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!
Honduras QRV in December
Hams trying to put Honduras in their log books will have ample opportunity thanks to F2JD (as HR5/F2JD), who is scheduled to be QRV on December 8 and operate from Copan Ruinas on HF in CW, SSB, and Digital until April of 2022. Located close to the Guatemalan border, the municipality of Copan Ruinas is a frequent stop for travelers on their way to see the ruins of Copan, an archaeological site of the Maya civilization.
Honduras ranked as the 186th Most Wanted DXCC Entity per Clublog as of October.
The needs of amateur radio enthusiasts in this primarily agricultural Central American country of more than nine million are served by the Radio Club de Honduras (RCH), a national non-profit organization founded on July 26, 1958. Membership benefits include a QSL bureau, sponsorship of operating awards and contests, and representation of Honduran amateurs before regulatory authorities. Read more at RCH’s official website and Facebook page.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Honduras’ independence from Spain (1821). In commemoration, a special activation event was held during September. Guatemala gained independence from Spain and Mexico the same year. In honor of this milestone, a special activation event (TG200I) sponsored by the Guatemala Radio Amateur Club and Guatemalan Radio League will be ongoing until November 30.
QSL Cards
Here are a few of the QSL cards from Honduras collected by the active operators at DX Engineering over the years.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, reached HR2J, operating from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on 10M SSB in 2002. Located in the northwest corner of the country, San Pedro Sula is its second largest city (population 670,000) after the capital Tegucigalpa, which is the largest both in population and area.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, contacted HR2/NP3D in March 201o on 20 and 15M SSB.
David, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, contacted HR9/WQ7R operating from Roatan Island (IOTA NA-057) on 160, 80, and 30M CW. Forty miles off the north coast of Honduras, Roatan is the largest of the country’s Bay Islands (eight islands and 53 cays) in the Caribbean Sea, measuring 48 miles long and 5 miles across. Coxen Hole is the biggest city on Roatan (population 5,070) and the capital of the Bay Islands Department of Honduras. It’s named after Captain John Coxon, a notorious late-seventeenth-century buccaneer who, despite being tried and convicted for his skulduggery on several occasions, managed to escape hanging. The pirate’s ultimate fate, or what became of his ship (said to be 80 tons), is not known.
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