Suriname QRV in December
There’s a small window of opportunity to put Suriname in your logbook before bidding farewell to 2023. The PZ5NH DXpedition by Nobu, JA0JHQ, is scheduled to begin December 7 and run for a few days on HF in CW, SSB, and FT4/FT8, including his participation in the ARRL 10 Meter CW/SSB Contest, December 9, 0000Z to December 10, 2359Z.
If you’re looking to upgrade your capabilities on 10 meters, take a moment to read this OnAllBands article on taking advantage of recent 1o-meter openings, “10 Meter Band Tips: Upgrade Your Antenna for Maximum Results.” It includes options such as the Par EndFedz EF-10, Kelemen 10-Meter Wire Dipole, and others.
JA0JHQ will be operating from the well-equipped PZ5RA station (featured on two QSL cards below). As of November, Suriname—a South American country bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, and Brazil to the south, was the 223rd most-wanted DXCC entity per Clublog. At 64,000 square miles (slightly smaller than Oklahoma), Suriname is the smallest country in South America. It has a population of close to 613,000.
QSL Cards
The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting Suriname over the years—a good reason to contact them for help with your gear if you’d like to do the same. Here are a few Suriname QSL cards from the collections of the DX Engineering team.
Tom, KB8UUZ, DX Engineering technical writer, made contact with PZ5RA in December 2001 and PZ5K during the 2016 CQWW SSB Contest. Paramaribo, home of the PZ5RA station, is the capital of Suriname and its largest city (population 241,000). Its preserved inner city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.
Wayne, K8FF, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, reached PZ5RA in March 2000 on 10M SSB. The 300-mile-long Suriname River, displayed on the front of the QSL card, winds through Suriname to the Atlantic Ocean—a far cry from the mighty Amazon River, which stretches nearly 4,000 miles from the Andes Mountains of Peru through Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil before emptying into the Atlantic.
Want to upgrade your DXing capabilities? Find everything you need at DX Engineering, including transceivers, amplifiers, antennas, headsets, and more.
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!
