Following their successful journey to Guyana under the callsign 8R7X, the team is now setting their sights on a new destination in the Pacific region. Their next DXPpedition will take them to the Marshall Islands, scheduled for February 2025.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. Additionally, the team is in the process of launching a website, which will soon be accessible.

Ranked #100 globally and #58 in Europe, the Marshall Islands hold significant allure, particularly for lowband enthusiasts worldwide.

Follow the team’s social media channels to stay updated on this thrilling adventure.

8R7X – Guyana 2024

I am pleased to say the 8R7X cards went out on time and you should see them starting to arrive in your mailboxes either today or tomorrow.

12 mailbags to 67 Countries by Royal Mail Priority Air Service.

VK5FIL Expedition to OC-261/VKFF-0175 DX News

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For anyone interested, I had a lengthy interview with Eric Guth 4Z1UG/WA6IGR for his QSO Today Podcast.

You can find the interview on this link, scroll down to episode 495. If you are still awake at the end, please let me know any feedback 😉 Also be sure to click on the show notes button (beneath my image) for more useful information.

QSO TODAY AMATEUR RADIO PODCAST – QSO Today Podcast

Credit to Nodir EY8MM for the photograph. 

As the 2023 – 2024 financial tax year comes to an end, it is time to take a look at how our mailing facility has worked over the last year. Overall 28,936 items of mail were posted at a cost of £26,359.90. We post QSL Direct cards, bureau parcels and magazines using the various products as shown in the table below. With 13,751 more items posted this year, with Solar Cycle 25 this last 12 months providing much increased propagation on HF.
DX’pedition QSL costs are very competitive as always and we welcome talking to DX teams about mailing your QSL cards in the future.

The past 12 months though have been financially very challenging, postage costs up 10%, pulp paper costs up 15% and Customs charges across the board on QSL bulk shipments in and out through customs have hit us very heavily. We have tried to keep our QSL charges down to the lowest we can.

Standard postal rates have increased significantly in most countries worldwide due to the dwindling number of letters posted globally as people use electronic technology which has largely replaced the postal system in recent years. This means that the postal costs are spread over much lower volumes both nationally and worldwide and THIS is the driver of increased postal costs. In our hobby we still use the mail system to ship our QSL cards and therefore we must expect that increase to hit us. As an example, Royal Mail letter volumes in the last 12 years have dropped from 14.3 bn down to 7.3 bn per year.

While most people use OQRS (Thank you) we still get a number of incoming direct letters. The problem being is that most of the incoming letters do not include the correct QSL costs, because most fail to read either my QSL policy or the DXpedition QSL policy. This increases our costs further and also costs us time as we have to email to let people know that they failed to QSL correctly. My advice is use OQRS ONLY!

More customs charges on Bureau shipments outgoing continue, many Bureaus refuse to accept the shipments and we will not guarantee any cards requested using the IARU Bureau system. Customs demand a recipient name on these shipments but the IARU refuse to provide this for GDPR reasons. Well, this will inevitably close the Bureau system as we know it going forward. Someone has to take responsibility for this if the Bureau cards are to be securely sent and received by the IARU Bureaus. It is now completely out of our hands. If you want a QSL card use the direct option on OQRS is the only advice i can give.

Enjoy your DX! We as a team promise to provide you with a QSL service that works for both the DX’er and the DXpedition Team.

Its almost time for Gerben’s trip to Pitcairn as VP6G. Please see the information and link to his website below;

Operator: Gerben PG5M
Dates: April 4 – 14
Bands: 40-10m
Modes: CW and FT8
Antenna’s: DX Commander (40-10m) and a Hexbeam (20-10m)
I will run two stations (if antenna situation permits), primarily CW and additionally FT8 (using MSHV).

Website; www.dx.to/vp6g/
QSL manager: Charles M0OXO

Thanks, Gerben – PG5M

EIDXG are now QRV as 7P8EI will from Lesotho. Following their other successful Dxpeditions 7Q7EI, 9N7EI, 5V7EI, V26EI etc, this is one Team not to miss!

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