Latest spots (DX Summit)
DX is long-distance contact: the rare station, the entity that is still missing, the signal that crosses the planet. Here I gather what I use to follow DXpeditions and contests, and what I am learning about getting heard when everybody calls at the same time.
Which band for what
General rules, not promises: the ionosphere decides. Always check the Propagation panel before switching on.
| Band | When it usually works | What for |
|---|---|---|
| 160m 80m | At night, best in winter | Hard and very rewarding DX, with less atmospheric noise in winter |
| 40m | At night, at dawn and at dusk | The night-time DX band |
| 30m | All day | CW and digital modes only, no phone |
| 20m | By day and at dusk | The main DX band, open most of the time |
| 17m 15m | By day, with a high solar flux | They open to the whole world when the SFI rises |
| 12m 10m | By day, near the solar cycle maximum | Excellent with a high SFI; 10 m also opens through sporadic E |
| 6m | Sporadic E in summer, F2 at solar maximum | The “magic band”: unpredictable and full of surprises |
DXCC on one page
Antarctica and the Arctic
Two of the entities that fascinate me most. Operations are rare, short and depend on logistics: a ship, a weather window, sometimes a single week. So I follow the calendar and prepare in advance: the right band, the right time and a lot of patience. In the post What I miss in DX’peditions I write about what I think these operations lack.
DX radar
Real-time spots and what has been announced.
Contests
A contest weekend puts hundreds of stations on the air at the same time, which makes it a good moment to add entities. It pays to know the dates and the rules before switching on.
Awards and confirmations
Portable
Not everything is DX: activating a summit or a park is also a way to learn how to set up a light station quickly.
Pile-up manners
- Listen first. Work out whether the operator is working split (listening on another frequency, for example “UP 5”) and at what pace.
- Only call if you can hear the DX station. Not hearing who you want to contact is the commonest cause of a mess.
- Give your callsign once, clearly, and only after the previous contact has finished. Never call on top of other stations.
- Use the international phonetic alphabet when asked to repeat, and answer only what is asked.
- Never tune your transmitter on the DX frequency. Use an empty one.