K1N!

February 04, 2015

I finally made a contact with K1N, the DXpedition to Navassa Island. Navassa is the second most wanted DX entity, after North Korea.

Using the “Flex Advantage,” I was able to follow where they were listening, and transmit right near a previous contact. Once I started doing that I got in pretty quickly.

I got them on 18mhz CW. I’ll keep trying on other bands and modes while they’re still on the island.

Calling them for hours was tedious, but it was a real rush to hear my callsign come back!

Update: People were asking me what the heck I’m talking about, so I’ll give a quick explanation.

A fun amateur radio challenge is trying to make contact with as many distant places as possible. There is a list of geographical entities, consisting mainly of countries, but also islands or other geographically separated places, that count as separate entities. Many of these entities are major countries, which are easy to contact. Others are uninhabited or restricted somehow, so there just isn’t anyone there to contact.

If you want to contact every distinct entity, you’ll have to somehow make a contact in these remote or restricted places. The most wanted place is North Korea, which doesn’t grant amateur radio licenses. The second most wanted place is Navassa Island, near Jamaica, which is on the air right now!

Navassa is a tiny, uninhabited American island, and is a restricted wildlife refuge. A team of amateurs obtained permission to go and is on the island right now making contacts all over the world.

This probably won’t be allowed again for decades, so it’s a pretty exciting!