Sunday, October 27, 2024

DX ahoy!

Originally posted on 'The wet string chronicles' in April 2010.

I like chasing DX and I’m always interested to see what DXpeditions are planned for the months ahead. A good resource for this information is provided by Bill Feidt, NG3K, on his website. The ‘Announced DX Operations’ page lists most of the scheduled DXpeditions.

I regularly scan the listed operations to see if there are any scheduled to DXCC entities I need. There usually are! I then break this down into those I ‘expect’ to be able to work and those I don’t expect to be able to work, based on my setup and my experience of relative strength (or absence of) signals heard from those parts of the world.

I then also consider which modes the respective operations prefer because I know I’m unlikely to work many on SSB, due in large part to my operating mostly at night when the rest of the house is asleep, but also due to my relatively poor signal. I find that CW really is my best option most of the time!

Armed with this information I will then look out for those callsigns on DX spotting clusters and also listen for those stations on the bands. By this means I can usually work a few new ones that I might otherwise not have.

For instance, as it stands today, I hope to be able to work the following listed operations (in what would be new DXCC entities for me).

  • 5Z4/LA9PF - Kenya
  • 8Q7NA + 8Q7IA - Maldives
  • FR/F5UOW + FR/F4EGZ - Reunion
  • 3B8MM - Mauritius
  • TT8PK - Chad
  • E4X - Palestine
  • VK9CLH - Lord Howe Island

There are many more but as I said previously, I’m mindful of which of all those listed I might actually hear. I’ll usually listen for those I see spotted but I’m more often than not, not at all surprised when I can’t hear them on my antenna!

I’ll be happy to snag any 5 of the 7 entities listed and, things being what they are, hopefully a few not listed. Good DX! 

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