Today, I became a member of The DX Century Club (DX is shorthand for distance). I have confirmed contacts with amateur radio stations in 100 distinct geographic and political entities in the official DXCC List. It took me a little over a year to make all of the needed contacts, gleaned from over 1660 total confirmed contacts.

All of the following contacts were made using the FT8 digital mode, with no more than 100 Watts. My antenna is a G5RV, a simple dipole antenna with 30 feet of ladder line, and a 6-inch diameter “ugly” balun with 10 turns of the feed line. The antenna and transceiver are pictured below:

This demonstrates that big towers, antennas, and high power are not needed to work the world.

My First 100 Confirmed Countries for DXCC

Alaska	China	Ghana	Luxembourg	St. Lucia
Albania	Columbia	Greece	Madeira Islands	St. Vincent
Andorra	Costa Rica	Guadeloupe	Malta	San Andres Island
Anguilla	Cuba	Guatemala	Mauritania	Sardinia
Argentina	Croatia	Guernsey	Mexico	Scotland
Asiatic Russia	Curacao	Hawaii	Monaco	Serbia
Australia	Cyprus	Hungary	Morocco	Slovak Republic
Austria	Czech Republic	Iceland	Nambia	Slovenia
Azores	Denmark	Indonesia	Netherlands	Spain
Balearic Islands	Dominica	Ireland	New Caledonia	Sweden
Barbados	Dominican Republic	Israel	New Zealand	Switzerland
Belarus	Ecuador	Italy	Northern Ireland	Trinidad and Tobago
Belgium	El Salvador	Japan	Norway	Turkey
Belize	England	Jersey	Panama	Ukraine
Bosnia-Herzegovina	Estonia	Kazakhstan	Poland	United Arab Emirates
Brazil	European Russia	Kenya	Portugal	United States
Bulgaria	Federal Republic of Germany	Kuwait	Puerto Rico	Uruguay
Canada	Fiji Islands	Latvia	Republic of South Africa	Virgin Islands
Canary Islands	Finland	Lebanon	Rodriguez Island	Venezuela
Chile	France	Lithuania	Romania	Wales

I will continue to make more contacts to achieve the many endorsements (e.g. 100 entities on a single band). I already have 75 contacts just on the 40-meter band.