Plus, OnAllBands does a quick wrap-up of DX Engineering-sponsored Swains Island W8S, Solomon Islands H44WA, and Timor-Leste 4W8X
The busy 2023 DXpedition year came to a productive close in December with a DX Engineering-sponsored rare IOTA (NA-028) activation of 43-square-mile St. Paul Island, one of the Pribilof Islands off the coast of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea. Despite bad weather, the KL7RRC CW, SSB, and Digital DXpedition from St. Paul Island netted around 5,600 80-10M QSOs during the team’s deployment in December. Here’s a photo from the DXpedition’s QRZ page:
Operator Tim, NL8F, with equipment ready to be shipped from Dutch Harbor to St. Paul
St. Paul Island, which has the largest Aleut community in the U.S., has a population close to 480. It is one of four volcanic islands which make up the Pribilofs, the others being St. George, Otter, and Walrus. KL7RRC reported that fewer than 20% of IOTA chasers had St. Paul in their logbooks. The island is part of the Alaska Maritime Wildlife Reserve, Bering Sea Unit.
DX Engineering provided KL7RRC with the following equipment:
DX Engineering RPA-2 Modular Receive Preamplifier: Boasting very low internal noise, the RPA-2 is optimized for the 300 kHz to 35 MHz range. The device helps you hear the weakest signals without artificially raising the noise. Durable, robust components allow this preamplifier to withstand high signal levels while providing superior dynamic range and third-order intercept performance that equals or exceeds most receiver and transceiver front-ends. The RPA-2 accommodates the addition of one optional plug-in module, such as the Receiver Guard 5000HD Plug-In Module.
What do hams say about the RPA-2 Preamplifier?
Five Stars: “Using this amp with a 200-foot Beverage at 36″ above ground. This amp provides plenty of gain without an excessive increase in noise, and I can hear CW operators that otherwise are too weak to work. I feel this amp is money well spent.”
- DX Engineering Single Direction Beverage Feed System: This W8JI designed, single-wire Beverage feed system is immune to strong signal overload and core saturation. A go-to system for many multi-transmitter contesters and low-band DXers, the device employs an isolated-winding, matching transformer system to significantly increase the signal-to-noise ratio in Beverage and other high-impedance antennas.
What do hams say about the DXE-BFS-1?
Five Stars: “This unit is fabulous, all self-contained, no soldering. I used it to match my 160-meter receive loop on the ground to the RG6 Quad core coax. It worked great. The best part, though, is it was all built, no soldering, just plug and play.”
Results of other recent DX Engineering-sponsored DXpeditions:
- October 2023’s Swains Island W8S DXpedition: The W8S team used DX Engineering gear, including RG-213U PL-259 low-loss cable assemblies, to make 90,000+ QSOs, providing hams worldwide with ATNOs from this rarely activated entity. See photos below:
- The six-operator Solomon Islands H44WA DXpedition logged more than 60,500 CW, SSB, and FT8 QSOs while on Guadalcanal Island in November. The team used a DX Commander antenna, available exclusively to hams in North America from DX Engineering, along with DX Engineering Maxi-Core 20 1:1 Current Choke, crimp connector tool kit, and other equipment. Here’s a photo from the H44WA website:
- The November Timor-Leste 4W8X DXpedition turned into an All-Time Great One (let’s call it an ATGO) for hams worldwide. The 4W8X operators, using TFS4 Series B Transmit Four-Square Hybrid Controller Systems for 80 and 40 meters and other DX Engineering equipment, logged 163,242 QSOs, ranking it #8 on the Mega DXpedition Honor Roll in terms of total number of QSOs.
Stay tuned for news on upcoming DX Engineering-sponsored DXpeditions:
- Clipperton Island TX5S, January 18 to February 1
- Youth-operator 8R Guyana DXpedition, February 14-24
- Juan Fernandez Islands CB0ZA, February 13-20
- Temotu Province H40WA, February 22 to March 7
Be sure to check each DXpedition’s official website and Facebook page for current information.
