American Samoa is one of those DXCC Entities that rarely appears in logs. Over 3,500 km from Hawaii and over 15,000 km from most European operators, with the mountainous terrain of the main island making antenna placement and promotion windows difficult – KH8 is not a destination that DXpedition organizers would normally visit. This will change from October 29th to November 13th, 2026, when the German KH8A expedition will be active there.
In the article you will read
Date and DXCC entity
The activation will take place from October 29 to November 13, 2026. The call sign is KH8A. The location corresponds to IOTA OC-045, grid locator AH45OP. This is the same QTH from which the KH8T expedition worked in September 2024 (43,064 QSOs in the log). The mountain in the background of the QTH creates more difficult operating conditions, but the team is counting on these limitations.
Team KH8A
The expedition is led by a nine-member German team with extensive experience from previous challenging activations – T2C (Tuvalu), C21MM (Nauru), V6D (Micronesia) and others. Information posted by Rolf, DL7VEE.
| Call sign |
|---|
| DJ9KH |
| DK5WL |
| DL1KWK |
| DL2RNS |
| DL4SVA |
| DL6KAC |
| DL6KVA |
| DL7JOM |
| DL7VEE |
The team is open about the logistical challenges: securing visas and operating permits was not easy. Flights and accommodation are booked. All equipment, including amplifiers, will fly with operators in the cabin of the aircraft – to avoid damage during baggage handling.
Equipment
The team emphasizes proven, carefully checked equipment from previous expeditions. The transceivers are Elecraft K4 models – high-end SDR transceivers with coverage of all shortwave and 6m. Wayne Burdick, N6KR (Elecraft), is following the expedition and recommended that the team test the latest beta firmware B38.BETA3 s funkciou Spectral Subtraction Noise Reduction (SSNR), ktorá by mohla pomôcť pri práci v pásme šumu na nízkych pásmach.
On the upper bands, the team will use its own 5-band 2-element wire antenna from LZ-Antenna in combination with a pentaplexer – this allows simultaneous operation on multiple bands from one antenna system. On the other bands, simple single-band wire antennas will be deployed. The masts – fiberglass telescopic poles and the HD aluminum telescopic mast for the directional radiator – come from spiderbeam.
Planned frequencies and modes
The team plans to operate 4 stations 24/7 on the 160m to 6m bands in all major modes. The team is aware that conditions on the high bands are deteriorating during this period of the solar cycle and the focus is shifting to the mid and low bands.
| Bands | Fashions | Number of stations |
|---|---|---|
| 160m – 6m | CW, SSB, FT8, RTTY | 4 simultaneously, 24/7 |
The team has not specified specific operating frequencies on the website at the time of writing – these will be published gradually in the Operating frequencies section of kh8a.mydx.de. DX Cluster Tracking and Club log Live Stream will allow operators to find current spots during activation. From the comments of the DX community, there is a strong interest in the 160m band for Europe - SM6CVX Hans has explicitly requested CW operation on the topband.
QSL card KH8A
Podrobnosti o QSL a OQRS will be published in the QSL-Info and Logsearch sections on kh8a.mydx.de. The log search and online QSL request will be available directly from the expedition website after activation. Follow the updates on the page kh8a.mydx.de.
Rarity of the KH8 entity in context
Despite several recent activations from American Samoa – K8K (Yuris YL2GM, June–July 2024), K8R (HA7RY/HA5YG, July 2024 in preparation for the Jarvis N5J expedition) and KH8T (September 2024) – KH8 remains an entity missing from thousands of European logs. Interest in new activations therefore remains high in the DX community.
KH8A is planned as a full multi-operator expedition with a long window (16 days) and 4 simultaneously operating stations. For European operators, the key hours will be the morning and evening UTC hours, when the low-band propagation windows towards the western Pacific Ocean open up opportunities on 40m, 80m and 160m.
Video: atmosphere from American Samoa (KH8T 2024)
For those who don't have KH8 in their log yet, the following video captures KH8T operating on 10m CW from American Samoa in September 2024 - same location, same promotion challenges: