In the month of May, 2024, popular Dx Adventure Radio Club (DA-RC) member 1DA007 Darek undertook a spirited and decidedly successful dxpedition to San Marino (36 Division).
San Marino is a diminutive European microstate and enclave within his own country, Italy; one which is always on the tongue for aspiring DX Hunters, regardless of their DXCC.
Here’s our guy’s dxpedition report from the fifth-smallest country in the world, and, one of Europe’s most rare DXCC entities…
For me, San Marino, just 50 km away from my home, was an excellent opportunity for adrenalin pumping dx adventure, given that activity here had been sporadic at best for over the last 5 or so years.
The idea for this activation, from one of the smallest independent states in the world, was born from the thought of giving my contribution to the much admired Delta-Alfa group, of which I’m proud to be part of.
The first thing I did was contact local amateur radio ops.
These guys helped me both find and secure a suitable place for the activity; with appropriate take-offs and permissions inside a DXCC where most movements are monitored closely by authorities and space is limited.
The rest was all up to me!
With just two days available from this attractive DXstination, I was quite worried that the propagation—not always favourable on 27 MHz as we all know—would not be on my side.
The first day of the 36DA/DX activity, however, went very well.
The conditions, although not strong, allowed me to make many QSOs and the Clusters, I understand, were overflowing with spots and positive reports.
My station—located inside the car but with an antenna mounted nearby—worked without any anomaly.
I was extremely happy as it was the first time I’d used an antenna built by myself in such an important DX event.
From my elevated position on the northeastern side of the Apennine Mountains, many stations from South (SA) and North America (NA) and some stations from Asia (AS) and Oceania (OC) made the log.
Many of these guys celebrated a “New One” which was a satisfying feeling indeed.
I was delighted, also, that many European QSOs were achieved via the backscatter phenomena.
The second day of on-air activity from San Marino was demoralizing.
Despite 14 hours of monitoring the international call frequency—27.555 MHz USB and regular calls, only 64 contacts were added to the log during this period.
On my part, it took immense determination and discipline to remain active because staying in the cold in a car for so many hours—even when there’s no propagation—is difficult.
Fortuitously, I had an opportunity to be QRV also on the third day…
The eleven meter band propagation at this time, thank goodness, was very generous, especially at the European level.
However, there was no shortage of stations from as far away as New Zealand (41 Division) which was very exciting.
In conclusion, this DA/DX dxpedition was a positive experience indeed, and, on many levels.
I want to thank so much the beautiful people I met in San Marino as—without them—this dx adventure wouldn’t have occurred.
I also want to acknowledge members of my Delta-Alfa group for their support.
This was my first experience, so I needed help with many things and the support was much appreciated.
It was particularly rewarding to deploy a home-built antenna in this event—and looking at the final log and the challenging propagation over this period of time—I’m really satisfied with how it worked.
Apart from the internet connection, the rest of the equipment also functioned well and without any malfunctions.
I slept little hours this weekend to be able to achieve the third day of activation and am relieved that this allowed me to log a few more QSOs.
I thank all radio friends for your participation in this DX event and apologise that I wasn’t able to hear everyone who answered my call.
Overall, it was a wonderful and very positive experience that I’d be happy to repeat from this or another rare or most wanted DXCC entity in the future.
Leave a Reply