It’s All in the Cards! QSL Cards from Desecheo Island…Soon to be QRV After 17 Years!

DX Engineering has provided a range of equipment—including best-of-class DX Engineering coaxial cable assemblies—for the upcoming remote activation of this rare entity in January/February.

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Ready to record your first All-Time New One for 2026? You won’t have long to wait for the opportunity, but, rest assured, you won’t be alone in your pursuit.

The DXing year starts off in rousing fashion with the remote KP5/NP3VI activation of Desecheo Island—the 14^th Most Wanted DXCC Entity as of December 2025, per Club Log. The DXpedition is being done in collaboration with the Vieques Island Amateur Radio Club (NP3VI) and the Manyana DX Foundation.

(Image—KP5/NP3VI)

Two self-sustained Remote Deployable Units (RDUs) will be set up on Desecheo—a heavily restricted National Wildlife Refuge which has been administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1983. The RDUs, which will operate 24/7, were provided by the Manyana DX Foundation and Remote Ham Radio.

The KP5/NP3VI team plans to deploy the RDUs between Jan. 12-14 (weather permitting) and run the DXpedition for 30 days. This will mark the first activation of this uninhabited island 13 miles off the west coast of Puerto Rico since the 22-operator, 13-day K5D DXpedition in February 2009. That operation logged 115,590 SSB, CW, and Digital QSOs.

DX Engineering Joins the Effort

The goal of the 2026 Desecheo DXpedition is to provide operators worldwide with as many ATNOs as possible, according to the KP5/NP3VI team. To make this a reality, they will be relying on high-quality equipment provided by sponsor DX Engineering, including: