Events / Photo Galleries

It’s All in the Cards: Pitcairn Island QSL Cards

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!

Pitcairn Island

With eight well-equipped stations and a seasoned team of operators on the other side of the pile-up, there should be plenty of opportunities for you to make Pitcairn Island (IOTA OC-044) an All Time New One or fill bands during the much-anticipated VP6R 2019 DXpedition to the historically significant but sparsely populated locale in the South Pacific.

Scheduled for October 18 to November 1, VP6R will feature an international team of DXpeditioners operating on SSB (80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10M); CW (160 through 10M); RTTY (80 through 10M); and FT8 (160 through 10M, plus 6M and 6M EME). Read more about DX Engineering gear that has made the trip to Pitcairn Island, including DX Engineering’s custom-designed and manufactured 90 foot top-loaded 160M vertical antenna that should help topbanders reach the island.

For up-to-date information on the DXpedition, check out the VP6R official website.

For some of the DXers at DX Engineering, Pitcairn Island will be an ATNO, while others have had some success over the years capturing these QSL cards to add to their large collections:

Bob, W5OV (then operating as WA2OVE), DX Engineering sales manager, reached the VR6HI DXpedition on 10M SSB in March 1979.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, did some serious band-filling during the five-operator VP6T Pitcairn Island DXpedition in January 2012. He made contact on 80M, 40M, 30M, 17M, 12M, and 10M CW, and 20M, 17M, 15M, 12M, and 10M SSB. Organized by Jacques F6BEE, the VP6T DXpedition made 56,300 QSOs in 11 days.
George K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, received three different QSL cards from the January 2008 VP6PR DXpedition, each one featuring a different photo from Pitcairn Island. VP6PR employed an Icom IC-7000 transceiver and Yagi antennas. George, K3GP, made QSOs on 15M RTTY, and 20M and 15M CW. Dave, N8NB, DX Engineering technical support specialist, reached VP6PR on 17M RTTY. See more of the cards below:

Want to upgrade your DXing capabilities? Find everything you need at DX Engineering, including transceivers, antennas, amplifiers, headsets, and more.

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