Falkland Islands QRV in November 2024
Here’s a great opportunity to cross off the Falkland Islands (IOTA SA-002) from your DXCC checklist or fill in digital and CW bands from this 207th Most-Wanted DXCC Entity.
The VP8G 40-6M activation by noted DXpeditioner Gerben, PG5M, is scheduled to run November 15-25 on CW and FT8. While not a rare entity in terms of SSB and digital, PG5M notes that the Falkland Islands rank #30 globally for CW. For the latest information, visit the VP8G website.
CW specialist PG5M was part of the W8S team that activated Swains Island in October 2023—a DX Engineering-sponsored DXpedition that recorded more than 90,000 QSOs. Watch DX Engineering CEO Tim Duffy, K3LR, interview PG5M and other W8S operators in this video. In the photo below, Swains Island team members, with PG5M far left, hold DX Engineering coaxial cable provided for the venture.
In April 2024, PG5M was active from Pitcairn Island as VP6G, recording nearly 16,000 QSOs. He will once again be employing a 40-10M DX Commander HF Multiband Vertical Antenna. DX Engineering is the exclusive provider of DX Commander antennas and accessories in North America.
About the Falkland Islands
Slightly smaller than Connecticut, this 4,700-square-mile British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean comprises East Falkland (population 2,800) and West Falkland (population 160), and more than 770 smaller uninhabited islands that lie 300 miles northeast of the southern tip of South America. The archipelago rests on the Patagonian Shelf, part of the South American Continental Shelf that adjoins the coasts of Argentina, Uruguay, and the Falkland Islands.
The Falkland Islands’ economy is heavily based on sheep farming (see QSL card below), with most of the land on its two main islands devoted to raising several hundred thousand sheep. By one estimate, there are about 130 sheep per person on the islands. Several thousand tons of wool are produced there annually and sold abroad.
In addition to sheep, the islands are a major breeding ground for legions of king, gentoo, rockhopper, magellanic, and macaroni penguins. Per Falklandsconservation.com, the Falkland Islands are “one of the world’s great penguin capitals,” where every summer more than a million of these flightless birds nest. The Falklands are home to the world’s largest population of gentoos—a species distinguished by their bright orange-red bill and white stripe extending bonnet-like across the top of the head.
QSL Cards from the Falkland Islands
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting the Falkland Islands over the years (a good reason to contact them for help with your gear if you’d like to do the same).
When we asked the DX Engineering team for QSL cards for our November posts, most of the submitted cards came from the same longtime operator, Bob McLeod, VP8LP, by far the Falkland Islands’ most famous amateur.
Back in early April 1982, it was VP8LP who scooped the world by first broadcasting news of the outbreak of the Falklands War from his ham radio station in the Green Goose settlement on East Falkland. Trying to confirm Argentinian claims that they had invaded and taken over the Falklands, BBC journalist and ham, Laurie Margolis, G3UML, attempted to contact the island from London via ham radio. He struck gold while listening for news on 14/21/28 MHz as VP8LP’s voice came through:
“We have been taken over,” VP8LP said. “The British government still denies it, but they have no contact I believe with the Falklands, and this is probably why they are still denying it.”
Read the full story from G3UML in this 2007 article from BBC News.
VP8LP’s breaking news was only the beginning of his involvement in the 74-day conflict. Soldiers eventually located his station and destroyed his transmitter.
“Bob McLeod… had also drawn the attention of the Argentines, who were quick to confiscate his equipment,” wrote Hannah King Ros Moore in a 2022 article for BFBS UK Armed Forces News.
Despite this setback, VP8LP, with the help of amateur John Wright, W2APF, 8,000 miles away in Oxford, devised a way to cryptically transmit messages from British soldiers in the Falklands to loved ones back home, letting them know they were safe.
Read the full story of VP8LP’s clandestine communications during the Falklands War here.
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Scotty, KG9Z, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this QSL card from VP8LP for making FT8 contacts on 17/10/6M from 2018-2024.
George, K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this card from VP8LP and his wife, Janet, VP8AIB, for his 15M SSB QSO in May 2004.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, earned this card from VP8LP for contacts between 2010-11 on 20/12/10M SSB. Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, received the same QSL card for reaching VP8LP on 15M in January 2011.
Wayne, K8FF, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received this card in February 2005 from VP8RAF, a member of the Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society.
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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!
