Bengt-Erik Norum, K7ADD

JA CQ Magazine and DX "Celebrities"

It’s been just over 90 days since I returned from E51AMF/E51ADD. The memories are still just as vividly and indelibly etched in my skull, but I haven’t been good about sharing them here. Instead of aiming for long-form updates, I endeavor to share snippets and may stumble upon inspiration along the way.

As I reflected on my return trip, this hobby has brought me in touch with incredible people around the world. Even given my meager number of contacts, I was floored by the outpouring of gratitude for new-bandmodes, ATNOs, or even just the opportunity to make a contact. While this was surprising to me, I understood it. I’ve done the ATNO dance a couple hundred times and totally get it.

Reflections on Radio and My Trip

As I departed Manihiki on the little Embrair 110, I found found myself reflecting on my time on the atoll, the people I met, my experiences, and my first real DXPedition. I scrambled to retain the incredibly positive and optimistic feelings I had.

This tiny little island has left an indelible mark on me and the time off the air will have a lasting effect, far beyond anything I had expected. In this context, I won’t expound on that topic to any great length, but there are a few things I’d like to share with DXers and DXPeditioners.

Magic Incantation to Redeem IRCs

Up until this DXPedition, I’d only received on IRC (International Reply Coupon) and simply passed it on to another JA who’s confirmation I wanted. With the flood of E51AMFQSL cards, I received a pile of IRCs and needed a mechanism to redeem them. Coincidentally, Dan – W7WA, posted to the Western Washington DX Club’s Yahoo Group (“reflector”) that he’d been successful doing so, last week. He shared the magic incantation:

On their touch screen ask the clerk to proceed as follows: Sales => More => Exchanges => Foreign IRC

E51AMF - K7ADD Confirmed

Having returned from E51AMF in the North Cook Islands, I was incredibly excited to see my own confirmation. I used the expensive WiFi on-site to remote my home station’s Flex 6500 and make a barefoot RTTY contact. I gave myself bi-directional 599s, but the K7ADD me was probably 459 – took a number of repeated calls to make sure I felt right about logging it. That’s right, I gave myself an ATNO.

E51AMF - Thanks!

With E51AMF and E51ADD QRT for a few days, a quick update on operations, QSL’ing and next step are in order.

As E51AMF, I completed 7363 QSOs with 4224 unique stations over the course of approximately 25 days. Additionally, I logged just over 1000 QSOs from E51ADD on Rarotonga. I’m pleased with my effort and the results and learned an incredible amount in a compressed time.