8 June 2025
Rebounding from my close encounter with a machete the week before, I had a productive run on the radio, thanks to all of you. Here’s the short—and the long—of it.
17m FT8 – 31 May – 249 contacts made.
30m CW – 1 June – 79 contacts made. Dreadfully poor band conditions under a severe geomagnetic storm. The normally loud JA stations sounded like they were coming in long-path. It was a solid test for operating under less-than-ideal conditions.
30m FT8 – 5 June … Super Fox mode debut from Wake Island: 890 contacts made.
I was blown away by how fast and efficient Super Fox mode worked. I’d scheduled to start at 07:00 UTC but decided to call “game on” at 06:50—too eager to test this new version of WSJT-X to wait.
Two minutes in: six stations logged. Two hours in: 560 stations.
By the three-hour mark, things (I thought) were slowing down, so I switched back to Fox/Hound mode. But around 11:30 UTC, the East Coast US started waking up and adding to the pile before 30m faded a bit for them.
Operating in Super Fox mode isn’t a passive experience. You need to stay engaged—monitor the radio, watch your return signal reports, and keep the queue filled. On my IC-7300, I keep the scope running for a bit of eye candy and the meters up to watch ALC, SWR, and overall radio health.
At one point, I noticed the SWR jump over 2:1. “Go check your mast,” I told myself. I grabbed my headlamp and raced outside to the antenna. Thanks to a passing rain shower and the evening cool-down, half of it had collapsed in on itself. A quick re-hoist, and I was back inside reloading the hopper in about two minutes.
Half an hour later, it happened again. I must not have twisted the SOTAbeams mast segments tightly enough to push out the water in the compression sections and keep the antenna extended. Once fixed, the mast, and I, stayed up—and stayed up way too long. I finally shut things down at 12:30, knowing full well I had work at 8 AM. All in the name of ham radio fun!
Total: 890 QSOs in one session—a personal record. I’m already looking forward to the next Super Fox trial.
7 June – 20m CW
After a hectic week at work, I was a little tired but eager to get back on the air and do some CW. I sometimes find myself in one of two states: either I’m not mentally processing code at all, or I hit a rhythm where callsigns just flow from ears to logbook. Last night, I hit both.
I knew I was tired when I heard a letter clear as day—then, a second later, had no idea what it was. At one point, a JA station came in with an ‘L’ in the suffix. My brain, off somewhere smelling the roses, processed it as the Morse code for pi. I had to laugh, shake it off, and refocus.
But then… things started flying around me. At first, I thought they were moths—until their wings started falling off. Termites. They were everywhere. Soon, my entire table was covered with scurrying ants. I’d show you a photo, but they’re not exactly photogenic, especially under low light. Talk about testing your mettle of mental concentration to send clear code with ants crawling up your arms. Thankfully, they were only scouting—not looking to make me dinner. Still, it became too much. I called it a night around 09:00.
This last activation pushed me past 15,000 POTA QSOs from Wake Island. Thanks for being part of the milestone!
73, Allen
16 responses to “FT8 Super Fox, Ants, and 15,000 Wake Island Ham Radio Contacts”
Thanks both 30m SFH & 20 cw QSOs. Your signal was great .
Hope to meet you on 40m soon and maybe 80m if you install simple inverted vee antenna.
So, it took me 14 minutes to make it through on 30M FT8 after you started from here in the East Coast of NA. That was with 15 watts to a vertical dipole. I guess Superfox mode works really well when the signals are loud enough – and yours was. Consistently -06 dB up until the time I left to go back to bed.
20M CW this morning (my time) was a different story…
I’ll look forward to your next Superfox outing when the band is open to W1.
Thanks for the QSO.
73,
Clarke K1JX
Keep up the great work Al! I’ve been working on my CW. Hopefully I’ll be confident enough to get you before you depart.
Be safe and have a blast!
73
Hi Tim,
You got this. Just keep at it.
73,
Allen
Hi Allen, thanks for the QSOs already. I will look for you on 30M- 80M.
Awesome pictures!
73,
Gerald, WA9GON
THANKS FOR THE ATNO ON 18095 FT8, DE KJ4V
me too … THANKS FOR THE ATNO on 18095. I had spent three hours calling during your SuperFox debut, when you had a very nice -06 signal into N. NJ … but apparently it was one-way! PSKreporter said MY signal was stopped at California. 🙁 But I think I caught you right at the beginning of your Sunday session on FT8 and was soooo pleased to get a +10 report from you for my first Wake Island QSO. I appreciate the effort you are putting into this endeavor; I suspect that many folks just don’t appreciate that you are on the island FOR WORK … real work!! and have to fit the DXing around that, eating, sleeping, and having some sort of “life” !! 73 and tnx W2JC
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the note and good to meet you on 17m FT8. Life here on Wake tonight consisted of a round of disc golf with some guys from work after dinner. On the third hole we got drenched with a passing shower but that led to a fantasitc sunset and helped cool off the hot day some. We are definitely getting into the summer heat, that unfortunately comes with less trade winds traditionally. Hot and muggy most days but managable.
73,
Allen
Thanks for all that you do for us, Allen. Will be up early tomorrow 08:00 Zulu swining the beam around to try to catch you on 40 CW. 73 de K4TOR, Tor. Stay Safe.
Thanks Tor. Glad to get you in the log.
73,
Allen
Hi Allen,
Its fun to listen to how rapidly your CW and FT8 operating skills have improved since our first QSO on 12 meters SSB in January. We’ve now worked on 40, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. I’m still looking for you on 30 and 20 meters. and maybe eventually on 80 meters maybe this winter when propagation is at its best. A simple inverted-L vertical with at least 30 feet vertical would work great, especially very close to salt water. This is easily done with the poles used by POTA operators.
You might consider slowly increasing your CW speed as your CW skills continue to steadily improve. With all of your CW activity it won’t take you long.
What are your experiences with Super Fox compared to MSHV? Many DXpeditions have better success with MSHV especially when signals are weak.
Thanks for all of your activity!
73
Frank
W3LPL
Hi Frank,
Thank you for the compliment. Lots of practice on the air definitely helps, and you’re right, I need to start turning up the speed. I can copy faster than I am presently sending. As for MSHV I have not used it so I can’t comment on any comparisions. Thanks also for the inverted-L antenna idea. My first antenna I built as a new general ham in Alaska was an inverted-L that I used a nearby tree to run up the wire. That’s when I got the HF bug.
73,
Allen
Snatched you up on 40 CW last night. Great signal, but quite a bit of static. Thanks, Allen. 73’s de K4TOR – Tor, SC
Hi Allen, I was looking for you on 17M FT-8 for over 4 hours (15 June), but no copy at all. You went to 20M FT-8 and I copied you really good except for I was qrt until you were about to go qrt. You send me a good report (+8) 3 times, but not sure why we didn’t complete the qso. 20M is an excellent choice given the crazy conditions lately for the Midwest of the USA – I hope you try 20M again soon. 17-10M just not good recently.
I really appreciate the efforts 7 hope to work you soon for an ATNO on FT-8.
73,
Jon WB8YJF (Ohio)
Hi Allen. You really got the Ham spirit and do the job really good. I like facts about you are on SSB – CW and FT8 with a good mix. This gives mostly all a chance for qso with you. Also nice to see the pictures from the island. You got my deepest respect, thanks and take care.
Anders OZ6O
Hello Anders,
Thank you very much for your kind words. I love ham radio and being able to share Wake Island is a true honor. Thanks also for the many QSOs from Denmark.
73,
Allen