The Dx Adventure Radio Club (DA-RC) is excited to introduce to you 79DA353 Philip from the Republic of the Philippines in Southeast Asia.

A professional and friendly guy, 79DA353 Philip (See pictured right) has 30 years’ experience in radio communications as a licensed ham operator.

He’s also a keen 11m DX Hunter and has successfully compiled more than 100 DXCC during this time to satisfy DA membership requirements in the DX Hunter category.

[ See: https://www.delta-alfa.com/about/membership/  ]

79DA353 Philip’s beautiful country, the Philippines, is an archipelagic one of about 7641 islands.

In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

According to Google Earth, it is situated on the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire and is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south.

The Philippines (79 Division) shares maritime borders with Taiwan (155) to the north, Japan (25) to the northeast, Palau (134) to the east and southeast, Indonesia (91) to the south, Malaysia (113/58) to the southwest, Vietnam (242) to the west, and China (203) to the northwest.

79DA353 Philip resides on Mindoro Island which is part of the Luzon’s Coastal Islands IOTA Group.

Known to be the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines, this island is located off the southwestern coast of Luzon and northeast of Palawan.

This picturesque island shares the reference OC-244 with a large collection of other potential island dxstinations, such as Catanduanes, Lahuy, Rapurapu and Tablas.

[ See: https://www.iota-world.org/islands-on-the-air/iota-groups-islands/group/1002.html -244 ]

79DA353 Philip’s home QTH is in in Malibago, a barangay in the municipality of Pola, in the province of Oriental Mindoro.

Tourism is a lucrative business here, with locations such as Apo Reef National Park, Lubang Island, Puerto Galera, Sabang Beach and Mount Halcon attracting thousands of sightseers each year.

Puerto Galera’s beaches are the island’s most known tourist attraction and are widely visited also.

An interesting point about Philip’s island is that it is also home to the endemic Tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo.

Shown right, this is a bovine related to the water buffalo (carabao) and is said endangered species.

79DA353 Philip’s station consists of a modified Kenwood TS-440S transciever and various dx-cessories, which include a desk microphone.

It’s a neat recipe for DX success when the band is open!

A double bazooka antenna—just a few meters from the sea—is a highly effective conduit to 11m dx and tunes up well on other bands also.

One of the advantages of this antenna, according to Philip, is its large bandwidth which makes it resonant over, pretty much, the entire 10/11m band!

79DA353 Philip works as a farmer, growing rice or palay (i.e. rice that hasn’t been husked).

He identifies antenna design and construction—particularly for 2m and HF bands—as a preferred past time.

Riding motor bikes and spending time with family and/or his pet ginger cat are also high on his agenda.

79DA353 Philip is QRV most days on the international call frequency—27.555 MHz USB—where his distinct CQ calls always attract attention.

He’s always keen to exchange QSL cards via his QSL Manager—43DA001 Darren—and looks forward to making many new friends with his new Delta-Alfa callsign in the years to come.

QSL INFOS

Via DA-RC HQ OC, PO Box 3140, Browns Plains LPO, Q, Australia, 4118