Every month, DX Engineering will be featuring QSL cards from our team members’ personal collections. Some of our favorites are displayed on the cover and inside our Fall/Winter Catalog, along with stories about what it took to make these contacts. We’re excited to share some of the special cards pulled from the thousands we’ve received over the years. We look forward to seeing your cards as well!
For November we chose the recently distributed card from Baker Island KH1/KH7Z. DX Engineering was a proud equipment sponsor of this large and complex undertaking in the central Pacific Ocean.
Baker Island, KH1/KH7Z, June/July 2018
This Baker Island QSL card was an All-Time New One for DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist Mark W8BBQ. It arrived in his mailbox in early September—one of many thousands of QSL cards sent to thrilled DXers around the globe. At the time, Baker Island ranked #4 on Club Log’s DXCC Most-Wanted List. As of October, the uninhabited atoll between Hawaii and Australia had dropped to #22. The KH1/KH7Z DXpedition marked the first time Baker Island was active since 2002.
KH1/KH7Z
From his home station, Mark W8BBQ worked Baker Island on SSB and CW on 17 and 20 meters. Ed K8IV, DX Engineering senior engineering technician, also logged a QSO on 20 meter SSB at N8DXE, DX Engineering’s employee amateur radio club station located in its showroom near Akron, Ohio.
In addition to chasing this ATNO, DX Engineering provided a range of critical equipment and supplies that were used in the operation of the team’s eight stations.
Dayton Hamvention 2018
A few weeks before setting sale for Baker Island, we caught up with team members Neil King, VA7DX and Ned Stearns, AA7A.
Stearns, a veteran of three top-ten DXpeditions (Kingman Reef 5K5 2000, South Sandwich VP8STI 2016 and South Georgia VP8SGI 2016), had this to say about the anticipation that surrounds activating these rare entities:
“There’s nothing like it. You can’t explain it to anybody. When you get involved in it like this and you can pull it off, it’s just fun. That’s an important part of DXpeditions. Our customers are the DXers and we want to make them happy. Creating a positive experience is a very important part of this operation.”
From all of us holding the Baker Island KH1/KH7Z QSL card, thanks to the whole team for a job well done!
Coming up in December: QSL cards from Christmas Island.
