News items for tag dx - Koos van den Hout

In interesting DX news I saw OX3LX Greenland - DX-World which is a new entity for me. I got OX3LX in the log on FT8 on 28 August.

I also set an alert for Greenland in morse which helped me get OX3XR in the log on 6 September.

Both contacts were confirmed pretty fast, I am now at 164 entities confirmed in total (any mode) and at 95 entities in morse.

The search to get more countries confirmed in morse is continuing. At the end of July a team was active under the call 1A0C activating the entity Sovereign Militairy Order of Malta which is a catholic order with a lot of history. There is no territory for this entity, but internationally it is seen as a sovereign entity and radio amateurs like having yet another entity.

I got in the log with 1A0C and after donating to the good work of the Order of Malta Italian Relief Corps I got confirmation for these contacts.

Another new country in morse was Luxemburg where LX90RTL is active celebrating 90 years of broadcasting in Luxemburg with Radio Luxembourg. This contact is now also confirmed, and I am at 94 countries confirmed in morse code. The magic 100 for DXCC CW is getting closer.

In the preparation for the CQ WPX CW contest I had a contact with an amateur radio station in Antigua and Barbuda preparing for the contest: V26BP Bill (US callsign W5SJ) operating from Antigua and Barbuda for the contest.

Antigua and Barbuda is a sovereign country in the West Indies.

The QRZ page promised uploads to Logbook of The World (LoTW) so I asked very nicely after a few months for confirmation and got a quick response that the logs would come soon. A week later the confirmation indeed came in.

I'm now at 92 countries confirmed in morse, 100 is getting close...

Thanks to my participation in the IARU HF Contest 2023 and my participation in the preparation period just before the CQ WPX CW Contest I now have two new countries confirmed in morse: San Marino and Argentina. This brings me to 90 countries confirmed in morse.

This proves again that contests are a way to get more countries in morse in the log and confirmed.

I'm always looking for new entities in amateur radio to contact. Sometimes they happen because I knew amateur radio activity was going to happen from that location, and sometimes it's just because I notice a new country when looking for contacts on the radio.

The recent contacts to Vietnam and Cayman Islands were of the latter category, just checking for available contacts in FT8 and noticing a callsign from a rare (for me) entity.

Ducie Island was clearly of the former category and I checked for a time when I could get them in the log. When I got the contact, it went easier than I expected!

Ducie Island is of the very rare category, and a special kind of activation as described in VP6A – Ducie Island - DX-World. The minimal amount of equipment was set up on the island in waterproof boxes with radio's and connected antennas. It was powered with a generator and a few operators retreated to a boat nearby so they did not have to camp on the island or clean up. The other operators weren't even nearby but operated the equipment remotely via satellite Internet. This may seem 'cheating' but the radio and antenna making the contact are in the DX location, the person operating it is just somewhere else, limiting impact on the location.

Especially with islands that are nature reserves and have really strict rules about people visiting the island can benefit from this approach.

Last weekend was the CQ World Wide WPX Contest CW organized by CQ Amateur Radio magazine. The term 'WPX' stands for 'Worked All Prefixes'. The objective of this contest is to get contacts and exchange information with as many different other radio amateurs using morse code. Points are awarded for each contact, based on which amateur band and whether they are in the same or different continents. Multipliers are calculated from the number of different prefixes contacted. The prefix of my callsign PE4KH is PE4.

The score in this contest is calculated from the points per contact multiplied by the number of unique prefixes. This makes a station with a rare prefix popular so radio amateurs get special calls or go to special places to be that rare prefix.

This is also one of the big contests with a lot of participation from all around the world. In the days before the contest there were already a number of stations set up in special places busy on the air making contacts, testing their equipment and their setup to get the maximum score in the contest.

This testing in the days before the contest already allowed me to get a number of new countries in morse in my log: Azerbaijan, Antigua, Argentina, Madagascar and Hong Kong.

In the contest I made 171 contacts: 33 on the 10 meter band and 138 on the 20 meter band. With 215 qso points, 138 multiplier my claimed score is 29670 points at the moment. I had fun in the contest and all the practice with callsigns and serial numbers in morse has helped!

During the contest I added Australia, Qatar and Kaliningrad as new countries in morse in the log. I have now had morse contacts with 101 countries in the world, and now I'm waiting for confirmations via Logbook Of the World.

Update

I received a very fast confirmation for Australia already from VJ3A Steve. That was a 16490 kilometer contact with morse!

Thoughts

In preparing for this contest I considered adding an antenna to get access to the 15 meter band. Now looking back I think I might get different contacts (more countries maybe) on 15 meters, but it would not have added a lot of contacts.

This weekend was the His Majesty The King of Spain CW Contest and I participated. There wasn't a lot of time due to other things in the weekend, I was making contacts in the contest for less than four hours on Saturday evening and less than two hours Sunday.

I made 77 contacts, 7 on the 10 meter band, 55 on the 20 meter band and 15 on the 40 meter band. Propagation wasn't cooperating very well although there were some interesting openings. One opening on the 10 meter band resulted in a contact with Nepal on the 10 meter band, a completely new country in amateur radio for me.

Update

And the contact with 9N7AA Robert in Nepal is already confirmed! Thank you!

Update 2023-05-26

I had a contact with HZ1TT Ali in this contest and that contact is now confirmed, adding country number 85 to the list of confirmed countries in Morse.

Update 2023-06-20

Results are in: 74 valid contacts, 120 qso points, 52 multipliers giving a total score of 6240. Ranking #253 single operator multiband low power dx.

Yesterday evening I turned on the radio and looked for some interesting morse contacts. With some help from the Reverse Beacon Network I searched for interesting stations.

I had contacts with a few special event stations. There are extra special event stations active from the United Kingdom to celebrate the coronation. And two new countries in morse for me.

One was Saudi Arabia where HZ1TT Ali was calling and I managed to get through this time. I've tried contacting him in morse but failed earlier. The other one was DL5CW Andreas active as MJ/DL5CW from the island of Jersey, and Jersey counts as a separate DXCC entity.

I also had a short chat in morse with a station in Ukraine. This was much more of a personal contact than the short contacts with special event stations or rare countries.

I saw a DX Cluster spot today for a country/entity I hadn't had a contact with before, or not even heard of at all: Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina which consists of two island groups in the Carribean and it's a part of the country of Columbia. But a separate entity in amateur radio terms.

This is again a bit of geography I was never told during my education, but amateur radio has a lot of these geographical surprises.

Brazilian radio amateur PY8WW Renato is active there this weekend and as the qrz page shows he likes going on DXpeditions.

This brings the number of entities in amateur radio I have had contacts with up to 170, half of the current total of 340. I can probably add that I'm now starting with the difficult half!

Last Sunday I spent nearly 3 hours trying to get the 9X5RU Dxpedition to Rwanda in my log in CW (Morse) but that didn't happen.

This morning I got them in my log on my first try. On the 17 meter band.

The technical differences weren't that big. Ok, I was using the Kenwood radio remote today and propagation seemed to work better. But the main difference was that on Sunday it was very busy with amateurs from all over Europe and today I was one of the few callers. I guess the work week has a strong influence here!

DX never sleeps

I guess this turning 'easy' because I tried on a workday and not in the weekend was one of the results of 'DX never sleeps', a different time can help get the contact. The DXpeditions want the highest number of possible contacts so finding a time they are less busy can help in getting the contact. In the first few days/hours all the 'big gun' stations with huge antennas and amplifiers want that contact, after that the simpler stations with some patience also have a good chance.

So far with 9X5RU

Later in the morning I also got the contact on 12m CW. This was harder than 17 meters, I had to give my call 8 times before it was logged completely. After the contact was complete I looked at the signal meter and saw that it barely moved so it was a weak path. Earlier I made contacts with 9X5RU on 17 and 20 meter FT8. But I want to work on my list of countries contacted in morse, so I wanted to make the contact in morse too.

Update.. no success in the afternoon

After 17 and 12 meter band CW I also tried to make the contact on the 10 meter band, where 9X5RU was active in the afternoon. But by that time the US has woken up and has good propagation to Rwanda because of the daylight. I couldn't get through and I heard a lot of US amateur radio callsigns being confirmed.