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!
Comoros Islands QRV in October
Mark your calendars for this excellent chance to write Comoros Islands (D6) in your logbook! This archipelago situated northwest of Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa is scheduled to be active from October 5-17 thanks to the 13-operator D60AE DXpedition. You can try to contact them on 160-10M in CW, SSB, RTTY, FT8, FT4, or through QO-100 satellite.
As of August, the four main Comoros Islands (785 square miles, population of slightly over a million) ranked as the 105th Most-Wanted DXCC Entity per Clublog.
About the Comoros Islands
The Comoros Islands are often referred to as the “Perfume Isles” because of the land’s fragrant flowers that can fill the air with an intoxicating scent. Among these are flowers from the ylang-ylang tree (Cananga odorata). The essential oils extracted from ylang-ylang flowers can be found in Chanel No. 5 and other popular perfumes. In fact, the extensive use of ylang-ylang flowers in the perfume industry has earned the islands the title, “Queen of Perfumes.” The yellow star-shaped flower is harvested and distilled throughout the area.
Interestingly, you won’t find larger African animals such as elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, and crocodiles on the Comoros Islands despite their proximity to the mainland. What you will find are eight species of terrestrial mammals including two lemurs and six bats—most notably Livingstone’s fruit bat, which was discovered by famed explorer, Scottish physician, and Christian missionary David Livingstone in 1863.
The seas around the Comoros Islands are teeming with diversity, including humpback whales, pygmy killer whales, sperm whales, melon-headed whales, Fraser’s dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and green sea turtles. Four national marine parks established in 2010 serve to protect the area’s fauna. Also found near the Comoros Islands are coelacanths, a critically endangered species of fish thought to be extinct until their discovery off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Coelacanth fossils dating over 4oo million years old have been discovered. One of two known species of coelacanths live near the Comoros Islands.
QSL Cards
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting the Comoros Islands, IOTA AF-007, over the years (a good reason to contact them for help with your gear if you’d like to do the same). Here are a few of the QSL cards they pulled from their collections.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, made multiple SSB and CW contacts with the D64K DXpedition from Grande Comore Island in August 2012. D64K’s seven operators logged nearly 62,000 QSOs during 12 days on Grande Comore (known as Ngazidja in Swahili)—the largest and most populated of the Comoros. Its capital of Moroni has a population of just over 60,000 people. The other islands that make up the Comoros are Ndzuwani (Anjouan), Mwali (Moheli), and Mayotte (Maore), which is comprised of two islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre (Pamanzi).
Dave, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this Comoros Islands QSL cards from D60VB (20M CW) in February 2007.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, received this QSL card from the February 2001 D68C DXpedition from Grande Comore Island. Bolstered by ten stations and 26 operators, this major 22-day DXpedition logged close to 169,000 SSB, CW, and Digital QSOs (43,673 unique), ranking it fifth among all DXpeditions in terms of total QSOs made.
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