*DXPEDITION REPORT* 187DA/DX, Kenya

In early 2024, Dx Adventure Radio Club (DA-RC) member 26DA283 Jason undertook a highly successful dxpedition to the East African country of Kenya; an extremely rare DXCC on any guy’s radar.

Here’s a brief report of his experiences in this wonderfully rare equatorial DXCC—situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean—along with a series of proofs that were submitted to DA-RC HQ at the conclusion of the expedition.

Hi guys!

Now home in England, let me say a huge thanks to all that worked me as either 187DA283 or 187DA/DX from the Republic of Kenya in the month of February, 2024.

For me, it was one helluva dx adventure with so many fond memories from my downtime and day-to-day experiences!

The country I was QRV from, Kenya, is famed for its scenic landscapes and vast wildlife preserves.

It’s a DXCC bordered by the Indian Ocean and Somalia to the east, Ethiopia and South Sudan to the north, and Uganda and Tanzania, west and south respectively.

I was super excited to provide the opportunity to the world’s DX Hunter population to add it to their collection of worked and confirmed DXCC.

I’m quite fortunate in that my lovely fiancée lives in Kenya, on the outskirts of Nairobi—the capital and largest city of Kenya—and it’s here where my ham friendly accommodation lies.

Luckily, the lodgings I TX from in the city’s remote highlands is over 6000 ft. ASL and this aided performance on the DX front.

When not on the radio, I did some travelling and it was such a memorable experience.

My itinerary suggests that I went to the coast for a week to the beautiful place of Diani in southern Kenya.

Here I got to swim in the beautiful Indian Ocean for the very first time.

Apart from this, the highlight of the trip, however, had to be my visit to the Nairobi National Park.

Seeing all the beautiful animals such as  black rhinos, giraffes, elephants, zebras and lions in their natural environment—and not caged up in some zoo—was spectacular!

Fortunately, the WX was awesome for the whole trip; never really dipping under 25 degrees.

In fact, there was only 1 day of rain the whole trip.

I was active in Kenya—on the East Africa coast—for days, spending many hours behind the microphone, from a place I regard as my second home.

My dxpedition station was made up of a Yaesu FT-891 transceiver with a 200 watts output, and a Sirio 2016 antenna, and it did a perfect job for me.

Conditions on the eleven meter band weren’t great but I still managed to achieve over a 1000 contacts ITL.

This was due to some terrific bursts of propagation and many hours spent listening.

To access key DX markets, it was necessary, tiring, yet very rewarding to activate 187DA/DX past midnight on most nights.

This earned me some nice contacts into South and North America countries in particular.

Please listen out for me in August when I’ll be doing a road trip across Kenya.

Here, I’ll be activating the northern hemisphere part of the country, and the southern hemisphere, the same day.

I’ll also be QRV from the Rift Valley and the Maasi Mara and also the National Safari Park in Nairobi.

I hope to hear you all again soon.

73s from Jason, 187DA283 and 187DA/DX