Cambodia QRV in March
It’s a great time to be a DX chaser! There are opportunities all over the globe to record All Time New Ones or fill bands as a variety of DXCC entities will be ripe for the picking throughout March. For today’s post, we’re focusing on the Kingdom of Cambodia, the 90th Most Wanted DXCC Entity per Clublog as of February. Cambodia is scheduled to be active until March 15 thanks to the XU7GNY DXpedition by DL7BO on 160-6M in CW, SSB, and FT8/FT4.
Bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Lao People’s Democratic Republic to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, this southeast Asian country is approximately 69,000 square miles (about the size of Missouri) and has a population of around 16.7 million, 90% of whom are Khmers, an Austroasiatic group native to Cambodia.
Cambodia’s landscape includes the upper reaches of the Mekong River delta. At 2,705 miles, the Mekong is the world’s twelfth longest river, the third longest in Asia, and the longest in Southeast Asia. About 86% of Cambodia lies in the Mekong Basin, and the country’s capital city of Phnom Penh sits at the confluence of the Mekong, Bassac, and Tonle Sap river systems. The Mekong River also flows through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao, and Vietnam, providing drinking water, food, irrigation, hydropower, and transportation for millions. In Cambodia, the river replenishes Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.
The average annual discharge of the Mekong is 475 cubic kilometers. To put this in perspective, one cubic kilometer of water equals about 264 billion gallons, or one trillion liters.
Geography Question of the Day
As mentioned above, the Mekong is the third longest river in Asia. Can you name the two rivers in Asia that are longer? Answer below.
QSL Cards
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting Cambodia 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 from their collections.
George, K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, reached XU7MDY in October 2007 on 20M CW. XU7MDY’s QTH was Kampong Saom, also known as Sihanoukville—a coastal city of 90,000 people on the Gulf of Thailand.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received these cards from XU1A (December 2012, 20/17M CW, 20M RTTY) and XU7TZG (September 2010, 20/15M SSB).
Scotty, KG9Z, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, provided us with this August 1986 QSL card from XU1SS. The QTH of the operation was Ampil, the headquarters of the KPNLF (Khmer People’s National Liberation Front)—a political front organized in 1979 in opposition to the Vietnamese-installed People’s Republic of Kampuchea regime in Cambodia.
Dave, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, reached XU7ACY in April 2008 on 20M SSB.
“I’ll take Asian Rivers for $1,000, Ken.”
Back to our geography puzzler. The Mekong River is Asia’s third largest. Can you name the rivers that hold the second and first positions? The correct answers are the Yellow River (3,395 miles) and Yangtze River, the world’s third longest at 3,915 miles.
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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!
