This probably won’t impress K2OID, until I work North Korea, but I have reached a milestone in countries (entities) worked. I worked Mariana Island today for my 200th country. I’ve had a good month, with several new countries worked, Mongolia, Cameroon, Timor-Leste, Chatham Island and Kosovo.
I don’t spend much time chasing DX. I don’t watch spots very often, as I tend to forget, and I don’t read up on DX news, other than glancing at the “How’s DX” column in QST every month. I also just have a 1/4 wave vertical antenna for 40-10 meters. I can run up to 400 watts CW/FT8, and 600watts PEP on SSB, but usually don’t have the amp on. But I certainly have used it for some contacts.
So it is only 200 countries worked, not confirmed. Up until now, I have only used Logbook of the World to confirm contacts, and have DXCC endorsement of 150. At this moment, 178 are confirmed on LoTW. I believe I have a handful of cards that I could have checked locally. I also just put in OQRS requests for several more. Some of these will get uploaded to LoTW first, then I will get a card as well.
When these are all processed, I probably will have near 190 confirmed. The remaining ones will require some type of direct contact with either the DX operator or a QSL Manager. I don’t quite understand it, as LoTW and/or OQRS seems like it would make their life much easier, but it is what it is. Maybe reliable internet access is an issue.
I may flag these as countries I’d like to work again, but I probably will go through my records again, look up the QSL requirements for each one and start sending out QSLs. I shouldn’t complain, it was the way it always was. But it probably explains why I never bothered for 45 years.
