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 selection
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
The key is not to overpay for the luggage, thus:
- The 13.4-meter fiberglass poles are ordered for a specific 1.2m height when collapsed, so that two poles with wires and other components fit into the allowed 158-cm luggage limits. Otherwise, it would be large-sized luggage that would increase the transportation cost and even limit the shipping in some directions
28.Aug.2025 - 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.
I installed the Loca app even before flying into Laos. Thus, when I got the mobile internet, I was in a taxi via the app in a couple of minutes. XXI century in the way I like it.
The city center is surprisingly dark after sunset.
Get your cash ready. Hardly anywhere are the cards accepted. But ATMs are everywhere … – so, just a cash withdrawal commission. Or, yes, when they accept cards, they add 3% commission anyway. So, in one way or another, you lose on the transactions.
Your mind tries to assign categories in terms of what it is already familiar with… So, Vientiane resembles Thailand, with French influence. Thus, before plunging into the village life far from any civilization, I walked around to see the capital.
By the way, the city is located on one bank of the Mekong River, and Thailand is situated on the other.Â
The next morning, I spent updating this website and getting snacks for the remote area hideaway.
30.Aug.2025 - first evening of operations
Pick up from my hotel from Vientiane center wasn’t smooth – I waited at my hotel; the pickup car waited at another … – eventually, I ordered a taxi, which was the same price – about 28 USD.
Finding the location – the eco-hotel/QTH – wasn’t too easy because it is a hidden gem 🙂
But I had a special map. Google Maps isn’t special enough to bring you to the right spot 🙂
And of course, the most fragile moment – testing the SWR and even more critical moment – checking the QRN… All solar panels and LED lamps on the property were switched off to this moment.
The result – not too bad at all!Â
- About S5-S6 on 20m
- About S6-S7 on 40m
- Starting with S3-S5 on 15m, it grew to S8-S9 after sunset. I haven’t had time to inspect and analyse, but it is a clear indication that not everything air-polluting and QRN-creating was switched off
Well, for the first evening, the results were more than satisfactory, as they could have been terrible or worse…Â
And I still remember when the power supply just died. So, let’s hope for the best and enjoy the moment 🙂
31.Aug.2025 - the first morning
- The electricity was cut off at night. Thus, no FT8 overnight
- It is the rainy season, and it has been raining and raining. I am wet or very wet most of the time. But trying up in 1 hour, if no rain again
- The eco-hotel people are very relaxed. Very. It is their home, and I am the only visitor here until Tuesday
- I re-tuned the 40/15-meter antenna. And put down the 20-meter antenna to add more elements for other bands
- Last night, I discovered that the unskilled noise on 15 meters was coming from my own room lighting 🙂 So, after I switched it off completely, the noise dropped to below S5. Nice
- A small orange cat is slowly but steadily making me his protector (or servant 🙂
Most of the day was spent tuning the second mast: 20m, 15m, 17m, 12m, and 10m. As in similar cases before, I gave up due to the influence of the resonators. So, the 12m is completely gone. The 15m is removed from this mast and remains only on the 40m mast
It is nicely raining in my self-excile … raining as promised 🙂
1.Sep.2025 - the second morning
- The first night, the electricity was cut off. No problem this night
- I somehow woke on the sunrise and wasn’t lazy to stand up and check what is going on in the air. Not bad
- Trying to schedule 40m tonight with the US. It was too late for the morning already
- The noise is very decent indeed. My biggest fear hasn’t materialized, though (or because) I brought a 120-meter power cable and a tent to establish a remote QTH locally like I did in 8Q7YY
- Not as much SSB as I would like. However, FT8 is always full of life
2.Sep.2025 - morning
The biggest fun of yesterday:
- Sched QSOs on 40 meters in FT8 with two boys from the East Coast of the US – an 83-year-old boy and another nice fellow. I liked the excitement the QSOs made and a new country for guys. It is very rewarding being a Santa on the Sep.1st 🙂
- Well, based on that, I offered a 40-meter scheds on qrz.com and will have a few scheds QSOs tonightÂ
- Also, we played with Tony, 3D2AG, with having FT8 connection at about the same time on different bands from 10m to 40m at Tony’s sunset time and to see the performance the band vs. another band, and then repeated the experiment 2-3 hours later, at my sunset time, to see the impact of timing as well. It is rather insightful. I want to have similar experiments at other times and with other locations as well
Oh! There were also amazing stories by Hans, the hotel owner. In short:
Tribe girls:
- Some workers are from the mountain tribes. Girls. They were sent by their tribes down the valleys because: 1) They are already 15 year old and they shall find husbands, 2) there is no job for them at the tribe their area is flooded anyway, so they were effectively pushed out to the “external world” by their own tribe
- It is a real tribe – like in Amazonia or Papua New Guinea. I didn’t expect that at all. I need to read more
- The tribes often are very resistant to the external world – don’t interact with us. They keep themselves rather separate
- They are not Lao and they speak very different languages – not even close to Lao
- They don’t have alphabets
- They learnt some Lao and Hans can interact with them, but it is clearly not their native language
A stateless person
I also saw the guy – apparently asian but who speaks with Hans, who is from Detroit originally, with clearly American accent – hanging around the eco-hotel I live in:
- Well, it turned out that he had been an illegal immigrant in the US for 45 years. He apparently felt that the US is “his country”. But he did some stupid things – I didn’t get it – some assault or something – and Trump & Co kicked him out of the country in May 2025
- He is a stateless person, according to Hans, right now. Probably, he is originally from Laos, or I don’t know why he is hanging out here. And I am not sure how he entered Laos then … anyway, the purge of illegal immigrants from the US is felt in Laos too. Surprise
4.Sep.2025 - morning
I missed the update yesterday. It means that the local life became a routine … – in all the meanings of the word:
- I set the antennas and don’t have to set them again
- I know when to get breakfast/lunch or lunch/dinner
- I relatively know when the propagation will occur and from which direction to expect
- etc.
However, it also means that there are so many things happening that you don’t have enough time for everything.
Nevertheless, in short:
- Two Russians – on from Chukotka (next to Alaska) but living in Laos for 6 years, and his nephew from St. Petersburg paid a visit. The “local” guy is a painter and did a wall painting for Hans
- An Italian girl and his Australian boyfriend. Travelling for months between different countries. She is a photographer and blogger. I also talked for a couple of hours about the radio, ham radio, propagation. Well, each person I met must be bothered with radio in depth 🙂
- Scheduled calls didn’t work as well as the first evening. But I have even more tonight. Let’s see
Back to CW
I like CW a lot and believe that CW is the pinnacle of radio communication modes and skills:
- The most spectrum-efficient and DX-capable, but still human-controlled
- FT8 is eating the world because it is even more spectrum/SNR efficient. But it is not human
- I have been away from CW for 25 years, with a couple of dozen QSOs last year during the EX/OH7O expedition
- I want to keep CW in my arsenal… let’s see how, because in UN/OH7O, I run remote operations 50 km away from my QTH, and I don’t have CW enabled for the remote operations. I don’t even have a clear plan yet … So, let’s see. But CW is cool and must stay
- Moreover, I chose OH7O specifically because I like the CW sound of the callsign, and not using it in CW – what an irony! 🙂
About QRM
My biggest fears hasn’t materialized. Thus, I am enjoying reasonably low QRMs. Of course, all LEDs and solar panels within 100-200 meters are off. The rest are not under control 🙂Â
Day
Note that the P.AMP settings are different between the bands.
Night
Different P.AMP settings between the bands as well.
Buffaloes swim like hippos
I didn’t know that buffalo can submerge themselves totally underwater, with only its nose above the surface, and swim. And they clearly enjoy it 🙂
Also, I didn’t expect that the pond could be so deep so close to the shore. A tall buffalo is totally submerged, literally 1 meter from the water’s edge. I thought it was just a muddy shallow thing. Not really 🙂
Propagation and operations
- I can enjoy pileups in any mode virtually anytime when 1-2 stations catch me. However, until somebody notices me, I may be calling 10-15 times and there is nobody. But it doesn’t mean there is nobody or there is no propagation. Quite an opposite. For example, I noticed yesterday evening the only load station on the band from Bulgaria – very loud S9+. There was a nice antenna setup on that end. But still, it means that despite the band seems empty, the propagation was good. I started calling. I was lucky to be noticed quickly and then for a couple of hours I operate in split mode and often had to call “For America only”. Occasionally, the US station came on top of the European pileup. And that was on the seemingly empty band before I started calling
- Conclusions: there must “seed stations” on the band, some leads. Because if there are particularly strong stations or DXs, people listen and go away. They are there but nobody emitting. So, the leads/seeds on the bands are required to make active and animated
- Overwhelming amount of JA and YB/YC stations
- Particular focus on the East Coast of the US in 40m. They are relatively easily reachable from Europe, modestly easily reachable from Almaty, but from here, it seems to be rather challenging, and there is a strong interest in Laos from that area
Most wanted the US East Coast - SSB
Most wanted the US East Coast - CW
I am not sure about SSB, but CW looks like it is realizable.
Most wanted the US East Coast - FT8
Even FT8 is highly sought after. That is not only realizable but has been successfully performed 🙂
My eco-food in an eco-hotel
I need to consume my food quickly. If I have a Zoom and leave the food unattended by 30 minutes, it would be infested (and nearly completely eaten 🙂 by antsÂ
5.Sep.2025 - birthday 🙂
It was a nice an active day:
- I thought that I have finished with the antennas but I spend 3 hours raising and taking it down trying to tune 10m. At some point in time, it was much worse on other bands too – not only 10 meters … Eventually, I reinstalled, but certainly it wasn’t worth the effort. I should have let the internal tuner in the Icom 7300 do the job. But I thought it was just a few minutes … until all redials haveb’t messed up in an ugly knot 🙂
- I practiced CW
International Pétanque competion 🙂
That was a highlight of the day 🙂
- Hans played for Laos, because he has been living here for 17 years
- I played for Kazakhstan, since I am operating mostly as UN/OH7O and I have been living in Kazakhstan for the last 3 years
- Both of us haven’t played in years and we had to agree on the common rules because who cares what the “official rules” are 🙂
- It was a tough competition and Kazakhstan won 3:0… But I am sure, it was a nice gesture and a birthday gift by Hans as a hospital host 🙂
The day was full of birthday greetings and wishes over the air from ham guys as well as via a more regular media like WhatsApp 🙂
6.Sep.2025 - thinking about wrapping up
It has been a successful DXpedition despite numerous challenges, including the potential failure to obtain the necessary license/import permit, high QRM, equipment loss or breakdown, and equipment malfunction. So far, so great.
I even planned to rent a car and operate as portable if nothing else works. I also brought a 120-meter power supply cord and a tent – to remove myself from the noise as much as possible. Nothing of these is required.
So, if everything has been so good so far, i exceeded my humble expectations and it is time to think about driving for a few remaining days around like I typically do when I am not in DXpedtion.
It was a thunderstorm last night again. A fierce one:
- Closest lightnings were ~300 meters away
- Rather loud
- I had to stand up in the middle of the night and detach the cables from the transceiver
- There was no electricity by this time because it was automatically and centrally cut off
- This time, the internal circuits also switched off. So, until the morning, I was sweating without a fan. No FT8 either
Local WiFi is OK. But LTE is even better:
AA competition
For some reason, in the middle of the day, I decided to compete in the AA SSB competition. I did a few dozens QSOs but then I gave up because of scheduled calls on FT8 and other activities … I may return and operate a bit again… I am trying to feel whether competitions is my thing …
The only funny fact that lured me to the competition is that since I am currently the only operating in Laos, I am automatically the country champion, if I submit anything at all :-))
7.Sep.2025 - the last day of operations
I have had a lot of fun and luck during this DXpedition. I think I shouldn’t over-stretch the luck … – I will need it on many other occasions 🙂
The last evening and the morning have been about the All Asia competition. It is the first competition where I seriously participate, though I haven’t planned it 🙂
The All Asia contest QSOs
