DXpedition
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A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by
amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency commu ...
operators and DX listeners, typically because of its remoteness, access restrictions, or simply because there are very few radio amateurs active from that place. This could be an island, a country, or even a particular spot on a geographical grid. ''DX'' is a telegraphic shorthand for "distance" or "distant" (see
DXing DXing is the hobby of receiving and identifying distant radio or television signals, or making two-way radio contact with distant stations in amateur radio, citizens' band radio or other two-way radio communications. Many DXers also attempt to ...
).


History

Early DX-peditions were simply exploratory and geographical expeditions in the late 1920s and 1930s, in which one or more radio amateurs participated to provide long-distance communications. At the same time they communicated with fellow radio amateurs who wanted to contact a new country. Most notable are the Antarctic expeditions of Admiral Byrd. Another example is the voyage of the
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...
''Kaimiloa'', which traveled the South Pacific in 1924. While the ship's wealthy owners enjoyed the islands, an amateur radio operator kept contact with, and sent
QSL card A QSL card is a written confirmation of either a two-way radiocommunication between two amateur radio or citizens band stations; a one-way reception of a signal from an AM radio, FM radio, television or shortwave broadcasting station; or the re ...
s to, experimenters in the United States. The participation of radio amateurs in geographical expeditions was resumed after World War II, e.g. the participation of Bill Snyder, W0LHS, and Bob Leo, W6PBV, in the Gatti- Hallicrafters expedition in Africa of 1948. The most unusual expedition to place reliance on amateur radio for communications was that of Kon-Tiki organized by
Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...
in 1947 and using call sign LI2B. The activity of dedicated DX-peditions was pioneered by one-time
ARRL The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska o ...
president Robert W. Denniston, W0DX. Mr. Denniston's 1948 DX-pedition, using call sign VP7NG, was to
the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
and was called "Gon-Waki" à la
Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...
's ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition the previous year.


DX-peditions and awards

DX-peditions are planned and organized to help operators who need to contact that area to obtain an amateur radio award. There are several awards sponsored by various organizations based on contacting many different countries. Perhaps the most famous of these is the
DX Century Club An amateur radio operating award is earned by an amateur radio operator for establishing two-way communication (or "working") with other amateur radio stations. Awards are sponsored by national amateur radio societies, radio enthusiast magazine ...
(DXCC) award sponsored by the
ARRL The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska o ...
. The base level of this award involves contacting and confirming 100 distinct geographical entities defined by the ARRL – usually politically distinct countries, and sometimes well-separated administrative or geographical regions within them, such as outlying islands. There are currently 340 separate entities recognized for award purposes. An "entity" for such purposes is any location that is either politically separate or physically remote (or both) from other jurisdictions / locations. For example: * Even though Alaska and Hawaii are political units of the United States, they are separate DX entities (physically separate regions). * Small independent countries, even ones embedded within larger ones, such as the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
and
Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
, count. * Other entities include transnational organizations such as the
International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
, and the United Nations. These are within their host countries but have distinct ITU prefixes. * Finally, a few areas of historic or special status have been included, such as
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...
, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
,
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
, and
Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...
. While the ARRL criteria for new entities were rationalized in 1999, those entities introduced before that date under relatively lax rules remain on the list, so long as they satisfy the original criteria. Other DX-peditions focus on operation from islands with little or no local radio amateur activity, for the Islands on the Air (IOTA) award which is sponsored by the
Radio Society of Great Britain The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) is the United Kingdom's recognised national society for amateur radio operators. The society was founded in 1913 as the London Wireless Club, making it one of the oldest organisations of its kind in the ...
. A small number of DX-peditions focus on activating specific, remote
Maidenhead locator The Maidenhead Locator System (a.k.a. QTH Locator and IARU Locator) is a geocode system used by amateur radio operators to succinctly describe their geographic coordinates, which replaced the deprecated QRA locator, which was limited to Europea ...
squares for the benefit of VHF and UHF operators.


Locations

Many DX-peditions take place from locations with adequate access to power and supplies, often where the country has a small resident amateur population or where licensing is not very difficult. Many
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
and Pacific island nations, as well as European micro-states, have very small populations, but have hotels, reliable power, and supplies, and are easy to gain operating permission in. Therefore, these states are regularly activated by amateurs, often in combination with a family holiday. Other jurisdictions take a more stringent view of individual access to communications equipment, and are rare because very few amateurs are licensed in those countries and visitors find it difficult or impossible to gain operating permits or import amateur radio equipment. Examples include
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
,
Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the peni ...
and
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...
. Some locations are also rare due to their extreme inaccessibility—examples include
Peter I Island Peter I Island ( no, Peter I Øy) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, from continental Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway and, along with Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land, composes one of the three ...
, Campbell Island,
Clipperton Island Clipperton Island ( or ; ) is an uninhabited, coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is from Paris, France, from Papeete, Tahiti, and from Mexico. It is an overseas state private property of France under direct authority of the Minis ...
,
Navassa Island Navassa Island (; ht, Lanavaz; french: l'île de la Navasse, sometimes ) is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject ...
, or
Desecheo Island Desecheo ( es, Isla Desecheo) () is a small uninhabited island of the archipelago of Puerto Rico located in the northeast of the Mona Passage; from Rincón on the west coast ( Punta Higüero) of the main island of Puerto Rico and northeast ...
. When amateurs travel to remote locations such as these they must first obtain permission to operate from that location from whatever political jurisdiction rules the area they wish to travel to. Even in countries such as the United States, this permission can be difficult to obtain. Once operating permission is assured, then transportation must be arranged. This can be both expensive and dangerous. Some locations are coral
atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...
s that are almost submerged at high tide, such as
Scarborough Reef Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc (in Spanish), Panatag Shoal ( fil, Kulumpol ng Panatag, lit=serene cluster), Huangyan Island (Mandarin zh, c=黄岩岛, p=Huáng Yán Dǎo, l=yellow rock island), and Democracy Reef, are two ro ...
; others are sub-polar islands with inhospitable climates such as
Peter I Island Peter I Island ( no, Peter I Øy) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, from continental Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway and, along with Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land, composes one of the three ...
. The amateur must also take care of the basic necessities such as food, water, and power.


Equipment and operation

In addition to licensing and survival issues, DX-pedition participants devote much attention to the radio equipment they use. In an extremely rare location for a popular awards program like DXCC, hundreds of stations may be calling the DX-pedition at any one time (known as a 'pile-up'). Therefore, DX-peditioners will aim to use high power and gain antennas on as many bands as practical, to achieve a loud signal worldwide and keep control of the inevitable pileups that occur. Operators may also receive and transmit on different frequencies, called split operation, to be heard by distant stations without interference to their signal from the pile-up. This can also help the operation to make a substantial number of contacts with parts of the planet that have unfavourable
propagation Propagation can refer to: *Chain propagation in a chemical reaction mechanism *Crack propagation, the growth of a crack during the fracture of materials * Propaganda, non-objective information used to further an agenda * Reproduction, and other for ...
from the area visited, lying perhaps in the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it—its
antipodal point In mathematics, antipodal points of a sphere are those diametrically opposite to each other (the specific qualities of such a definition are that a line drawn from the one to the other passes through the center of the sphere so forms a true d ...
. Examples would be the Central Pacific from Europe, or the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
from Japan. For smaller operations to remote locations, smaller radios which run off of a 12 V DC power supply and antenna systems which are more easily transported are favored over larger and more difficult to transport equipment. However, generators are usually used because of the power requirements for amplifiers and the ease of refueling versus recharging a battery. When the individual or group arrives at the DX-pedition destination, they must set up their station and get on the air. DX-peditions are usually group affairs since the desire is to make as many contacts as possible from the location. Round-the-clock operations on multiple HF bands simultaneously are typical, which necessitates a group activity. The use of the Internet to upload logs (allowing quick confirmation of questionable contacts) and for QSLs (formal confirmation) has made the process somewhat easier. Holiday operations from locations where there are few resident operators are often more leisurely affairs. Nonetheless, the operator will seek to make as many contacts as possible in the operating time available, with the result that contacts are often extremely brief, limited just to an exchange of signal reports.


Contests

Many DX-peditions are organized around various radio contests that happen throughout the year. This is often done so that the DX-pedition station can gain an advantage in contests and maximize the number of contacts that they make during the DX-pedition, since the radio bands are the most active during contests.


DX-peditions with most contacts

* In October 2011, the T32C
Kiritimati Kiritimati (also known as Christmas Island) is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, ...
(
Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...
, eastern
Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...
) DXpedition, run by the Five Star DXers Association, claimed 213,169 contacts. * This broke the February 2008 record set by the
Ducie Island Ducie Island is an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Islands. It lies east of Pitcairn Island, and east of Henderson Island, and has a total area of , which includes the lagoon. It is long, measured northeast to southwest, and about wide. ...
(eastern Pitcairn group) DXpedition, which claimed 183,686  QSOs under the callsign VP6DX. * This in turn had broken the previous record of 168,000 contacts set in 2001 by D68C (also by the FSDXA) from the Galawa Beach Hotel on the
Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...
island of
Grande Comore Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which is ...
. * The January 2012 trip to Malpelo Island had 195,625 contacts. While not an absolute record, it was the largest total ever achieved by a DX-pedition where the members lived in tents and powered their radios by portable generators.


List of notable DX-peditions

* 2016 – VKØEK – Cordell Expeditions to Heard Island. Combination radio / science expedition. ''See'' * 2015 – K1N – KP1-5 project Expedition to
Navassa Island Navassa Island (; ht, Lanavaz; french: l'île de la Navasse, sometimes ) is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject ...
, the #1 most-wanted DXCC entity on ClubLog and the ''DX Magazine'' survey. * 2014 – FT5ZM – DX-pedition to Amsterdam Island * 2013 – TX5K – Cordell Expeditions 2013 to
Clipperton Island Clipperton Island ( or ; ) is an uninhabited, coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is from Paris, France, from Papeete, Tahiti, and from Mexico. It is an overseas state private property of France under direct authority of the Minis ...
, more than 113,000 QSOs, 47  EME contacts. * 2012 – ZL9HR – Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia 2012 to
Campbell Island, New Zealand Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku is an uninhabited subantarctic island of New Zealand, and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Fo ...


See Also

List of DXpeditions


References


External links


Mega DXpeditions Honor Roll
maintained by the German DX Foundation (GDXF)
NØHR.com Upcoming Ham Radio DXpedition MapDucie Island Feb 2008 Dxpedition breaks recordsDX-WorldDX NewsClub Log DXCC Most Wanted listClub Log expeditions list
{{Amateur radio topics Amateur radio