Since July 2019, Randy KX4QD has been living on Kwajalein Island and sometimes active V7/KX4QD or V73AX. In a tweet to DX-World earlier today he gave a small update on his operating times.
I’m usually on 20 or 40 meters FT8 as my dipole and 100 watt limit doesn’t get too far out from here on SSB. I work FT8 usually on Thursday evenings here (starting 06:00z).
Hi Randy – hear you regularly on FT8 Fri am here in MD but no Q so far (100w on a dipole here) . Hope you are enjoying Kwaj – assume you are DoD on contractor (I am a .gov that uses Kwaj ranges upon occasion). Enjoy and here’s wishes for safe return to the world. 73 Rich KC3OQJ.
Lame excuse for only using FT8. There would be more SSB activity if people actually tried a bit harder. Last weekend I worked VK6 at a distance of 12,441 Km on 40m SSB using 100W to a horizontal end fed halfwave about 4m above ground. Granted, this is not “the norm” and teh other guy had a “Big Gun” station but my point is DXing requires effort, patience and planning, especially if you are going to beat the huge and unruly pile ups these days (especially from Europe).