July 13, 2025

This Week in Amateur Radio

North America's Premiere Amateur Radio News Magazine

Vatican

Ham radio expedition to remote island includes Vatican representative (Kentucky)

For the last two weeks of January, the Vatican City State flag flapped in the strong sea breeze on Clipperton Island, one of the most isolated islands in the world.

Francesco Valsecchi, an Italian who operates the amateur radio call sign of Vatican City, HV0A, brought the flag. It was the first time the Vatican flag has ever been unfurled on such a mission, and the first time Vatican City made radio contact with the island.

Valsecchi and more than a dozen others traveled to the desolate coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean as part of an international expedition for long-distance amateur radio operators and listeners.

Known as DXing, hobbyists seek to receive and identify distant radio signals or make two-way radio contact with distant stations.

There are 340 distinct “entities” all over the world, mostly independent countries and geographically separate islands. And the pinnacle of DXing is receiving confirmed contact with all 340 of those entities, earning a coveted place on the #1 Honor Roll.

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