KH9 – Wake Island

Wake Island was added to the DXCC list in 1938 – when the FCC had first recognized US island possessions by granting callsign prefixes. KC6 was the original prefix for Wake Island. When I started DX-ing in 2001, my card checker (N6OJ – Chuck) told me to “Work everything in the Pacific that you can, soon, these entities will become very rare”. I did what he said, and now have everything in OC-PAC except Kingman Reef – which hasn’t been activated since 2000.

There have been so many stations fixed on Wake island – or visited by a DX-pedition over the years, that one stood out in my research, by Mary Garlow, R.N and K6QPG. She is mentioned in a neat NCDXC Newsletter from 1961 – on page 12:

http://www.ncdxc.org/newsletter/1961/DXer0661.pdf

Mary’s OM was Britt, W6PEU, and they were mentioned in this newletter:

http://www.palomararc.org/Scope/scanned/Scope-1979.pdf

Chuck, NI0C was kind enough to share this really cool Wake QSL from his collection:

And this background:

“Only a few weeks ago, I was copying a CW rag chew on 30 meters, and heard AE1N telling someone that when he was a youngster, he operated as KW6DG. I looked him up on QRZ.com and sure enough, his name was the same as the one on my QSL. I’m looking at the back of Layne’s QSL now. The  other operator was Bob, KW6DF. I seem to recall that Bob was Layne’s father, though I’m not 100 pct. sure about that. Layne was very active. Their station consisted of a Hallicrafters HT32A and HT33; using a Hammarlund HQ170 receiver with a “tri-bander” and vertical antennas.”

After a previous attempt to activate Wake Island had been denied in 2012, it looks like another group has been able to get permission:

http://www.wake2013.org/

Wake Island is one of the US Overseas Possessions in the Pacific, and besides a short stint serving Pan Am Airways in the 1930′s, has been mostly a military base:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Island

And here are details of the Battle of Wake Island:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wake_Island

Many have decried that US Pacific Island Possessions – that are under control of the US F&W are all but dead in the ARRL DXCC program. I don’t think this is the case. Wake Island is still an active military base, so it is in an interesting situation – part of a protected area, but also still an active base.

In 2008, President George Bush added Wake to the US Marine Monument:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99036156

I’ve been very curious about any possible connection to the Pew Charitable Trusts efforts to effectively make many protected Marine Reserves all but off limits for DX-peditions (the cost of transportation plus preventing the ingress of foreign species adds greatly to the cost of a trip). I would imagine that you would need permission from both the US F&W and the US Navy.

Of course, Wake Island has an active runway – so with air traffic possible, maybe Wake Island isn’t as tricky to activate as some other US Posessions (i.e. Baker-Howland?).

Wake Island Activations – and I am sure there were more . . .

1947 – W6ONP/KW6

1948 – W1EEC/KW6

1949 – KH6LT/KW6AC

1951 – W6CIE/KW6, KW6AR

1957 – KW6CE

1958 – W0OWY/KW6

1959 – KW6CO, KW6CGA, K6QPG/KW6

1960 – K0SLD/KW6, KW6CS, K6QPG/KW6

1961 – KW6DG, K6QPG/KW6

1968 – KW6EJ

1970 – KW6DX

1979 – KH6GB/KH9

197? – WE5I/KH9, AD1S/KH9

1986 – KH9AC

1992 – WR1Z/KH9 (Jim Smith, VK9NS)

1998 – K8XP, N2WB, N6MZ and N2OO all signing /KH9

2002 – KH9/N4BQW

2003 – KH9/N4BQW, KH9/AH8A

2004 – KH9/AH8H

2005 – KH9/W0CN

Recent and active – KH9/WA2YUN

Special April 1 Edition – 4 New DXCC Entities – Maybe 5!

I heard a rumor that the disputed Scarborough Reef was going to become 4 new entities – one rock for China, one for Vietnam, one for Korea and one for the Philippines. They would be called:

BS7C – China Rock

BS7V – Vietnam Rock

BS7K – Korea Rock

and BS7P – Philippines Rock

Each will have a special umbrella made – to look like the flag of that country.

The biggest rock will have a big “X” drawn on it and all 4 countries can operate on it simultaneously – but it isn’t a separate entity. Its call will be:

BS7FFA – meaning “Free For All”, and here is what its flag will look like:

http://www.theflagcompany.us.com/JollyRoger-SkullUmbrellaFlag.aspx

Scarborough Reef will be deleted. Watch this space – a 5th entity could be added to appease Taiwan who feels slighted because they didn’t get a rock. In true International Spirit and cooperation, the United Nations, US F&W and Jamaican Bobsled Team are working together on the case searching for a rock for Taiwan.

The QSL Card Manager will be Roger Beep, P5QRX, with instant uploads via NOQRS and NOTW. . . . .

Good luck in the pileups!

FO0 – Clipperton Island

Clipperton Island is a French Possession and Coral Atoll that is 1280 km (795 miles) Southwest by West of Aculpulco, Mexico:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipperton_Island

It is being activated in March 2013 by a team led by KK6EK, Dr. Robert Schmieder and Cordell Expeditions:

http://www.cordell.org/CI/index.html

With Chris Janssen, DL1MGB heading up the radio operations portion of this expedition. You should see the handbooks written by Bob – for overall logistics / infrastructure, and all things radio – computers – networks – by Chris. Absolutely professional by all means – very impressive. I have had the privilege of working with several team members in person, and also communicate with K6K/MM – the maritime mobile station aboard the Shogun, and all I can say is that this team is one of the best going.

The project will incorporate environmental and biological science with ham radio, will be tied into many forms of “Social Media” (forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter) and also feature a live logging system called DXA2 – the second version of DXA – which was successfully used for the K7C Kure DX-pedition.

Because TX5C activated Clipperton near the bottom of Cycle 23, there is still a big demand for it – mainly outside North America – and so TX5K aims to give Clipperton to everyone who still needs it. It is in the top 50 Most Wanted lists – world wide. This is a little surprising since TX5C made > 80K QSO’s. A nice web site that has several images listed of past DX-peditions:

http://lesnouvellesdx.fr/galerie/galerie2.php?page=fkfofwqsl&pfx=FO_C

The boat that has been used several times is the Shogun – berthed in San Diego:

http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/

Here is a list of activations over the years:

1938 – FC8AA

1954 – FO8AJ

1958 – FO8AT

1960 – FO8AN

1978 – FO8XA,B,C,D,E,F,G

1985 – FO0XX

1986 – FO0XA, FO0XX

1992 – FO0CI

2000 – FO0AAA

2005 – FO0/F8UFT (I completely missed this one – never knew it happened!)

2008 – TX5C

2013 – TX5K

Here is a recording of TX5K, where at the time of this writing, the Shogun is in the process of picking the second part of the team from Cabo San Lucas:

http://ky6r.com/2013/02/23/1000-cans-of-beer/

FO8M – Maria Theresa Reef (Phantom Island)

Here is a QSL card image for a DXCC entity that was literally “Too Good to be True”:

It was added to the DXCC Entity list in July, 1966 and Dropped from the list in September, 1972.

In response to last weeks “Special Edition – Visual History of the ARRL DXCC Program”, Alex, VE3NEA was kind enough to let me in on something I have never heard of – which is a class of entities that the ARRL “annulled” – or “Dropped” rather than Deleted.

The most famous (infamous?) is FO8M, or Maria Theresa Reef. The reason? It was a “mistake” – maybe an island or outcropping in the South Pacific that W9WNV, Don Miller thought existed, but ultimately was judged as being a “Phantom Island or Reef”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_island

And here is the Wikipedia write up regarding Maria Theresa Reef:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_Reef

One of these FO8M QSL cards sold on eBay for $400!

One site that has a great write up of Don Miller is the WA6AUD (Hugh Cassidy – known in DX circles as “Cass”) archive:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/WA6AUD001.html

There are many websites that give mention to W9WNV, and the stories are fascinating for sure. This is a great example of why the DXCC program has endured as it has, and why it does have some kind of “voodoo magic”.

The Cass Archives are so good – you really should check out all of these wonderful articles (and I want to thank Paul, VE1DX for keeping these stories alive – by continuing on in Cass’s tradition. Paul’s stories are fantastic):

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/stories.html

Most of the other “Dropped” or “Annulled” entities were just oversights – the Windward and Leeward islands in the Caribbean are two examples – what should have been multiple entities were lumped as one callsign in a group. What these did is spark the ARRL DXCC Desk and participating DX-ers to really research their geography.

There were two others that also seemed “To Good to be True”:

Cormoran Reef

Ebon Atoll

But Maria Theresa Reef is the best example. To be fair – there must be all kinds of crazy specs in the ocean – submerged volcanoes that might stick out of the water a couple of inches at high tide on a good day.

Wayne Mills, N7NG once told me that there was a saying “back in the day” when someone proposed such a reef:

“Good Grief, Another Reef?”

I love that phrase and really wish I could have been in those meetings. Er – maybe I don’t, on second thought!

Its a program rich with interesting and colorful stories replete with controversy.

BS7 – Scarborough Reef, a.k.a “Scaffold Rocks”

By far, this is one of the more controversial entities on the DXCC list. Many DX-ers that I talk to call it “Scaffold Rock” and wonder how it is any different than another such entity, 7J1 – Okino Torishima, which is now deleted:

7J1 was deleted in 1979, and BS7 was added in 1995. Here is a great web page that describes the “drama” as far as how it was added to the list:

 http://www.n4gn.com/sr95/

Interestingly enough, the Board added a new “Minimum Size Rule” – also in 1995:

http://www.arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive/ARLD019/1995

Here is the most salient part of that rule:

“(d) An island must meet or exceed size standards. To be eligible for consideration, the island must be visible, and named, on a chart with a scale of not less than 1:1,000,000. Charts used must be from recognized national mapping agencies. The island must consist of a single unbroken piece of land not less than 10,000 square feet in area, which is above water at high tide. The area requirements shall be demonstrated by the chart.”

The minimum size rule was re-written in 1998, and you should study the current rules:

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/2011%20DXCC%20Rulesb.pdf

BS7 (along with many others) would no longer qualify on the list if they hadn’t been “grandfathered in” during the 1998 DXCC Rules re-write.

Once I really started studying the History of the ARRL DXCC Program:

http://dxccsleuth.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/special-edition-the-visual-history-of-the-arrl-dxcc-program/

I realized that the rules have changed so much over the years that “the rules is the rules” and “like it or lump it”. I also have no vote or say in what is added or deleted, and (like Scrabble – where there is no word “Moops”), I enjoy the game enough to follow whatever the rules are. Also – while there have been some really heated debates and rivalry between the “add it” and “delete it” camps (and I have a few pet peeves myself), the program – over the course of the years has been pretty consistent. At least more consistent than the socio-political changes that the world has seen.

A more eloquent writing on this topic is in the VE1DX “Stories” page:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story106.html

Back to BS7H in 2007 . . .

I was very lucky to work BS7H in 2007 – but conditions were pretty awful. What should have been like “shooting fish in a barrel” from the West Coast became a tough catch. Luckily, Martti, OH2BH did what he does best – control the pileup and insisted that he get my call – even though there was high static on the band and it took a few calls to get all call letters correct. But that he did. Others were going nuts calling on top of our QSO – which made it that much tougher, but we prevailed.

1994 – Operation that did not count because the scaffolding was in the water

1995 – First official operation:

1997 – Second operation that counted:

2007 – QSL card shown at the beginning of this article

Here is an excellent article written in the style of “Cass” by Paul, VE1DX:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story085.html

And yet another simply fantastic article – just amazing and so true:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story098.html

It sure seems like BS7H was one of the most “controversial” entities added to the list:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story104.html

and another masterpiece:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story110.html

Special Edition! The “Visual History of the ARRL DXCC Program”!

For 11 1/2 years, I have been looking at (boring text) lists as far as the ARRL DXCC program is concerned. (Said to his “DX Therapist”):

“It all started when I read a sentence by the ARRL either online or in some publication where it said something like:

“The DXCC Honor Roll is the Pinnacle of something or other . . . “

Well – of course – I wanted to be on the “pinnacle” – who wouldn’t? . . . .

But I digress – back to the article at hand . . .

I have felt that these “tried and true” lists just don’t unlock “that special something” that is the magic of the program. I started searching through back issues of QST and found lots of very interesting “back stories” regarding entities, the DXAC, DX-peditions, and the DXCC program and its history. I wanted to try to capture the “essence” of the DXCC Program on one :info-graphic” page. Here is my first cut at such a “Visual History” of the DXCC Program (this is just a small thumbnail):

And here is the link to a PDF that you can view at 400% or whatever suits your fancy:

dxcc_entity_counts_awards

You should look at this PDF on a large screen – or print it in A3 format for best effect. Legal works too – but is a bit of a strain on the eyes.

I will make some cursory observations – and these are just my “musings”:

The most important Rule of Thumb is:

Make sure you go read  as many “stories” – written in the style of “Cass” (WA6AUD – SK) by Paul, VE1DX:

http://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story106.html

Cass was part Zen Master, Preacher and Professor. I have only recently gone through my “religious conversion” with the writings of Cass. . . . . but through Paul’s “channeling” of Cass:

1) Contrary to my previous grumbling / bitching about the “illogical nature of the DXCC Program”, in a world that has had such upheaval and wars and strife and stuff – the DXCC Program has been a pillar of stability. That’s no easy feat. I respect the fact that it has maintained its integrity – far better than any politician has . . . Spock would actually be proud of how logical it has been . . . DeSoto and Handy were geniuses . . .

The funniest thing is how in the beginning – they seemed to care more about how the DXCC articles and listings would “take up more space than they were alloted in QST” – and so there was a strong emphasis on keeping lists short -including the “Country List”. You can see how that emphasis went away after WWII.

2) The number one reason why entities are added or deleted from the list have been geo-political. I have griped about how some are “ridiculous”, but that is such a small percentage of the total – I feel bad I ever griped. The “silly” ones added due to changing the rules to accommodate such entities are now “cute” in my mind – and nothing more. (I won’t get carried away and say they “add character to the program”). Oh well – yeah – they do . . .

Speaking of history – one thing you can infer from the graphic is what happened after each war. For example, after WWII, first the European Colonies in Africa became independent countries – so you saw a wave that lasted from the 40′s into the 60′s with Deletes and then New Entities – many times having one “country” become two new entities. Then Asia Pacific had changes after Korea, but especially Vietnam, and finally, a lot of change due to the Fall of the Berlin Wall and then what happened with the former Yugoslavia and other countries close by. Everything after WWII until the Berlin Wall seemed to have some connection with the “Cold War” and its end. Then there was the aftermath of Communism falling and the breakup of the USSR.

The biggest social influence has been the coming of age of The Baby Boom Generation. As Boomers found more time to devote to their hobby (kids grown up), combined with more disposable income, the program really started taking off in the 90′s and the number of those on the Honor Roll sky rocketed. Couple that with packet clusters and internet clusters and this is why I think the numbers start doubling and even tripling between cycles.

3) I do still believe that Kingman Reef really no longer qualifies for the list - because the jurisdiction that had it “grandfathered in” no longer applies, and when that status changed – sometime in the last 13 years – KH5K should have been deleted. I also think it no longer meets the “minimum size” rule. HOWEVER – if someone will please go run out and activate it soon – I would be obliged. It would be the easiest rare entity for me EVER. I’ll throw money at such a DX-pedition! My stack is pointed that way . . . I would rather work it than have it deleted . . . . .

4) I’m not sure – but online “conveniences” such as online logging and DX spotting have probably contributed to the growth we have seen since the late 80′s / early 90′s.

A Dedication.

Clinton DeSoto, FE Handy, (and all that followed) at the League are still my heroes. They created a program that will live as long as ham radio has amateurs.

W2LV, Bob Morris – who is mentioned in the “How’s DX” column and several times in QST was a mentor of sorts growing up in Sussex County, NJ (as WA2QHN). He was an awesome and amazing radio pioneer and DXCC “DX Man”, and I was in awe and couldn’t speak when I met him in the next town over when I was 13 years old.

Out West here – Jim Maxwell – W6CF – would be a great friend now – if he were still with us. He and I think a lot a like – and I know this from looking at the research he has done for all of us – as far as DXCC is concerned. As far as DXCC research goes, I’d like to thank Wayne Mills, N7NG,  who worked at the ARRL for many years and now is with CQ Magazine and Bill Moore, NC1L, who works for the ARRL as the DXCC Manager, and finally, Stan Horzeppa, WA1LOU, who has mentioned this blog in his “Surfin’” column with very positive encouragement. They have answered many questions that I had and have pointed me in the right direction.

I can’t forget Dr. Bob Schmieder, KK6EK – who has taught me more about DXpeditions than I think I really wanted to know – and the gurus of wire and aluminum – Dean Straw, N6BV and Tom Schiller – N6BT. Dean and Tom are the real reasons that I will make it on the Honor Roll – and very soon.

Enjoy!

73,

Rich

KY6R

FT5W – Crozet Island

Crozet was added to the list in 1964.

I was lucky in 2005 to work Jean-Paul (F5BU) when he was doing research at the French Alfred Faure Base on Possession Island in the Crozet Archipelago.

Jean-Paul is a Marine Biologist who was on the island from February 5 – March 23rd, and his mission was to study the King Penguin colony. I was very lucky to be one of his 2114 contacts with 1912 unique stations. He was running an inverted ground plane and 500 watts and I was running a dipole with 200 watts. I am sure that both the better conditions in Cycle 24 and also that being during the Vernal Equinox that this entity – which is 13,000 miles away, was the reason I was able to work him with only a few calls. This is one of those QSO’s I can remember clearly – I don’t think either of us had more than a 5 x 5 SSB signal – but I remember I could hear every word.

There is a fisherman, Gildas (TU5KG) who is maritime moble in and around Crozet and Kerguelin and who signs FT5WQ and FT5XT, but he is very allusive – usually /MM – with short unannounced landings on each island. You will be very lucky to work him.

As is the case with all of the French “TAAF” research bases, we are very lucky when a scientist or biologist is assigned to study and stay long enough to give the entity out to “the deserving”.

Here is a good Wikipedia article explaining TAAF:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands Here is the CIA World Factbook entry for Crozet:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_fs.html

And my favorite collection of all of the French outpost entities:

http://lesnouvellesdx.free.fr/

Here is a list of Crozet activations:

1964 – FB8WW

1972 – FB8WW

1973 – FB8WW

1977 – FB8WE

1982 – FB8WG

1983 – FB8WH, FB8WI, FB8WJ, FB8WK

1984 – FB8WI, FB8WJ, FB8WK

1986 – FT8WA

1991 – FT4WC

1996 – FT5WE

2005 – FT5WJ

2008 – FT5WO

2009 – FT5WO

2013 – FT5WQ