RDA – Hunting Russian Districts

Since I started as a shortwave listener back in the 1960s and from 1972 on as a licensed HAM, I have been interested hunting for the difficult to work Amateur Radio Awards. This includes, at least in the higher classes, the Russian District Award “RDA”.

The “RDA” (Russian District Award) is an International Award Program with the goal of attracting interest in Amateur Radio through the communication with various Districts in the Russian Federation. The “RDA” program is established to encourage confirmed contacts with the greatest variety of areas in Russia. The Awards includes entities designated by the Russian Federation. These include a total of 2.642 different districts inside 85 different Oblasts. There are currently 6 different certificate awards varying in difficulty and complexity, and two plaque awards available for “Honor Roll” and “#1 Honor Roll”. With it’s own modern Online confirmation system, similar to the american LotW, it is “state of the art” and made hunting a real smile.


The hunt for RDA districts has a very special charm, because 90% of it (estimated) takes place in CW! Today the RDA 2000 was finally in the mailbox and it will have a special place on the wall in my shack.

60 Years manned Space Flight

2021 will mark the 60th anniversary of the first manned flight into space, one of the most important milestones in the history of all mankind. The first manned flight took place on April 12, 1961. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one complete turn in Earth orbit and returned safely to Earth.

For this anniversary the special call signs R1994YU, R1996VK, R2014NC, RG21DS, RU21DS, RA60YG – RZ60YG, R60MCC, R60CTC, R60YAG and several others are in the air and the Miller-DX-Club “M-DX-C” has developed an interesting Award program. The period is from April 12th to 25th, 2021.

Detailed information on the projects can be found on the “M-DX-C” website.

ARRL DXCC Challenge Award – Sticker 2500 arrived

Nice surprise: The ARRL DXCC Challenge Medallion 2500 was in the mailbox today. Just a small round sticker, but so much time and work went into it. Challenge 2500 means an average of 250 DXCC Entities on each of the 10 Bands from 160m to 6m. The next and final level is 3000, but I’m out of business now. Unfortunately it is more difficult nowadays to get the confirmation for a QSO than to make the contact itself. Not to mention the cost of requesting QSL cards or LotW confirmations. Now it has a dignified place on the wall and will remind me of so many nice contacts.

Meeting VK6MK & VK6KCC (VK6NC Club)

During my trip across Western Australia this January – February 2020 I had the pleasure to meet some Ham-Radio friends I knew from Hf contacts and from the EME Group.

Stuart, VK6MK, and his wife Jennifer live in Australind, a beautiful small town south of Perth. I met Stuart several times on Hf and we spent some nice hours in his beautiful home. Thanks for your kind hospitality folks!


Alex, VK6KCC, is one of the 2m EME gang, living north of Perth. He is member of the NCRG, Northern Corridor Radio Group from Western Australia. This Group is located within Whiteman Park and is home of the Neil Penfold State Amateur Radio Centre (NPSARC) and antenna farm. VK6ANC, one of the club callsigns, is very active on the bands. VK6NC, the other callsign, now appears in most of the big contests.  The Group is very well equipped and active from 1.8 MHz to 10 GHz. Thank you Alex for the nice discussions and explaining us your Clubstation!

Baltic Way 30 – Short Term Award

This Memorial Award is announced by Eesti Raadioamatööride Ühing (ERAÜ), Latvijas Radio Amatieru Līga (LRAL) and Lietuvos Radijo Mėgėjų Draugija (LRMD) to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Baltic Way – a peaceful protest against the Molotov – Ribbentrop pact signed on 23rd of August 1939, dividing the independent countries of Eastern Europe in spheres of influence between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. On the same date in 1989 more than 2 million people across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to form a 675 km long human chain – the Baltic Way, showing their fight for independence.

Although this Award is not difficult to get, it has a special meaning for me. A few weeks ago, I visited all three Baltic States and drove part of the way from Vilnius to Tallin via Riga.
This memorial stone is located in front of Cathedral Square in Vilnius and contains the word “stebuklas”. This was the starting point of the huge human chain between Vilnius and Tallinn on August 23, 1989. Nearly two million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians protested hand in hand, 650 kilometers in length, for the independence of their own states.

70th Birthday of URE

This year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Radio Club “Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles”, URE. In order to commemorate this important event, the Spanish IARU member society, announces a Special Prize and Awards to all licensed radio amateurs and SWL from all over the world.

Contacts can be made between April 1st, 2019 and June 9th, 2019 using any mode or band from 160 meters to 6 meters with the 14 different AM70 special stations. Further informations are here.

SX60RAAG – 60th Birthday of RAAG

The special event station SX60RAAG will be on air from December 1 to 31, 2018 on all HF bands & modes, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Radio Amateur Association of Greece – RAAG. A dedicated award program will support this operation. As usual nowadays the colorful Awards with pictures of Greece will be issued for free and electronically in PDF format.

YL100x – Latvia’s 100th Birthday

On November 18, 2018 Latvia celebrated its 100th Birthday. For this reason Radio Amateurs in Latvia activated five special callsigns with the prefix YL100 – one from each of 4 Latvia’s historical regions and one from the capital city Riga – to commemorate this event between November 1st to 18th, 2018. Special awards for working YL100 stations on different bands and modes are issued. More informations are here.

QSO with K1JT

Today K1JT, Prof. Dr. Joe Taylor, Nobel Prize Winner and father of the WSJT Software Package, showed up on 17m in FT8 mode. It was just a short and “digital” contact but very glad to meet this great personality and Radio Amateur on the band.

ARRL DXCC Challenge Award arrived

After waiting for almost exactly 4 months, the postman has finally delivered the long-awaited parcel today: Mail from the ARRL Headquater in Newington, USA, my DXCC-Challenge-Plaque with Endorsement 2.000.

2018_Challenge2000As the name says, this is plaque is a real challenge and a hardcore Award for the dedicated HF-Radio Amateur. The DXCC Challenge Award is given for worked and confirmed at least 1,000 DXCC band-entities on any amateur bands, 160 through 6 meters (except 60 meters). It’s a massive wooden plate with a blue-gold-etched plate on top. The Endorsement 2,000 means  an average of 200 confirmed DXCC Entities on every of those 10 bands.

To reach all these band points countless hours in front of the station were required but it was no less tough to get the necessary confirmations. Thanks to the help of the Logbook Of The World, things have become a bit easier in recent years. It would be nice if all stations finally could use this opportunity.

Next stop wants to be 2,500 – that might take a while and it’s great to have a next step in DXing.