Earlier this month OnAllBands looked at the top-three Most Wanted DXCC Entities per Clublog: North Korea, Scarborough Reef, and the San Felix Islands. The team of longtime DX chasers from DX Engineering reached into their collections and provided OnAllBands with QSL cards from these rare entities—none of which seem destined to be on the air soon.
Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at the number four and five spots on the “Will these ever be active again in my lifetime?” list: Pratas Island and Kure Island.
Pratas Island (BV9P)
It has been 22 years since Pratas Island, a 590-acre coral island in the northern part of the South China Sea, was active on the amateur bands. The last activation (BQ9P) from this Taiwanese-administered island took place in October 2003. Check out these pictures from the DXpedition. There have only been a handful of DXpeditions from BV9P since it became a DXCC entity in the mid-1990s. A 10-operator activation in April 2000 netted 30,000 QSOs over eight days.
Why So Rare?
Pratas Island, also known as Dongsha Island, is a disputed territory like Scarborough Reef. While Taiwan administers the island, China also claims sovereignty over it. In early May 2025, Taiwan released footage showing a Chinese fishing vessel in the waters around Pratas Island being sprayed by a Taiwanese coast guard water cannon. These entanglements and ongoing political tensions make it unlikely that anyone in the near future will be able to operate from there. The island has no permanent population, but it is visited by military personnel, researchers, and fisherman.
For many DXers close to “working the world,” Pratas Island remains the proverbial “thorn in the sideband.” For example, Scotty, KG9Z, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist who has logged 349 Mixed HR entities, still needs Pratas Island to check off the final conquests on his list. His other two missing locations are North Korea and Scarborough Reef.
Wayne, K8FF, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received the QSL card below for contacting BV9P on CW in 1995. The 12-day operation from Pratas Island was the third in a series of activations between January 1994 and June 1995. The BV9P team put almost 25,000 QSOs in the log despite oppressive humidity and heavy power demands that made amplifiers struggle through the large pileups.
Kure Island (KH7K)
Kure Island, or Kure Atoll, the westernmost of the Hawaiian Islands (about 1,350 miles northwest of Honolulu and 48 miles west-northwest of Midway Atoll), falls into the category of DXCC entities that are rarely activated due to tight environmental restrictions. The atoll has been a wildlife sanctuary since 1981. Several attempts by the Pacific Islands DXpedition Group to receive permission to operate on the island have been rejected over the last ten years.
Per the Kure Atoll Conservancy, Green Island is the atoll’s only permanent island and Hawaii’s “most significant seabird sanctuary with 18 seabird species totaling over 100,000 nesting birds.” One of the major concerns cited by environmental authorities who have denied ham activity is the danger vertical antennas pose to the area’s avian population. Those seeking permission have highlighted other amateur radio operations from protected areas (e.g., Baker Island KH1/KH7Z 2018) that have been done with great sensitivity to the environment, resulting in no impact. Kure is managed by Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources—Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
Although there were activations dating back to the early days of DXpeditions, Kure did not become a DXCC entity until 1961. While a part of Hawaii, it was deemed a separate entity because of its placement between Midway Atoll and the rest of the Hawaiian Islands chain. The first activation of Kure was by KH6ECD in February 1961. In 2016, both Kure and Midway were briefly deleted from the DXCC list.
Wayne, K8FF, produced two Kure Island QSL cards from when his call sign was K8WOT: K5CQK/KH6 from July 1965 and K5LTH/KH6 from June 1973. Gene Lewis, K5LTH, operated from the U.S. Coast Guard LORAN station on Green Island, which was commissioned in March 1961 and decommissioned in July 1992. The LORAN station’s call sign was KH6EDY.
The September/October 2005 K7C DXpedition was the last time Kure Island was on the air. The 12-operator, 11-day operation logged more than 50,000 CW, Phone, and Digital QSOs. Dave, N8NB, and George, K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialists, reached K7C. Here is George’s QSL card:
Stay tuned for Part 3 of our Top Ten series, featuring QSL cards from Johnston Island and Peter 1 Island.
Whether you’re trying to reach Pratas Island or just want a good rag-chew with your buddy across town, go to DXEngineering.com for everything you need to upgrade your station, including transceivers, amplifiers, antennas, towers, microphones, CW keys and paddles, and more.
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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!
