Editor’s Note: Every month, DX Engineering features QSL cards from our team members’ personal collections. To highlight upcoming DXpeditions, we’ll be displaying a few of our favorite cards along with details 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!
Curacao QRV in March
Geographically, Curacao—a constituent country of the Netherlands in the southern Caribbean Sea about 40 miles north of the Venezuelan coast—is relatively small. At 171 square miles in area, the island nation, a part of the Netherlands Antilles until 2010, holds the 199th position on the list of countries and dependencies ranked by size. How big is it? It’s larger than Liechtenstein but smaller than Guam, if that helps.
In the world of Ham Radio, however, Curacao is a behemoth, a giant among DXCC entities, a paragon of unparalleled propagation. Over its storied history, the island’s contesting station, PJ2T, has become the most-logged callsign in the hobby. As reported in the December 2019 newsletter of the Caribbean Contesting Consortium, the station has made more than one million LoTW QSOs:
“One million. Such a big number. We made our millionth PJ2T LoTW QSO on the WWCW weekend. Alex Murashkin, UT3V, was QSO number 1,000,000 at 0942Z on Saturday morning, 14.039. In total we have many over a million PJ2T contacts, but this Logbook of the World milestone is really notable.”
For more on the Caribbean Contesting Consortium, visit their official website here. And take a few minutes to watch this excellent interview conducted by Tim, K3LR, DX Engineering CEO, with Geoff Howard, W0CG/PJ2DX, who shares duties operating the scenically located “Signal Point” station. Geoff, a 2020 inductee into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame, purchased and restored the former PJ9JT contest station in 2000. He went on to establish the Caribbean Contesting Consortium to help manage and maintain the station, and has made it a welcome oasis for countless guest contesters over the years.
For a perspective on the station’s more than five decades of operation, check out this OnAllBands article on the QSL card celebrating the 50th Anniversary of PJ3CC’s World #1 in CQWW CW Multi-Multi in 1967 from Curacao. The card was received by Tim, K3LR:
DXing fans can join the million-plus Curacao contact club this March thanks to DK5ON (as PJ2/DK5ON), who will be operating from March 4-23 on 80-6M (perhaps 160M) in SSB, CW, RTTY, and FT4/FT8.
It was no surprise that when we asked the team at DX Engineering for their Curacao QSL cards, there were more than a few to choose from. For those braving cold weather, let these be a reminder that sunnier days are ahead.
Ed, K8IV, DX Engineering senior engineering technician, took things one step further by providing us with photos of his time operating from PJ2T in 2019.
Dave, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, earned these cards by contacting Curacao:
Here are several from the collection of Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer:
Here’s one from Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist:
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