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!
Lord Howe Island and Cocos Keeling Islands QRV in November
If you haven’t had a chance to reach the Lord Howe Island VK9LQ and Cocos Keeling Islands VK9CZ DXpeditions this November, you still have a few days to break through.
Michael, DF8AN, is scheduled to be QRV as VK9LQ until November 27 on 160 through 6 meters in CW, SSB, FT8 and other digital modes from Lord Howe Island—a 5.62-square-mile crescent-shaped DXCC entity between Australia and New Zealand in the Tasman Sea.
Travel more than 4,000 miles northwest from Lord Howe Island and you may run into Cocos Keeling Islands, where Keith, GM4YXI, and Chris, GM3WOJ, are scheduled to be active as VK9CZ until November 29. They are operating on 160 through 10 meters in SSB, CW and some FT8 from Cocos Keeling Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean. Cocos Keeling Islands consists of two atolls (North Keeling Island and South Keeling Islands) made up of 27 corral islands comprising 5.5 square miles. Only two of the islands—Home Island and West Island—are populated.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, worked the Lagunaria DX Group’s 2014 VK9DLX DXpedition from Lord Howe Island on 10M SSB. He received his QSL card from the VK9CK 2016 Cocos Keeling Islands DXpedition for contacting them on 20M SSB and 17M CW. The VK9CK team operated from West Island (population of about 120).
As of October, Lord Howe Island ranked as the 89th Most Wanted DXCC entity in North America, and Cocos Keeling Islands stood at 67th.
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