April 2026 – N4MI Ham Radio

Possibly My Last DXCC Endorsement (But I Sure Hope Not)

This week I finally achieved a DXCC milestone I have been chasing for several years. I finally got 275 countries confirmed in LoTW. When I reached 25o a few years ago, I figured that I would not go much higher. The station upgrades are paying off. I have been mostly focused on making SSB and CW contacts, but will certainly still work FT8 for ATNOs and band-slot fillers!

As all DXCC award chasers know, once you reach 200 the ATNOs become more difficult and less frequent. This makes each one more exciting and meaningful. With the current solar cycle on the decline, I don’t know whether I will reach 300 or higher, but I will certainly keep trying!

LoTW DXCC Credit Analyzer Updated

I have continued to work on this app. This was a labor of love, really, to help me in my pursuit of ATNOs and band/slots for DXCC awards and endorsements. I have shared it in several venues hoping that other hams with similar pursuits would find it helpful. I have also received some excellent feedback to add features and improvements.

LoTW DXCC Credit Analyzer

I Vibe-Coded a Web App!

LoTW DXCC Credit Analyzer

I’ve been reading a lot about vibe-coding, and thought I would give it a try. I have been off-and-on trying to learn Python. Maybe someday I will get it.

I have always wanted an app that would perform analysis of the DXCC Award Credit Matrix from Logbook of the World. There is no option to download the table as a spreadsheet. So, I thought I would try to cook something up myself using AI coding.

I used Lovable, which is an AI-powered, no-code app builder designed to create web applications and websites from simple text prompts. It enables users to rapidly build functional, production-ready apps—such as project management tools, calculators, or landing pages—by generating code and UI through conversational AI.

I create a web app called “LoTW DXCC Credit Analyzer” for DXCC entity, band-slot and mode analysis. The analysis does not include deleted entities. Also, I could not completely automate the process because of the way LoTW displays the DXCC Award Credit Table (no option to download the table as a spreadsheet or CSV file). I included instructions in the app for creating a spreadsheet from LoTW’s DXCC Award Credit Table, which can then be loaded into the app. Feel free to give it a try!