Current DX Goals

Well, it is too hot to go do POTA activations and it is summer, so the bands are kind of meh.  But it seems that 17m and 30m are pretty sweet spots during the late evening hours and (very) early morning hours.  So, I will be focusing on both of them to get the numbers up for DXCC on both of those bands.

As I post this 30m is officially at 104 worked / 86 confirmed, with one of the unconfirmed a deleted entity, so the actual worked number is 103.  That leaves 17 that need to be confirmed, but of those 2 of them were worked decades ago.  And one of the confirmed is via a paper QSL - and while I could submit that, it would drive up the cost of this award.  Bottom line is that I have just enough on this band to get the 30m DXCC Award.  I really need a couple more new ones on here!

On 17m the official numbers are at 93 worked / 80 confirmed.  On this band, all are potentially confirmable.  But that still leaves me with a deficit of needing at a minimum of 7 more entities on this band.  

On 12m, the numbers are 111 worked / 97 confirmed.  For 12m there are several OQRS contacts that I can submit for to go well over the needed 100 for the DXCC award on 12m.  But I would rather get "free" confirmations on LotW - so I will wait it out for a couple more months.

Realistically, I need around 110 worked on each of the WARC bands to be within the margin of error to get the LotW QSL's.  I feel pretty confident that I will make it I want to do a major DXCC submission around Thanksgiving, if at all possible, with 30m, 17m, and 12m all being submitted at the same time.

30m DXCC Milestone Reached

 Over the weekend I hit 100 entities worked on 30m!  It is now a horse race between 30m, 17m, and 12m to see which one achieves DXCC next.  It would take just one good 12m opening to cement that band as the next one, but with the current conditions that have been occurring - IMHO the race is between 30m and 17m at the present time.  Regardless of the winner, the submission won't be until mid to late Fall.

This Week In DX - 7/22 Thru 7/27

This was a pretty decent week for DXing as you can see.  Band was really decent on 30m and 17m and really drove the numbers up.  

GAINS
Mixed (+1)

Phone (-0-)

Digital (+4)

CW (-0-)

80m (-0-)

40m (-0-)

30m (+2)

20m (-0-)

17m (+6)

15m (-0-)

12m (+1)

10m (-0-)

DX Needs Worked

7/22    12m    Western Kiribati (T30)

7/23    30m    Haiti (HH)
7/24    17m    Luxembourg (LX)

7/24    17m    Angola (D2) *

7/24    17m    Benin (TY) - ATNO

7/25    30m    N. Ireland (GI)

7/25    17m    S. Korea (HL) CONFIRMED

7/25    17m    Finland (OH)* CONFIRMED

7/25    17m    Jersey (GJ) CONFIRMED

7/25    17m    Guam (KG4)

7/26    30m    Peru (OA)*

7/26    30m    San Andres (HK0) - Digital ATNO

7/26    30m    New Caledonia (FK8)

7/26    17m    Lithuania (LY) - Digital ATNO CONFIRMED

7/26    17m    Nicaragua (YN) - Digital ATNO CONFIRMED

7/27    30m    Peru (OA)*

* - Previously Worked Possibly NIL

WAS Needs Worked

None

DX Marathon

Zones 36 (-0-)

Entities 132 (+5)

Score 168 (+5)

DXCC Challenge

Worked        875 (+9)

Confirmed     768 (+5)

ARRL 2026 - Year Long Special Event WAS

Yesterday evening I received the ARRL Letter email which had the info for their new year long operating event for 2026.  To wit -

• Approval for a year-long celebration in 2026 to mark the semiquincentennial of the United States, including a commemorative ARRL US250 Worked All States award for contacts made during the year.

I will bet that it will be a LotW based event and that W1AW/x stations will be active.  Probably on the same vein as the VOTA event in 2024.  Will be looking for more info on this in the near future.

New Award From ARRL Incoming

 I received this snippet in an ARRL email today (ARRL Members Bulletin July 22, 2025)

"The Programs & Services Committee and Headquarters staff from the Radiosport Department, on the heels of creating the DXCC Trident award in January, are moving ahead with the creation of another new DXCC award — 10-Band DXCC — which will recognize those who achieve DXCC on all bands from 6 meters to 160 meters (excluding 60 meters). Higher achievement endorsements can be earned at the 200, 300, and Honor Roll levels, like the DXCC Trident. The 10-Band DXCC award challenges participants in the DXCC program to establish station capabilities and operator skills for dealing with myriad band conditions in pursuing DXCC across all 10 bands."

Note: 

According to rumor, we should be getting the official info on the DXCC Trident sometime this week.

Weekly Update - 7-22-2025

 I think I will try this again, but in a simpler format!

1)  This week I added a couple of points to the DX Marathon score.  I have surpassed what I thought I would get in total this year.  I now think I could hit 170-175 by the end of the year if I am lucky.

2)  Worked a couple of new ones on 30m as well as confirming a couple as well.  

3)  Confirmed one on 15m this week also.

4)  Definitely in the "summer DX lull" but have been pretty productive with greyline propagation.   Will continue that for ne next month or so.  Midafternoon is the WORST time for 20.

5)  Highlight of the week was working the Kazakstan station - a long time coming to rework that one.  Hope the confirmation comes soon.  Really looking forward to that one!

Legacy Unworked Entity Worked

 Last night around 2045 I worked a UN (Kazakstan) station on 20m!  Last time I worked this entity was 22 years ago on 20m CW in 2003!  I had worked it on 10m SSB several times in 1988-1989 and on 20m SSB in 2001.  I had never received a QSL from them.  The one I worked last night does LotW and uploaded a week and a half ago, so I am hoping for a quick confirmation!

Blog Update - 7/17/2025

1.  Updated all my stats as of yesterday morning and added WAS Triple Play and the pending DXCC Trident award tracking.  Will try and do that Wednesday mornings.

2.  Spent some time on 30m this evening trying to work some new one - and I succeeded!  Worked 7X (Algeria) for a ATNO on digital and a new one on 30m.  Also worked an IS0 (Sardinia) for a new one on 30m and HH (Haiti) for a new one on 30m and possibly to confirm it on digital.  I worked another HH station on 20m but didn't get any confirmation.  Also worked a SM (Sweden) on 30m for another new one.   That gives me 98 worked on 30m - so getting real close to DXCC on 30m, but only 82 confirmed.  Once I hit 100 worked, I will start to work on getting the confirmations for the missing.  Need 12 to hit the 100 mark, and have 4 OQRS Q's on Club Log - but don't know if they would be LotW or paper.  I do have one of my confirmations on that band in paper (Albania), so if I do it all LotW, I will need 13 confirmations.

3.  Speaking of DXCC - still real close on 12m as well.  I have 97 confirmed on that band and all are LotW confirmations.  I have 5 outstanding OQRS Q's that I could send off for and hopefully 3 of them will also have LotW confirmations.

4.  As of right now, I won't be submitting anything to ARRL until mid-fall (late October).  I want to do the 12m and 30m (and possibly the 17m) submissions all at the same time.  I am way behind on 17m - with 25 needed confirmations.  What I will probably do is work on getting 12m in the bag and then 30m - then I will have to hit 17m really hard.

Quick Update 7/6/2025

 Just a quick bit of information this Sunday morning...

1) I think I will work on POTA this week.

2) I should get my WAS endorsements this week (I hope).

3) Sitting at 207 confirmed with paper QSL's included.  I plan on getting a M2 loop antenna next year and have that ready to go for next year's Es season.  

4) The next purchase (in the early fall) is an 80m hamstick that will be resonant on the FT8 frequency.  I want that 5BWAS very, very badly.  

Update 7/2/25

 Been about a week - took a week off of hard-core radio stuff to do some other things as well as re-configure my operating position.  However - 

1)  Did get the endorsement stickers for 150/175 grids on my 6m VUCC!

2)  Got a paper QSL to confirm Albania!  That was an ATNO for Mixed, Digital, and 30m.

3)  Hopefully will get the WAS endorsements this week as well as I submitted it only a couple days after I submitted the VUCC endorsement.

4)  Will update my totals as soon as LotW is back up and running from its upgrade.