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!
Somalia QRV in June
If you’re looking to reach the seldomly activated Federal Republic of Somalia, ranked #61 on the DXCC Most Wanted List per Clublog, here’s your chance. EP3CQ, as 6O1OO, will be operating from Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, on the HF bands on SSB, CW, and mainly in FT8 mode until June 25. This has been reported as a “spare time” activation.
Located in the “horn” of Africa and bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf of Aden, Somalia boasts an eastern coast line that stretches an impressive 1,879 miles (the eastern coast of the U.S. is 2,165 miles in comparison). With a population of 2.185 million in a country of 15 million, Mogadishu is Somalia’s most populous city.
While radiosport is not a national pastime of Somalia, other sporting pursuits play a role in Somali life, with soccer being the country’s most popular sport. In addition to notable achievements in martial arts, the country’s national bandy team participated in the 2014 Bandy World Championship—a feat akin to the rise of the Jamaican bobsled team. A precursor to the more popular hockey, bandy is a team sport played on a rink about the size of a soccer field. Skaters, 11 per team, use sticks to direct a ball into the opponent’s goal. There is debate regarding where bandy originated, with Russia, England, and Holland all laying claim to spawning the sport.
Here are a few of the QSL cards from Somalia collected by the active operators at DX Engineering over the years:
Dave, N8NB, DX Engineering technical support specialist, contacted 6O3A on 30/20/17/15M CW in February 2012.
Dave, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, also reached 6O3A (20 and 15M CW in February 2012), as well as contacting 6O1GG from Juba Island (IOTA AF-52) on 20M CW in November 1989.
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