On the 1st January 2025, I renamed my wsjtx_log.adi file and told JT-Bridge to only show me QSOs from 2025, effectively meaning that every station I heard using WSJT-X was flagged as new.
After I’d made a few QSOs, I wondered how long it would take to work 100 DXCC entities. After I’d been operating for a while, I thought about doing it a different way and instead decided to work 100 DXCC entities in just 100 QSOs. I was away for a couple of days so put this on hold until I got home.
I renamed my log file again, reset the date in JT-Bridge and started again on the 4th January 2025.
On the morning of the 5th January, I made my 100th QSO (PJ4R on 15m RTTY) which was also my 100th DXCC entity, meaning I’d managed it in just over 24 hours.
I realise that by being very selective in who I worked, this isn’t a huge challenge (especially as 99% of them were using FTx) but I found it quite fun to do and it did take a little work, switching between bands, listening for new countries and then trying to work them. I missed out on a few that would have been nice to have. ZL1VAH was a huge signal on 40m but he went QRT just after I saw him and I missed DP0GVN in Antarctica as well. They were active and working stations and showed that they’d heard me on PSKReporter but I just couldn’t get through.
On 80m I was using a random doublet with an AGC smarttuner and 30 watts, on all other bands I ran 100 watts. I used my SteppIR UrbanBeam which is a folded rotary dipole on 40m and 30m and a two element beam from 20m through to 10m.
Here’s an approximate map (click it for a larger version) of the 100 entities I worked and some are noticeable by their absence, for example Canada. I did hear a few Canadians but just didn’t manage to work them.
80m – Blue (with triangle)
40m – Red (with triangle)
30m – Purple (with circle)
20m – Orange (with triangle)
17m – Orange (with circle)
15m – Light blue (with triangle)
12m – White (with circle)
10m – Green (with triangle)
Here’s the full list of countries worked.
