Cuba has been called the Pearl of the Caribbean. Despite its relative isolation from its neighbors it has continued to captivate many around the world. With travel to the island difficult at best, making contacts with lots of Cuban stations is another way to create experiences. The Worked Cuban Stations Award (WCUSA), sponsored by the […]
It was a busy month, QSL card-wise. I received two separate packets from the incoming QSL card bureau. Many of those were Japanese cards, with several of them being new JCC and JCG entities that I needed for those awards. Here are a few other cards coming in this month of note. Guadalupe is not […]
I started a new process recently where I’m going through my old logbooks and making one last determination about whether I can or should attempt to get a QSL card for contacts from years ago. When looking over QSOs from the 1980’s and 1990’s I’m amazed about some countries I worked that I still have […]
My local club, the Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club (W6AJF), operated from Sonoma Skypark once again. It was an interesting outing in that we had to overcome multiple issues before things started to roll for us. This made the exercise a good practice run for solving problems on the fly in the field […]
Here are a few of the more interesting QSL cards I received in the last month. I’ve worked a ton of US Virgin Island stations on the air over the years. But I’ve heard very few British Virgin Island stations for some reason and never managed to work one. The VP2V/N2EIN DXpedition there took care […]
Here are some of the more interesting QSL cards I received in the month of May 2022. This is a nice, hard to get, DXCC country. Mount Athos is in Greece, but it counts as a separate country for award purposes due to its isolation and autonomy. I worked Monk Iakovos (SV2RSG/A) on both 20M […]
The Worked All Europe (WAE) award from the Deutsche Amateur Radio Club (DARC) in Germany is one of the more prestigious awards in Ham Radio. In a nutshell, it rewards making contacts with countries on the European continent. WAE comes in several classes for working a certain number of countries but also factors in a point […]
Here is April’s haul of interesting incoming QSL cards. 9G5AR in Ghana is an All Time New One (ATNO) for me. I made this FT8 QSO on the 20M band. Having learned my lesson about waiting too long to QSL I sent out for this one right away. When I first came across this callsign […]
Here’s a sampling of interesting QSL cards that I received during the month of March in 2022. Another All Time New One (ATNO) for me. I worked EA6VQ in the Balearic Islands on both 40M and 30M using FT8. The islands are in the Mediterranean Sea and reside far enough away from Spain to count […]
CQ Magazine‘s Worked All Zones (WAZ) is one of the oldest and most prestigious Amateur Radio operating awards out there. Working all 40 CQ Zones is arguably more difficult than working 100 unique DXCC countries. The 30 Meter Digital Group (30MDG) offers a easier, and cheaper, entry into chasing all 40 CQ Zones with their […]