A great milestone - Navassa makes it 300 confirmed on LoTW

Tonight I am delighted to find that I now have 300 countries confirmed on ARRL's Logbook of the World. The 300th country confirmed is Navassa, courtesy of the K1N dxpedition. I have 312 countries worked, and now 300 of these are confirmed by LoTW only. There are only 12 entities that are not confirmed on this electronic QSL service. This is truly wonderful. I am chuffed.

My stats as of tonight. 300 current entities are confirmed.

The K1N Navassa confirmations, including 80 metres and 160 metres!

Yeehaa!! Wallis & Futuna makes it 300 countries worked!!

Oh wow. This hobby never ceases to throw up surprises. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be another new country to be worked in the space of a week or so, up pops FW5JJ in Wallis & Futuna on 20m SSB and I can hear him on the short path! What a start to Monday morning. Will I get him for DXCC #300 before I go to work, or will I have to wait for another day?

He is light on my hexbeam, but I can hear him through the flutter. The beam heading is about 345 degrees. He's working French stations. The Acom is warm and ready. He finishes working the French station. I call. He picks up a Foxtrot Cinque. They exchange reports. I call again . . . silence. And then, after about five seconds . . . "Echo India Two Kilo Charlie Five and Nine"!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Roger roger, thank you, you are five and five. Thank you for a brand new country".

"No problem. Seventy Three. Fox Whisky Five Juliet Juliet....."

What a fantastic week it's been for DX, and a tough challenge to get them into the log. 5J0R San Andres was relatively easy as #296, worked first on November 2nd and on another 14 slots since then. On the same day, I managed to nab K9W on Wake Island beaming over the pole at around 7.10pm. It was a lucky break. They didn't have a pile-up and I got through fairly easily. But I have failed to get another slot since then! T33A Banaba was DXCC #298 last Friday evening just before 7.30pm local time on a skew path of about 250 degrees. They logged me as EA2KC. I'm sure they'll correct it, but I wouldn't mind an insurance QSO just to be safe. Last night at 5.43pm local time I bagged Juan Fernandez (Robinson Crusoe Island) on 10 metres CW for #299. And this morning, I have made the #300 mark.

Just over four years into the hobby and I have worked 300 of the 340 current entities. Just 40 to go. That might sound easy, but the DXers know the last 40 are the toughest, because they're usually the rarest. So I can't imagine I will be bragging about #340 any time soon!

But that's not to say I won't enjoy the challenge of trying to work them all . . .