An Irish Day

I've always believed music is the universal language of the world. It comes in many shapes and sizes and at many different places in the world. Today when I worked EI13CLAN in Northern Ireland, and saw their QSL card on the web, made me think of the times I've showed up to "pick and grin" at different Irish bars.
"The Irish Radio Transmitters Society" was celebrating with this "special event station" today on 12 meters, and fortunately, I was able to easily break the pile up with only a few attempts.

I also logged GI100RSGB in Northern Ireland today celebrating a "century" of radio in their country.

The picture above (not a very good one) is me playing the guitar in an Irish bar in New York. We had a great time that night with a mandolin, a fiddle, and a drummer.

Today was another great DX day for me. I had a nice chat with F5JWH in France and DF3CB in Germany. This afternoon I also worked HC2IMP in Ecuador again. This station is a puzzle for me. I've heard a nice "crisp chirp" at times from him but today, it was back to a dull buzz. I'm thinking voltage is playing a part in this signal. South America isn't known for real stable electricity in that part of the world ?

I totally forget I'm running QRP when I start chasing DX on the bands, and with good reason. Most of the the stations I worked today were using quite a bit of power, with good "gain" antennas, which meant close to a KW of effective radiated power.

Two of the stations I worked today were running 400 and 500 watts , respectively, into those gain antennas.

I'll be the first to admit all the "work" is on their part, but I sure love placing "QRP @ 3W and Indoor Random Wire" in the remarks sections of those DX Clusters.

It makes me feel pretty good....