Posted: 2/24/2024 8:54:22 PM EDT
| Me and my shitty chinese radio have logged 99 countries, or DX, with 83 confirmed. Been here for a while. We especially suck in the area of the middle east, and southeast asia. That is like the black spot for me. I will get 100 eventually, just takes seeing the right operators on at the right time. |
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Quoted: The Middle East is hard to get. I've only worked a few on 10m and none on any other band. OP, you didn't state what radio or antenna you are using. 70 came with a Xiegu G90 and a home made EFHW. I have used a DX Commander and the G90 and an X6100 with and without a 100w amp for the rest. |
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Quoted: The Middle east and far east are hard for everyone here in the midwest. For one thing, most stations in the middle east are DEAF as a stone. I have plenty confirmed in both areas, but certainly not with 20 watts. And they are hard even with high power. |
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I was stuck at 60+ for a while. That is where you can get to without much effort. I am at 83 with some effort in hunting the Caribbean, ME and Asia. This week I logged South Korea, Haiti, Suriname, Turkey, Saba, Cyrus. I am still missing a lot of the Saints in the Caribbean. I am puzzled by South Korea. I can hit Japan often but SK was elusive until now. I thought the culture there was a lot like Japan. |
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Quoted: Is it the location or crap equipment? Quoted: Quoted: The Middle east and far east are hard for everyone here in the midwest. For one thing, most stations in the middle east are DEAF as a stone. I have plenty confirmed in both areas, but certainly not with 20 watts. And they are hard even with high power. In my opinion it is local noise floor being VERY high. They are deaf because of the noise. |
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Quoted: In my opinion it is local noise floor being VERY high. They are deaf because of the noise. |
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Quoted: Which DIY EFHW? I bought a plastic box, an ft240-43 toroid, some magnet wire, and connectors and put it together myself. The DX Commander is their pole, radial plate, and element plate. I made the spreaders and sourced my own wire. I have made all my antennas from scratch except a wolf river coil/17' whip and a Gabil multi band vertical, and the parts from DXC. |
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I'm getting out OK, this is this morning trying to ride the gray line, and see if I could pick up a new country. Attached File |
| Japan and China and the far east of Russia have been easy for me to get on 10m using a home made inverted V dipole. I have 132 total QSO's with Japan, 102 are confirmed on 10m. And I just started working digital 2 months ago. The center of my dipole is 18 feet above the ground. Going those countries on 15m, 20m, and 40m has been a little tougher but part of that is my antenna for those bands. The MFJ-2389 multi band vertical isn't the best antenna. It definitely works better reaching Europe and South America than the Middle East and Asia. |
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Quoted: Good night tonight. I added Cyprus Nauru Lebanon Cetua & Melitia Guam Finally busted 100. Now it's getting 100 verified. I locked out two credit cards making $10 transactions on the clublog paypal thing paying extortion money to get qrz log confirmations. I am not proud of it. 
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Quoted: Good night tonight. I added Cyprus Nauru Lebanon Cetua & Melitia Guam Finally busted 100. Now it's getting 100 verified. Keep swinging the bat and I'm sure you will get over the hump in no time.  LoTW is the gold standard for confirmations for most DX stations. The really rare ones don't seem to use QRZ as they do LoTW. Try uploading your contacts ClubLog also, as it's another way to get confirmations by sending a couple of bucks via OQRS and get some cool QSL cards. Attached File |
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Quoted: That ain't no shit. Remember when ya got no DX stations in your log they're ALL ATNOs. When ya got 339 you can get only one more.  Quoted: Quoted: Five ATNO's in one night is awesome! That ain't no shit. Remember when ya got no DX stations in your log they're ALL ATNOs. When ya got 339 you can get only one more. Trust me, they really start slowing down after you hit about 285. I am at 301 confirmed now, but I really have to scratch for a new one. |
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Band slots and modes slots are typically what I chase now. Unless it's a DX-expedition I usually don't see anything new to work. My last 10 new countries confirmed were rare and very hard to work from the Midwest. All of these contacts were made with a wire antenna. Attached File Attached File |
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Quoted: I'm sitting on exactly 285, so I know what I have to look forward to. Quoted: Quoted: Trust me, they really start slowing down after you hit about 285. I am at 301 confirmed now, but I really have to scratch for a new one. I'm sitting on exactly 285, so I know what I have to look forward to. Harder and harder and slower and slower. When I started in December of 2017 to care about DX awards I scrounged up every old electronic and paper log I could find and started entering them into LOTW. I came up with 62 confirmed. Ok a good start I guess, better than zero. So the new ones came pretty thick and fast. Up to a point. |
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You are doing fine. I started in 2013 & the solar cycle was not great at the time. I used JT65 & JT9 a lot, both replaced by FT8 now. When I got near 200 confirmed things slowed way down. I then purchased my KPA500 amp & learned CW enough to work some contests. That helped me bag many more. ATNO's are rare now. I'm like K9Bob mostly filling band slots & modes waiting for something new. The solar cycle is much better now & you have a great start! Good DX! |
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I think I am at 88 logged and 80 confirmed. Quite a few of the eastern europe stations I have worked on SSB dont log....... even though they do the SSB contesting. My coax is trashed on my main antenna at home. I need to fix that for the ssb contest this weekend, but am out of LMR 400 connectors....... |
100? Set your bar higher than that. Keeps one interested & learning to have goals. 100 DX is fairly easy with a modest setup & weak signal modes nowadays. But to each his own. If one is having fun, then that's good enough in my book.  Adding new DX to the log is a big part of the hobby to many here on the board. That is one reason we added the "DX Spotting Here" thread & made it sticky. Besides its fun! |
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I finally crossed 130 last night confirmed on 160 meters. I chased an Israel station most of the evening. Bumping in here from -24 up to -19 I hit him a couple of hours in and we exchanged reports, but no RR73 or anything. So I kept at it. and about an hour later we managed a full exchange and I got the confirmation on LOTW this morning. Every new one on 160 is worth at least 10 on the upper bands in relation to how hard you have to work for then. So they certainly mean a lot more to me when they do come in. The 160 meter season will be over soon as the summertime static levels rise. |
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Quoted: 100? Set your bar higher than that. Keeps one interested & learning to have goals. 100 DX is fairly easy with a modest setup & weak signal modes nowadays. But to each his own. If one is having fun, then that's good enough in my book. Adding new DX to the log is a big part of the hobby to many here on the board. That is one reason we added the "DX Spotting Here" thread & made it sticky. Besides its fun! Oh I won't stop chasing. It is fun. I will check where I am from time to time, but not going to stress over hitting a specific number. |
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I have quite a few countries that won't confirm. East Kiribati and Suriname are two off the top of my head that never confirm. As I said in my earlier reply, I am only using a home made 10m dipole and a MFJ-2389 multi band vertical. The MFJ will only tune well on 10m,15m, 20m, and 40m. The noise is too much to use it on 10m. I started running digital around 18 Dec 23 on 10m and didn't start running 15m, 20m, and 40m until around 8 Feb 24. I have 2304 QSO's with 1879 confirmed on QRZ. I've worked 139 countries so far. Granted I am retired so I can run digital any time I want. Don't give up and keep at it. Try different bands at different time of the day and don't be afraid to experiment with different types of antennas either. I have a 6 band 6m-20m cobweb antenna coming that will go up on my roof. I should be able to more contacts with it compared to the short MFJ antenna. Here is a screen shot of my QRZ log book. I'm not posting to brag but to offer encouragement. Attached File |
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Quoted: Belarus seems to be a tough nut to crack. No mail to there from the US right now either. I know someone from there, I just need to run into him because I dont have his phone number. Maybe he can get my card there with some way to get my card back. Yes it is. I've only worked Belarus once on 10M digital, it was confirmed. I have not been able to work Belarus on any other band yet. |
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Quoted: I dont have any digital, just SSB and their QRZ pages say direct only, no LoTW/Eqsl |
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Quoted: Belarus seems to be a tough nut to crack. No mail to there from the US right now either. I know someone from there, I just need to run into him because I dont have his phone number. Maybe he can get my card there with some way to get my card back. I got a LoTW from there. |
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Quoted: One Angola station was like that for me. He would only confirm on Club log. I will upload my Eqsl and club log books to LOTW and QRZ now and then. I haven't worked much SSB yet. Hopefully that will change once my cobweb antenna arrives. D2UY is constantly calling CQ. I do ok with the DX Commander. Attached File |
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Quoted: A couple more have confirmed, and others, well shit. I have Samoa on 3 different bands, Same with New Caledonia. St Kitts I have twice. You're always going to have more worked than confirmed, it's just a fact of life. Some folks just don't respond to QSL requests, sometimes cards get lost, sometimes contacts get dropped from logs. Digital confirmations have gone a long way toward helping with that since all it costs is a couple of mouse clicks, but the fact is that some people are just plain selfish. About all we can do is try our best to get the confirmation, but if everything fails just ignore it and move on. Odds are that sooner or later you'll hit the same country again and it tastes even better then. I had that problem with Sri Lanka. I worked it in 1993 after being a ham for 17 years. I tried everything to get a confirmation; bureaus, direct mail, digging to make sure he didn't have a QSL manager, all to no avail. I found out later that he was a Silent Key so that was the end of that one. Then last year, 20 years after my previous contact in Sri Lanka, I hit them again and the guy was kind enough to help me out and get me a QSL card to finally confirm that country. Ironically my first contact there was one of his Elmers ;) Hang in there, don't give up. You are doing great and you will make it. |
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Quoted: You're always going to have more worked than confirmed, it's just a fact of life. Some folks just don't respond to QSL requests, sometimes cards get lost, sometimes contacts get dropped from logs. Digital confirmations have gone a long way toward helping with that since all it costs is a couple of mouse clicks, but the fact is that some people are just plain selfish. About all we can do is try our best to get the confirmation, but if everything fails just ignore it and move on. Odds are that sooner or later you'll hit the same country again and it tastes even better then. I had that problem with Sri Lanka. I worked it in 1993 after being a ham for 17 years. I tried everything to get a confirmation; bureaus, direct mail, digging to make sure he didn't have a QSL manager, all to no avail. I found out later that he was a Silent Key so that was the end of that one. Then last year, 20 years after my previous contact in Sri Lanka, I hit them again and the guy was kind enough to help me out and get me a QSL card to finally confirm that country. Ironically my first contact there was one of his Elmers ;) Hang in there, don't give up. You are doing great and you will make it. |
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Quoted: This is very true. Not everyone will confirm in any manner. The guy that goes to Vietnam is another one that never confirms. Quoted: Quoted: You're always going to have more worked than confirmed, it's just a fact of life. Some folks just don't respond to QSL requests, sometimes cards get lost, sometimes contacts get dropped from logs. Digital confirmations have gone a long way toward helping with that since all it costs is a couple of mouse clicks, but the fact is that some people are just plain selfish. About all we can do is try our best to get the confirmation, but if everything fails just ignore it and move on. Odds are that sooner or later you'll hit the same country again and it tastes even better then. I had that problem with Sri Lanka. I worked it in 1993 after being a ham for 17 years. I tried everything to get a confirmation; bureaus, direct mail, digging to make sure he didn't have a QSL manager, all to no avail. I found out later that he was a Silent Key so that was the end of that one. Then last year, 20 years after my previous contact in Sri Lanka, I hit them again and the guy was kind enough to help me out and get me a QSL card to finally confirm that country. Ironically my first contact there was one of his Elmers ;) Hang in there, don't give up. You are doing great and you will make it. Is that 3W9T? I tried to get that Vietnam station on 12m yesterday and could not get it. |
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Quoted: Eddy confirms, but it's only by QSL card. He's a full-time resident there. Quoted: Quoted: This is very true. Not everyone will confirm in any manner. The guy that goes to Vietnam is another one that never confirms. Eddy confirms, but it's only by QSL card. He's a full-time resident there. He confirms. BUT he wants MONEY. I have several cards from him. But you get to pay for each and every one. It is what it is. Either pay up or you don't get. And then you get the joy of having to get the cards checked by the ARRL card checker. Mine is 150 miles away. More joy. Cards are a PITA, but Eddie does NOT do LOTW. Cards only. And the reason is that he wants the MONEY. Ain't it grand? His little Vietnamese sweetie does all the card work. He is nearly blind he says and cannot see well enough to fill them out. OR do LOTW. |