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!
Zimbabwe Active in February
This month presents an excellent chance to log an All Time New One for the Republic of Zimbabwe (Z2). Tom, DL7BO, as Z22O, and Tom, DJ6TF, as Z21A, are scheduled to be operating from this landlocked country in southeast Africa from February 3-20 on 160-10M CW, SSB, FT8 and FT4. Zimbabwe ranked as the 123rd Most Wanted DXCC Entity per Clublog as of January. For past operations from Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital and most populous city (2.1 million), DL7BO and DJ6TF have employed Icom IC-7300 HF Plus 50 MHz Transceivers.
Zimbabwe’s population of around 15 million places it 26th among African nations, well behind Nigeria’s 206 million inhabitants. Depending on which theory you believe, the name Zimbabwe either means “houses of stone” or “venerated houses.” Previously the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, the country officially became the independent republic of Zimbabwe in 1980. Mining, tourism, and agriculture play key roles in Zimbabwe’s economy. To give you an idea of its size, Zimbabwe is slightly larger than the state of Montana at around 151,000 square miles.
Of all the countries recognized by the International Olympic Committee, Zimbabwe is last alphabetically, meaning you can thank them when the parade of nations is finally over every four years. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Zimbabwe fielded a team of five athletes, its second smallest number since it participated under the name Rhodesia in 1928. Athletes from Zimbabwe have won seven medals: gold in Women’s Field Hockey (1980, Moscow); and two golds, four silvers, and one bronze from the country’s most decorated athlete, swimmer Kirsty Coventry (2004, Athens and 2008, Beijing).
In the world of ham radio, the Zimbabwe Amateur Radio Society is a member of the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1, which represents operators in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Asia.
QSL Cards
Here are a few of the QSL cards from Zimbabwe collected by the active operators at DX Engineering over the years.
Scotty, KG9Z, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, reached ZE2JS back in November 1981.
Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, contacted Fernando Arroyo, EA4BB as Z21BB from Harare. Read much more about EA4BB’s three years of operating experience in Zimbabwe here—plus much more about the Zimbabwe Amateur Radio Society.
David, K8DV, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, contacted Z22JE, from Chisipite, Zimbabwe, in January 2007 on 20M SSB. Chisipite, a residential suburb in northeastern Harare, means “overflowing spring” in Shona, a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. George, K3GP, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialists, reached Z22JE on 80, 20, 15M SSB in 2004/05.
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