Up through mid-December, things were a bit slow on the QSL Card Inbox. But I received a number of interesting cards as Christmas approached. In the end, it’s been a productive couple of months at KA5WSS.
This card confirms contacts with 9Q1AA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It confirms QSOs on 15M and 30M using SSB and CW. I also worked 9Q1ZZ on FT8 but am still awaiting that card. I had made one single contact with a 9Q stations many years ago. So this DXpedition filled up plenty of bands and modes I was missing.
The effort to put The Sovereign Military Order of Malta back on the bands was a great success. I managed to work 1A0C from 80M through 12M (minus 60M) using CW, SSB and FT8. This was an All Time New One (ATNO) for me. The small enclave in Rome counts as a separate DXCC country given its diplomatic status.
The prefix 3D2 signifies Fiji. But 3D2RRR was actually on Rotuma Island, which counts as a separate DXCC entity. I worked them on 30M using FT8 from my modest home station.
Banaba Island is part of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. But it counts as a separate DXCC entity. I worked T33T using FT8 on the 30M, 15M and 12M bands. This was an All Time New One (ATNO) for me.
Vanuatu is a country in the Pacific that had long eluded me for some reason. Stations there often seemed to be on the air when I was not. But I finally worked YJ0CA using SSB on both the 15 and 12M bands. This was another All Time New One (ATNO) for me.
Since my contact with YJ0CA above, I had also worked YJ0TT on 20M using FT8 and both 15M and 10M using SSB. These two Vanuatu cards arrived in my mailbox on the same day!