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!
Barbados QRV in January
Ham radio is a hobby of contrasts: Big Gun vs. Little Pistol, Love FT8 vs. Loathe FT8, QRP vs. High Power, Icom vs. Yaesu vs. Kenwood vs. Elecraft, Barefoot vs. Fully Amped, and on and on. In this spirit, our January QSL card posts highlight two operating extremes: Bouvet Island and Barbados. What do these DXCC entities have in common? Off the top of our heads, we can think of three things:
- They are both islands. Uninhabited and frigid Bouvet is a subantarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic while mildly tropical Barbados—an island country of about 287,000 people—is the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. They are separated by nearly 6,000 miles. Bouvet is not a country but rather a dependency of Norway.
- Their names both begin with the letter B.
- They will both be active in January.
And, well, that’s about all, folks.
As DXers everywhere are well aware, Bouvet Island—the second-most-wanted entity behind North Korea—is scheduled to be on the air from Cape Fie in the southeast part of Bouvet starting in late January and extending into February thanks to the 3Y0J DXpedition. Get the latest details on this rare activation at the 3Y0J official website. Also check out our OnAllBands article featuring Bouvet Island QSL cards from the DX Engineering team posted earlier this month.
While certainly not as ballyhooed as Bouvet, the 8P9CB DXpedition (by WA7RAR on 20-10M SSB and maybe CW) from Ocean City in Barbados offers an excellent chance to log an ATNO with this 245th most-wanted DXCC entity. Scheduled to run from January 13-25, 8P9CB is also a good opportunity to take advantage of openings on 10 meters to perhaps fill a band that has been problematic for many hams in recent years.
About Barbados
The name Barbados is believed to be derived from the island’s bearded fig trees (Fiscus Citrifolia). From Barbados.org: “The Portuguese sighted Barbados in 1536 enroute to Brazil and referred to the island as Los Barbados or the Bearded Ones presumably after the fig trees found on the island which… have a beard-like appearance. These trees can become incredibly large and are a natural habitat for birds, bats, and monkeys. The bearded fig tree can be found across Barbados especially in the natural gullies that run across the island. However, they are nowhere near as plentiful as when the Portuguese visited our shores centuries ago.”
Barbados ranks as the world’s 201st largest country in terms of size (167 square miles) but stands as the 17th most densely populated. Its capital and largest city, Bridgetown, has a population of around 110,000. A major cruise ship port and tourist destination, Bridgetown—once called The Town of Saint Michael—is the island’s transportation hub and commercial center.
QSL Cards
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting Barbados 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 contact with 8P9CK in St. Philip Parish, Barbados, in March 2012 on 30M CW. St. Philip has the largest land area of Barbados’ 11 parishes. St. Philip’s Parish Church was constructed in 1640. Over the years, the church has twice been destroyed by hurricanes and been rebuilt.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, made QSOs with 8P5A and 8P9Z from St. Peters in northern Barbados, another of the country’s parishes.
Scott, N3RA, DX Engineering sales manager, received this card from 8P6SH from Bridgetown.
Dave, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, worked 8P6JD in March 2006 on 20M CW. He made QSOs with 8P5A in October 2007 on 10M SSB and in November 2011 on 160M CW.
Dave, N8NB, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this card from 8P1A. George, K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, contacted 8P1A on 20M SSB.
Both George, K3GP, and Tom, KB8UUZ, contacted 8P2K—Tom on SSB and George on RTTY.
Wayne, K8FF, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this card from 8P9HX.
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