because I hardly recognize the own callsign 🙂 and because many CW ops don’t want to adjust their speed. With DXPedition in Malawi 7Q7RU it finally worked out. I am fascinated by the speed and discipline with which the Russian colleagues handle their CW QSOs. Congratulations! I will be QRV until 28.11.2020. Mostly from 10m to 40m. For 80 I can’t extend the radial far enough. best 73 Remo es 8Q7RM
@Gust ON6KE, I’ll uploaded QSOs to LOtW, Clublog and QRZ.
if you miss some infos drop me line via email.
cheers Remo es 8Q7RM