XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated

WB4SON

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Finally, after almost 7 years, 1500 DXCC Challenge Band Points

Posted: 07 Nov 2021 10:44 AM PST
https://wb4son.com/wpblog/?p=4572


Prior to 2012, I had only 7 QSLs from DXCC countries (USA, AK, HI, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain).  I wasnt a DXer, but I had volunteered for
years at the W4 QSL Bureau.  I got to see QSL cards from all over the world going into the the sorting bins of other hams.  I wondered if I would ever
get DXCC.  Forty two years later, in 2012, after taking a decade off from
ham radio (raising kids, working hard, etc), I started chasing DX.  Despite having a modest station, by March of 2012, I had a mixed DXCC certificate
in hand.  Many of them were QRP and CW.  After that, I had the bug!

Three years later, I had reached 1000 band-points and earned the first
level of the DXCC Challenge award.  Just in the nick of time, as Solar
Cycle 24 was rapidly faltering. (Thankfully I had also completed 8BDXCC
around this same time, so I was mostly looking for 160 meter contacts).

Over the next six years, my DXCC Challenge count slowly increased.  While
it took two months shy of seven years, today I finally obtained 1500 band-points.  Those seven years covered the bottom of Cycle 24 and the beginning of Cycle 25, which made DX far more challenging.

My thanks to Mario YS1GMV, who happened to be #1500, and of course all
those before him!

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