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!
Rodrigues Island QRV in August
From August 5 to 9, this autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean will be fair game for DXers trying to fill bands or score an All-Time New One. A team of hams operating as 3B8FA, 3B8GF, 3B8CF, 3B8FV, and 3B8BAN will be on HF and also manning three QO-100 portable satellite stations. For an overview of the QO-100 and other amateur radio satellites, read this article by OnAllBands blogger, Sean, KX9X, “A Very Abbreviated History of Ham Radio Satellites.” Also, enter “satellite” in the search box above for many posts and videos on successfully working hams by contacting amateur radio satellites.
As of June, the 42-square-mile volcanic island of Rodrigues (population of around 41,600) ranked as the 173rd Most-Wanted DXCC Entity per Clublog.
About Rodrigues
Named after the Portuguese explorer Diogo Rodrigues in 1528, Rodrigues (IOTA AF-017) is part of the Mascarene Islands, located east of Madagascar. Once a district of Mauritius, the island was granted autonomous status in December 2002. The island’s primary language is Rodriguan Creole, but English and French are more frequently spoken in matters of government, law, and commerce. The island is divided into 14 zones, including the capital city of Port Mathurin, which has a population of nearly 6,000. The island is also home to the Rodrigues flying fox, or fruit bat—an endangered species endemic to the island. The bat has been designated as a species in danger of imminent extinction due to weather-related loss of habitat and human intervention. Only a few hundred Rodrigues flying foxes currently live in the wild.
Several zoos worldwide have engaged in captive breeding programs to prevent the flying fox’s demise. Watch this video of a baby Rodrigues flying fox being cared for at the Bronx Zoo.
QSL Cards
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting Rodrigues Island 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 a slew of CW and SSB contacts with the Swiss DX Foundation’s 3B9SP DXpedition (see bands below) in October 2012. He reached 3B9/OE4AAC in February 2012 on 40/17M CW.
Scotty, KG9Z, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, made contact with the 3B8AE/3B9 DXpedition back in 1981.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, received this QSL card from the hugely successful March 19 to April 12, 2004 Project Star Reach 3B9C DXpedition, which boasted 32 operators and more than 153,000 CW, SSB, and Digital QSOs logged. The DXpedition was a recipient of an ARRL Colvin Award Grant—an endowment established by legendary husband-and-wife DXpeditioners Lloyd D. Colvin, W6KG (SK) and Iris Colvin, W6QL (SK), to support amateur radio projects that promote international goodwill in the field of DX.
David, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this card from the 3B9WR March 2010 DXpedition, which he contacted on 80/40M CW.
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