DX-World reader Michael Noertemann recently posted this on our Facebook page. We re-publish here, in a kind of Devil’s Advocate spirit, to see if others agree or disagree with his sentiments, particularly in light of the recent news about 3Y0J cancelling their plans to activate this forever rare DXCC entity.
Cancel this ******* iceberg as a DXCC country and accept Northern Cyprus, Transnistria, South Ossetia and Donetzk People’s Republic instead for DXCC. There’s LIVE hams there who operate…and it’s much easier to visit and to operate from..and nobody will need $1M for transportation. That is crazy as history shows us: Bouvet is always a most dangerous adventure. Risk life for a LoTW entity?
I started in 1978 . Those years , non avalaible DXCC list was : P5-XV- XU-BY-ZA- XW- BV2 WAS RESTRICTED TO ONE STATION ! , suddenly lot of changes happened..Special thanks to OH2BH who took the lead to bring ham radio inany countries .
SV/A : in 1980 a major dx-expedition took place as SV1/A
I have seen politicals matters and continental sectarism taking the lead especially for EP6T .. The ‘ by continents’ datas doesn’t lie !!! United we stand, divide we sink.
Somebody knows what will be the Bravehart selling price ??? May be its time to do it by ourselves. and make a new step ahead ..we own satellites but not a boat in 2021!!! Yasme did it 60 years ago. Too many modes is also an open bar for qso rating abuse
As a new DXer, I’d rather 3Y0 be left on the list and not “subtracted” from Honor Roll either. Setting aside the possibility of using a sat phone, why on Earth would anyone want to minimize places in the world that an average person can only reach through ham radio? If they’re simply too dangerous to operate from in the current rule set, I’d rather see a change that makes adjustment to ease operating conditions for specific entities. Deleting entities or changing the threshold for Honor Roll means changing the value of every remaining entity. Having a QSO with my neighbor down the street shouldn’t be more valuable because 3Y0 was too hard.
For other entities that lack operators but people live there, do the work to get more operators there on the air. I don’t see anywhere that the DXCC desk has ever agreed to provide the community with at least one operator in every possible entity. The whole point is to promote activity and encourage new operators from around the world to get into the hobby.
“Politics out of DXCC”. So why are we talking about occupied territories which use abusive self-assigned callsigns? I’ve even seen an US Ham, a Solon pretending being dispenser of licenses of lawfulness, being active from a territory with self-assigned callsign and thus running a DXCC not valid operation. Let DXCC as is. In the meantime’s take your time to chase IOTAs. Almost 1200 references to chase will keep you away from these silly debates.
Expand the list to include some far flung So. Seas islets, but keep Bouvet. I want to work it.. Someday…
I’ve read all the comments. I respect everyone’s opinion. I am 23 years old and amateur since 2012. I like DX hunting. I got my US callsign in 2021(W7AOF) and made 106 confirms in LoTW in just one month.(32 days) But I don’t have a goal like honorroll. Why? Turkmenistan, Syria, North Korea, Athos etc.. not active. I think bouvet is DXCC. But the honor roll limit should be lowered.
No one mentioned 4U1A in the comments. The United Nations has 3 capitals. Two of them are considered DXCC. however, Vienna(4U1A) is not considered a new DXCC. It is impossible for it to accept Ossetia, Donetsk, while the ARRL does not even accept 4U1A. The most active is the 4U1A. 4U1ITU hasn’t worked for over a year.
I lived in the TRNC-Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for four years. I worked with the 1B/TA7AOF callsign. there is an official call sign and amateur radio operators live in Northern Cyprus. 1B1AB, 1B1AD, 1B1AK etc.. they have very nice stations. My teacher Tevfik(TA1HZ) will be on the air next week with the call sign 1B/TA1HZ. But it doesn’t count as DXCC. why is that? Mount Athos(SV/A), even the British military bases(ZC4) on the island of Cyprus are considered DXCC. Is it fair? Please research the history of TRNC.
I did DXpedition with the call sign Z66Y in Kosovo. Serbia was against us. They do not accept. just as Greece is against the TRNC. Kosovo and TRNC are countries. RDXC competition committee accepts D0 Donetsk stations and awards prizes. But it treats TRNC as checklog. There should be no politics in amateur radio.. it’s just a hobby.(lifestyle for me)
73 de TA7AOF/W7AOF
I do not see much need to change the DXCC list. If anything should be changed it was to delete pointless DXCCs like 1A, SV/A etc. Instead it would be great to have some more remote islands added..
I still need P5. When I die, I wont need it anymore and couldn’t care less. Was a fun chase though, I guess! ?
I have Bouvet on one band/mode, and was to have been one of the pilot stations for 3Y0J. To say I’m bitterly disappointed is an understatement. I absolutely do not believe Bouvet should be deleted, although I would welcome some reforms to the program that would add more entities with a revised criteria. The DXCC program is mired in the mists of time and needs to chart a course forward. And if no new entities are added then drop basic Honor Roll criteria ever so slightly since at the present time basic Honor Roll is completely unattainable. I’m all in favour of keeping HR #1 as the lifetime achievement it richly deserves to be, but basic H.R. should be achievable in the 10-20 year time frame and is a suitable reward for most DXers.
I would not delete Bouvet, because it will be activated someday. The real test of a great expeditioner is the ability to find a way to get these places on the air. It’s been done before and will be again.
What I see as a much bigger problem is the special interests and special individuals who push for rule changes in the background, to force new entities on the air which don’t meet the criteria. This has now been done multiple times in the last 15-20 years, where we wake up one day and find out that not only have the rules changed, but some previously disallowed country is now on the list. No involvement of the DXAC, no involvement from the DX community like there has been in the past. The DXCC Desk position sits unfilled at HQ, which was another filter keeping the inmates from running the asylum.
This subversion of the program from within is ultimately what will cause the DXCC program to die a slow death. At least when Don Miller was thumbing his nose at the rules, he was up front about it.
I have been saying it for years. DXCC must be the game of entities no matter what makes them special (not necessarily being internationally recognized countries). And that definitely expands the current list. We had a long talk on DX World about that a few years ago, shortly before T10VB. Nothing has changed. I guess, for some “change” is too brave an idea. I am 100% confident that revising and adding up would rekindle interest to that moribund assortment of numbers and letters. Leave 3Y, but open up to those that are there but have been ignored for various short-sighted reasons.
It’s a game, just play by the rules. Remember when Albania was impossible?
DPRK would have been way down the list if a certain someone would have kept their big mouth/ego shut.
Give the 1.000.000 bucks to Kim in P5 for allowing 6 months activity so everyone could work it.
EZ next year. 🙂
JFK “we have this goal to go the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard” As Neal Armstrong knows, the victory is sweet when achieved.
DXCC is already only 100 countries to achieve. There should always be the pinnacle to achieve and by definition it should be hard.
Everest used to be hard. Now its so easy a caveman can do it and 100s line up to do it for hours on the summit peak trail. The risk is really no longer getting to the summit, its dieing in the long line formed to get to the top. How ironic.
Keep these hard things the way they are.
Ed N1UR
I do not support deleting DXCC entities simply because they are difficult to activate.
I do support working on new technologies that would make activating some of these entities easier – ie dropping a remote control station on the (an) island and operators working the pileups from a boat anchored offshore.
I do support the creation of a completely new DXCC type program where many more entities such as Northern Cyprus (maybe even Indigenous controlled areas within countries) are added to a much expanded DXCC type list. The original DXCC program can remain it’s old boring self supported by its now very outdated LOTW security certificate system. I think the guys at QRZ are best placed right now to support such a new expanded DXCC type system as their online log and related Awards program is already built.
As for Bouvet, I would have thought that activating DXCC’s most challenging entity in the time of Covid was always a very optimistic endeavour. I cannot even move freely around Australia most of the time, I am still not permitted to travel overseas and thus travelling to somewhere like Bouvet seems a pretty remote possibility for any one right now. That said, the hobby of DXing is facing some pretty challenging times with poor solar activity likely for another cycle combined with the halt to dxpeditioning generally for over one year now. In this regard I applaud the “balls” of the guys involved in the two Bouvet projects for at least showing the DXing community that the “can do” attitude in the DXing fraternity is still alive and well and ready to rekindle as soon as Covid travel restrictions abate
Cheers
Paul – vk4ma
4U1UN, a building in New York, and a DXCC entity on SSB not easy to hunt for years !!!!!! And we’re talking about a million dollar 3y0i? If it goes on like this, scams and combinations will start … that is, milk spells like P5 :-).
I am strongly against DXCC’s 3Y0/B entity deletion.
If that’s the case, I don’t think it’s possible to delete all entities if necessary in places where it is difficult to communicate with P5, EZ, VK0/H, BQ9, etc.
Hereby I am against deleting the 3Y0/B entity.
Kyu, HL2WA
To get DXCC Full House is a long drink – nothing else.
Why not DXCC at 50 entities and lower Honor roll to 100 entities and delete top of the honor roll completely. This game could go on forever! The DXCC program rules are clear, and participation is entirely voluntary. When participation drops believe me the ARRL will make changes to the rules to make the game more attractive to more hams.Thats what they do.
In my humble opinion Bouvet (very expensive & dangerous) and Scarborough Reef (entity?) must be deleted 73
Col, the omnipresent provocateur 😉
If anyone doesn’t like to rules maybe they need a new hobby.
No one said Honor Roll would be easy or achieved quickly, it’s a life long journey with many detours. Only the deserving will ever reach the top, everyone else will complain about the rules. Changing the rules is an admission of defeat.
WX2S, had you not taken a 30 year break you would have had #1 Honor Roll years ago, they’ve all been on.
Maybe you should have spent more time chasing the rare ones instead of fox hunting?
Stop the whining.
DIFFICULTY IN ACHIEVING THE GOAL-FULFILLMENT OF THE REWARD ??? EVEN IF PEOPLE DIE THERE ???WHO NEEDS BS7H,SV/A…IF WE CANNOT ACTIVATE EZ,YK…REMOVE FROM LISTS DXCC BOUVET ISLAND…LEAVE ONLY FOR IOTA AWARD.73!Kos RY6A
For all who truly love the spirit of DX: You’ll rue the day they take away Bouvet!
We’ve now had three failed attempts in a row to activate Bouvet. What will it take to lower the stakes for Honor Roll? Is an expedition going to have to not only fail, but die?
Wonder what those under the age of 35 in the hobby think about shaking up DXCC in its current form? Be nice to hear from them instead of the usual “old timers” who cannot and will not embrace change in even its simplist form 😀
You can add BS7H and FT5/W to the list of wanted DXCC to be deleted.
I would really like to run a marathon, but I am fat lazy and 75, sounds like a lot of hard work to do it, never for most. Id like to suggest the 26 miles is lowered to 5 miles and I can do it in my car too.
Or alternatively, we could leave DXCC as is, and those who enjoy contacting ethnically cleansed occupied areas can do that at their own leisure.
Activate Syria or Turkmenistan. Much cheaper and wanted too.
DXCC is good because it is difficult, otherwise we can watch television while drinking Duff beer.
Dumbing down DXCC is one option. Alternatively we could accept the challenges of nature. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, quick or cheap. The hardest things are all three.
I think it’s a good idea to put the the number of countries to get the honour roll lower, maybe 320 or 310… thing in the next years it will not possible for a lot of people to reach it with this rules.. lot of areas now forbidden to visit, others impossible to reach.