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!
Svalbard QRV in April
If there’s one thing Hams love more than a surge in sunspot activity, it’s geography—the more obscure, the better. Any passionate island chaser,
who can rattle off names from Absecon in New Jersey to Zuqar in the Red Sea, would scoff at the typical $2,000 Jeopardy answer as mere child’s play. For these folks, spots like Bouvet Island and Mellish Reef aren’t simply dots on a map—they are lands to conquer, un-reached specks that beg to be contacted via SSB, CW, RTTY, or FT8. So when one is activated, you can rest assured of some big pileups and plenty of successful operators plunging thumbtacks into world maps, signifying an All-Time New One.
Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, will soon be a Ham radio hotspot, despite the frigid temperatures that make it an ideal home for its population of several thousand polar bears, a major tourist attraction and serious danger for the 2,900 residents who are required to carry scare devices to prevent attacks. If you’re planning a visit, be prepared to also catch a glimpse of Svalbard reindeer, Arctic foxes, whales, seals, walruses, and dolphins.
Resting midway between Norway’s north coast and the North Pole, Svalbard (IOTA EU-026) is scheduled to be active from April 26 to May 9 thanks to the JW6VDA DXpedition. You can reach LA6VDA on the HF bands in SSB. Svalbard, formerly known as Spitsbergen, is the 204th Most Wanted DXCC Entity according to Clublog (March).
Here are a handful of Svalbard QSL cards from the avid DX chasers at DX Engineering:
Mark, W8BBQ, customer/technical support specialist, contacted JW5X in Longyearbyen (Long Year Town), the largest settlement in Svalbard, on 40M USB and 15M SSB.
Tom, KB8UUZ, technical writer, made contact with JW7QIA in 1998:
Dave, K8DV, customer/technical support specialist, reached JW/F8DVD in April 2007 on 20M SSB, and JW5E in October 2006 on 15M SSB.
Want to upgrade your DXing capabilities? The Elmers at DX Engineering are here to lend an ear. Reach out to them at Elmer@DXEngineering.com. Find everything you need at DX Engineering to up your game, including transceivers, antennas, amplifiers, headsets, and more.
