DXCC standings on Logbook of the World - August 2025

DXCC standings for EI2KC on LoTW - August 2025

Here are my current DXCC standings for 11th August 2025. A recent QSO with Z81D in South Sudan on 7 Mhz FT8 gave me a new one for both 40 metres and for digital. I am SOOO close to 300 entities on 17 metres. Still looking for that elusive 300th confirmation!

The global reach of a small ham radio station

I don't care what anybody says. FT8 is a wonderful mode for those with modest antenna systems. Again I looked at PSKreporter.info and again I find that the pursuit of DX stations has been fruitful with relatively low power (generally 20 to 50 watts) and wire and vertical antennas.

They say a picture paints a thousand words. Above is a map from PSKreporter showing where my FT8 signal has been decoded around the world in the last 24 hours. I am impressed. Now I do love a CW QSO, and I am also fond of phone/SSB contacts, but FT8 is convenient, quiet and you can be running QSOs while doing other things in the shack.

Most of the action today was on 17 metres, using my Antron 99 vertical antenna and 40 to 50 watts output. The best of the DX there were several JA stations who answered my CQ, a HS (Thailand) station, A65DR in the UAE, and two VU (India) stations along with a clatter of callers from the USA.

Just to demonstrate that I do not spend my whole time on the air using FT8, I did have a couple of CW QSOs. One, with Hans DL8MCG near Munich, was recorded on my smartphone. You can view the entire QSO on YouTube here:

In this video, I was running 100 watts from the radio.

By the way, I should finish by saying that I was not decoded in Australia today. In fact, it's been a while since my last QSO with VK, so I am looking forward to hearing the VK (or indeed ZL / New Zealand) call coming through at some point, hopefully soon.

PS: I have been uploading my log to Logbook of the World every two to three days. I was delighted to see that a contact I made with a station in China (BG0CAB) late last night was confirmed this morning.

FT4JA Juan de Nova confirmed on LoTW and gives me my 300th DXCC confirmed on CW!

The recent FT4JA Juan de Nova dxpedition, which gave me my 320th DXCC worked, has now confirmed my 11 QSOs with them via Logbook of the World. That's fantastic service! It was a great dxpedition. I'm happy that I worked them on RTTY as well as SSB and CW.

As you can see from the above EI2KC account status on LoTW, FT4JA was my 300th entity confirmed on CW, which is also very nice.

Very glad to receive a LoTW QSL from 3B7FA

I'm delighted to have just received QSL confirmation from Patrice (Pat) 3B8FA for a QSO I had with him when he operated from St. Brandon as 3B7FA in late October last. He was at that time a brand new DXCC for me (ATNO), number 315 worked. And now his QSL on ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW) is my 306th DXCC entity confirmed on LoTW, out of a total of 317 worked. The QSO was made using the PSK63 digital mode and the story of the contact can be read here.

A QSL from Pat for a French shortwave listener for his 3B7FA activation.

I also worked VK9WA, Willis Island, in November, as DXCC #316. Just last week, I am pretty sure I had a QSO with FT4XU on Kerguelen Island, although I'm not 100% certain of the contact because of QSB and QRM. If the QSO is confirmed, that would be DXCC #317.

Currently I am chasing another possible All-Time New One (ATNO) in the form of K5P on Palmyra Island, but the chase is proving difficult because I have not heard them yet! This dxpedition to the very rare DX entity of Palmyra (#2 on Europe's most wanted list) is using vertical antennas, and so far only the big stations in Ireland have heard and worked them, including EI6IL and EI2CN. Ark EI9KC worked them from the EI1Y contest station near Naas in Kildare.

I hope to hear them at some stage - if I can hear them, I will call them. Around 5-6pm local time seemed to provide the best opportunity on 20 metres CW.

Patrice 3B8FA.

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!

FT5ZM Amsterdam Island confirmed on LoTW

Today I received confirmation of ten band slots from the FT5ZM Amsterdam Island dxpedition which took place in the spring of this year. I'm delighted to see a 40m CW slot in there too. And in among all the FT5ZM QSLs there is also a confirmation from FR4NT, Cyril on Reunion Island, for our 80m SSB QSO last week. Delighted with that.

The FT5ZM QSLs brings my total number of countries confirmed on Logbook of the World to 292, out of 306 worked.

Another milestone reached - over 100 DXCC confirmed on digi

Over the past couple of months, I've been watching as the number of DXCC confirmed on digital modes has been slowly creeping up on Logbook of the World. Because I am only an occasional digi user, my total was much lower than other modes. But recently I've been doing a lot of dabbling in digital, including RTTY, PSK and JT65. And the effort has finally borne fruit.

My total number of QSLs on digital is now 102

A few days ago, I saw my total number of QSLs hit 99. I needed just one more to get me over the line. However, next time I logged in it was 102!!! That was helped by my stint last night on JT65, which saw me working Brazil and Japan for the first time on that mode. The Japanese station confirmed our QSO on LoTW overnight!

Below you can see highlighted the three QSLs which brought me from 99 to 102. CT3MD Madeira Islands made it #100 with RTTY. This was followed by TI3EDM in Costa Rica on PSK31, and #102 was my JT65 QSO with JA3EGY, made with about eight watts on JT65.

Very happy to receive XR0ZR Juan Fernandez LoTW confirmations

I have just received QSLs via Logbook of the World for my four QSOs with XR0ZR, Juan Fernandez. This is my 284th DXCC confirmed via LoTW. I am particularly thrilled to receive confirmation for my 80 metres CW QSO. That was an incredible distance to work DX using my dog-legged compromise inverted v antenna. I worked them at 7.46am on 18th November 2013. It was one of my most memorable QSOs on the HF bands!!

I participated in the IRTS 2 metres counties contest today from the home QTH and had a bit of fun. I made 31 QSOs with 11 different counties. I used my Icom IC-746 and my Watson W300 vertical. My best QSO was with Co. Galway.

A short video about importing LoTW QSLs into Logger32

I had only just uploaded today's log to ARRL's Logbook of the World and when I logged into my account I noticed that three of the QSOs had already been confirmed. So I decided to make a short video showing the process of importing LoTW QSLs into the Logger32 programme. 

The above is a brief self explanatory video on importing LoTW confirmed QSLs into Logger32. The error that popped up during the import is explained in the short video below:

Another milestone . . . 200 DXCC confirmed on 17 metres

I've just reached another milestone as a radio amateur. I checked my Logbook of the World account today to find that I've just hit 200 countries confirmed on the 17 metre (18 Mhz) band. This is the second band on which I have reached or passed two centuries, having previously hit 200 on 20 metres. 17 metres is one of my favourite bands, and there is quite often excellent DX to be worked there. It is also a "safe haven" at the weekends when there are contests on.

FT5ZM update: I am still trying to work them on 15m and 17m. Unfortunately their signal on these bands is strongest during the day when I am at work. I have tried them on 15m CW for several mornings, including this morning, with no success. However, I made up for that disappointment by working them on 12m SSB, my sixth slot.

Two milestones reached on Logbook of the World

I have reached two milestones this week on ARRL's Logbook of the World. I have just hit the magic 200 countries confirmed on Phone, and 250 confirmed on CW. My 250th CW confirmation was from H44G, Solomon Islands. My 200th confirmation on Phone was EP3PK in Iran, for a QSO on 20m SSB. That remains my one and only QSO with Iran.

A couple of milestones reached

I just worked HB0/DJ2IA on 15 metres CW and noticed that 15m was the only band on which I didn't have Liechtenstein. On checking my log progress, I discovered that HB0 is in fact the 250th country I have worked on 15 metres.

This follows hot on the heels of recently passing 200 countries CONFIRMED on 20 metres on ARRL's Logbook of the World. I remember when I was struggling towards 100 confirmations on each of the HF bands. I think 20 metres was the first to come, and I remember in particular that 80 metres was a real struggle. As you can see, I am still sitting on 106 QSLs on that band. But that's okay, because I am only using a Butternut vertical on that band.

The next target to be achieved, by the looks of my LoTW account, is 200 confirmations on phone mode. I am currently on 195. So just five more to go. And that could take months!

On eQSL I have a total of 173 countries confirmed.

Some nice confirmations via Logbook of the World

You know the old saying about buses in Dublin. You wait ages for one, and then two come along at once! That might have been the case with my Logbook of the World confirmations when I logged in yesterday to find a rake of nice QSLs waiting for me. Here is a summary:

9M4SLL - Spratly Islands - four slots confirmed, the best one by far being 80m CW!
KL1V - Alaska - 30m CW - worked on Tuesday last as a brand new one on that band!
9X0NH - Rwanda - 30m/17m CW - two confirmations from this rare African country.
PJ2/K8ND - Curacao - 17m/10m CW - two new slots confirmed.
T30PY - Western Kiribati - two bands confirmed for this rare DXCC.
J38A - Grenada - 80m CW - a new country confirmed on 80 metres.
4A4A - Revilla Gigedo - confirmation of two slots from a March 2011 dxpedition.
T6MO - Afghanistan - a new QSL for 80m. He was a new DXCC on that band.
TZ6BB - Mali - 17m CW. New slot confirmed.

Starting to get back to normal maybe?

After a prolonged period dealing with all the issues around the publication of my second book, I have started to become a wee bit more active again on HF. During the past week I have been catching up with the PT0S Dxpedition to St. Peter & Paul Rocks in the Atlantic, and I'm glad to say that I now have nine band slots, making me the third best EI behind EI9KC on 11 slots and EI2CN on 10 slots. I still need 15m SSB and 10m CW so hopefully I will get those slots before the expedition finishes.

A photo of my old Butternut HF-6V

Last night I put some RF into the Butternut vertical on 80 metres for only the second or third time since last winter. I also added a 66-foot radial under it (last year's two radials were both damaged by the lawn mower HI HI!!) and managed to get an SWR of 1.5:1 on the CW portion of the band. And that's where I caught some nice action in the early hours of this morning.

In the space of about an hour, after midnight, I managed to nab FOUR new DXCCs on the 80 metre band. They were, as follows: VP2V/AA7V, British Virgin Islands; P4/R5GA, Aruba; PJ2/DF9LJ, Curacao; HT9H, Nicaragua (regular prefix YN). Because the Butternut is only a 26-foot tall vertical, ground mounted in the middle of a housing estate, it does not hear half as well as an elevated dipole cut for that band. Hence it is difficult for me to work new DXCCs on it. So it turned out to be a really great night, bringing my total DXCC worked on 80 metres to 118. It's a band I would dearly love to do more on, and to enjoy more regularly, but it is a big challenge for me. Last winter was very rewarding because I got over the 100 DXCC mark for the first time. This winter I will just try to nab more new ones, and try to bring my LoTW confirmations on 80m from 89 up over 100 hopefully.

I have one issue with the Butternut that is troubling me though. After a while, the SWR suddenly jumps from 1.5:1 to about 3:1, and I have to adjust the linear. Then it will, after some time, come back to 1.5:1 again. At least 3:1 is manageable with the Acom 1000 but it's annoying me that the SWR is changing during the course of the night. If there's anybody with any suggestions as to why that might be happening, or indeed with any experience of Butternut SWR issues, I'd be glad to hear from you.

In the meantime, I got some nice contacts this morning, including Lord Howe Island again, this time on 17m CW. VK9/OH3JR was just in the back of the box, and working simplex, so there was considerable QRM. But I heard him calling "EI2?" and got him logged after a minute. PJ7I on 12m SSB was a new band slot and C6AUM in the Bahamas on 10m CW just a short time ago gave me DXCC #210 on that band. Here's my band stats now:

BAND/WORKED/CONFIRMED
160m: 64 / 47
80m: 118/94
40m: 177/130
30m: 188/127
20m: 239/169
17m: 237/149
15m: 224/130
12m: 214/133
10m: 210/134
6m: 72/53

V73NS Marshall Islands QSO confirmed on LoTW

I've just checked my ARRL Logbook of the World Account and I am delighted to see that V73NS has confirmed our recent QSO on 15m CW. This is a brand new DXCC for me, never worked before.

My confirmation from V79NS

Remember that LoTW counts towards DXCC credit. It is a great service, and it's generally easy to upload your log if you use a computer log and have internet access. That brings to 229 confirmed DXCC on LoTW alone, not counting QSL cards.

In the past week I have sent cards to 5W0XT, JG8NQJ/JD1, 3D2MM/MM, XX9E, VK9CS, VK9XS, 3D2C and FK8CE. It will be a great pleasure to see many of those cards coming back!