XW4YY - Laos
DXpedition to a landlocked communist country 🙂
Every year at the beginning of September, I fly away to celebrate my birthday … 🙂
June, 2025 - an initial idea
I started searching for a location for a new DXpedition at the beginning of summer 2025.Â
It was hell the last year, when I wasn’t sure until the very last moment which country I would be able to operate in. Even more, I received T2M only when I was already on the way to Fiji (3D2YY) and applied and got YJ0YY already during my transition, when I was frustrated with not getting responses from Tuvalu. So, I flew out with 3D2YY only but managed to get T2M and Yj0YY on the way. It is fun but stressful fun 🙂
This time, I hoped to avoid the unnecessary stress. “I will prepare well in advance”, I thought. Aha!
Location
As usual, the new destination must meet a few criteria to be selected:
- To be DX-enough to justify the trip to be designated as a DXpedition 🙂
- I must not have been to the country before. DXing is the main goal, but exploration of new frontiers is always luring
- Blue ocean with warm waters … Well, I had to drop that as a criterion this time … Laos is a land-locked country 🙂 It is a interesting challenge of its own in regards to portable antennas and their DX performance
- It must be within reach of a solo DXer to obtain licenses and permits between working Zoom calls or other real-life activities. Tickets, hotels, money, weight/luggage, etc.
- Practical possibility to have QTH outside of cities for antennas, and hopefully not disastrous local QRN
Based on that, I had to drop out a few contenders:
- Brunei: Already in the New Year 2025, I tried to escape to Brunei and even had pretty deep discussions with the local regulator. However, I didn’t succeed then, but I kept in mind the location. However, I had to drop it out because I couldn’t find any reasonable location to operate – only hotels in the cities – huge QRM and no real options for antennas. Deeper digging could bring other options but I couldn’t find any suitable
- Palau: My long and still unreached diving love Palau – I had to drop out as well because all hotels or potential QTH locations are either resorts with no reasonable antenna options, and with potentially high local QRN. Or they are way too expensive to be OKed for a solo DXpedition … and still without options for antennas and potential high local QRN. I am aware of one nice location with antennas that other hams are using as a base. The base seems to be very nice, but not for me … – it is like fishing in a fish pond – not in a wild river … – most of the fun of the DXpedition is gone 🙂
So, let it be Laos this time 🙂
License and import permit:
- Of course, that was the most challenging part – to obtain the license and the permit
- First, I contacted a few guys with XW callsigns and asked for help. Among them: DK7PE, XW3DT, XW0LPÂ
- Eventually, Simon (XW0LP) shared the key contact: jedtavongmpt@gmail.com
From the very first email to Jedtavong to the moment I received the scans of the papers, it took two months and ten days. During this time, I personally lost 5 weeks in responding due to work and another DXpedition, 8Q7YY.
However, even when you obtain the right contact, papers and, most importantly, payment, still take time. As DK7PE mentioned in his email, the payment was the biggest struggle for him as well
Eventually, the easiest way to pay for the license and for the import permit was to hire a person, which we did with Simon who needed to pay for the prolongation of his XW license too.
The problem is that nobody gives you a definite schedule or timing. So, I mentally gave up on the XW expedition even after I eventually transferred the funds to Simon USD, and Simon paid the helper in the local currency. It all sounded like the permits would come too late for me.
However, on Friday, August 22nd, I received positive news, and everything suddenly started moving again. I purchased the plane tickets. I booked the hotel before, but the sum wasn’t large and I still could cancel it without a loss anyway. So, I was ready to fly to XW.
Luggage and antennas
The luggage limits define the DXpedition in practice 🙂
- Antennas
- Equipment setup
- Backup options
So, based on available plane ticket (Southern China Airlines) and their allowed 23 kg and extra 23 kg purchased, the resulting configuration of equipment was selected as:
- Icom 7300
- Two 13.4-meter fiberglass masts
- Only 1/4-wave verticals with raised radials for all bands – no Moxons (not enough weight), no VDAs (not enough weight and far from the sea water and decent ground)
- Tent and 120-meter power cord. I am still very afraid of the local QRN from the LED lamps, solar panels that can kill all fun. So, I am bringing several kilos of extra stuff to have a munition to fight against the QRN with a distance if I have to fight
- No local remote operation this time – only one laptop with me. Not enough weight
- Little or no spare wires – only enough for the grounds and 1/4-verticals
Entering Laos
Though I had papers with me, entering the country with 50 kg of metal and one spare T-shirt looks suspicious to external eyes. So, I wasn’t sure at all how it goes in Laos. But I was fortunate – only the box with the fiberglass tubes raised a question. The main bag, containing the transceiver and wires, didn’t draw any extra attention. I entered Laos easily.
The first thing you do, of course, getting wirelessly connected:
I couldn’t risk it, so I purchased 40 GB from Unitel and 35 GB from Lao. I didn’t have enough GBs in Vanuatu and suffered the last day.