Happy Holidays to all my friends. The following is my latest DX article that
will be printed in the News. What you will get in the News will stop after
the credits and signature but the additional material is good reference
material to a DX'er.
Good DX & 73. ... Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
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Ten X DX News
Dec. 1, 1996
I have a new vanity callsign: N5MT. Since I upgraded to Extra years ago, I
have been hoping to get a shorter call. I have been using: Norway 5 Many
Thanks. If you can improve on the phonetics, send me your comments.
_____________________________________________
When Tom Henderson K4CIH temporarily took over the DX Awards Manager position
from Al Sherman K1AS, a good decision was made to computerize the DX records.
A computer program was designed and written by Jim Hardy K4HAV #17605, to
take the DX application data and save that into a database. Tom started with
my DX records but it took him a while to check my claimed countries because
he did not get all the paperwork from Al. I sent him several upgrades to
replace the missing paperwork, as he could not find all of my countries.
This summer, Tom turned the job over to N5EJS Russ Gauthier #1525 who is now
the DX Awards Manager. Russ looked at my records and determined I was still
missing five countries. I resent my last upgrade which brought my count to
235 confirmed by the computer database.
I had the opportunity to meet Russ for the first time in September during a
trip to Louisiana. He lives close to my relatives but over the years we had
missed each other, so this trip I planned to take a day to visit. Since Russ
is now the keeper of the DX records, I could not pass up an opportunity to
see if there was a story that I could extract from this data. The records
contain a lot of information about what countries have been active and who
was operating. This data is on the form submitted for the DX award and now
Russ has the task of putting all this historical data into the DX database.
Back in September, Russ had about 20 percent of the data entered between
himself and Tom when I visited. The US data will be finished soon, then the
DX members will be put in last.
When I arrived, Russ give me a tour of the ham shack located behind his house
and where he plans to put a tall tower up in the future. He has a big
monoband yagi in pieces just waiting for a tower. We then went inside to his
computer setup where we settled in to look at the records. Russ pulled out
my paperwork and then gave me a quick demo of how he handles the data entry.
The process looked fine as long as the person submitting the form does all
the necessary work of filling them out completely. On the front of the award
form is the basic 1010 data. On the back, you fill out the callsign,
country name, QSO date and 1010 number. The data entered easily and sorted
alphabetically by country name which is different from the ARRL who use
callsign prefix by country. This data will help the checking of new DX
applications and upgrades, validation of country credit and tell us when a
new country has been submitted. It also makes the process of identifying
the country easier since there can be dozens of prefixes available for some
countries. For example, the old USSR is a tangle of prefixes and without a
correct cross reference, you can easily pick the wrong country!
My primary goal for this visit was to determine from the DX data the number
of 1010 countries that have ever been available! Al Sherman started the
list in 1981 but he stopped keeping the list updated after a few years. So,
I had been updating my own list with what I knew was current. There has
never been a 1010 number exchanged in all countries as of yet! So, what is
the best count available? Ask Russ, well he didn't know the answer but I
knew how to find it.
First, I started with the list I published that contains the known base list.
Second, get the records of the most active members in the program. Compare
their worked list with the base list. Third, add the new countries to my
list and put on the 1010 Web site for reference. Thanks to DJ4BE Joe Pusch
#49153, who has the second highest country count with 210, AA4UF Rick Jacks
#41176 with 155 and F1HNQ Lionel Peragoux #49138 with 150. There data showed
ELEVEN new 1010 countries, the count is 283!
So here are the details: 3C0A Pagalu by TR8JLD Jean Louis #39319 in July 86;
JW0GB Svalbard by LA8PF Per #40983 in Mar. 92; OF0MA Market Reef by SM5AWD
Hakan #52781 in July 87; OH0/DL7HBT Aland Isl. by Harry #40962 in Jan. 87;
ST4/WZ6C Sudan by Eric #38879 in May 90; S01EA/EA5BQJ W.Saraha by Fransico
#31894 in Mar. 90; TL8HW Cent. Africa by Tracy #49580 in Sept. 91; TY/FE1JDG
Benin Rep. by Andre #42935 in Nov. 91; T53UN Somalia by WB8WHO Kent #44086 in
May 92; VK9C Cocos Keeling Isl. by VK9NKG George #38900 in April 88; and
YX0AI Aves Isl. by Ramon YV5EED #8498 in March 92.
While in Russ's radio room, the band was open to Costa Rica and we talked
with TI2JJP Jose #45800 my friend. Jose tries to keep the QSL problems down
with his POBox but his mail system is bad! Do not put any call sign on your
mail and rap dark paper around your $ postage so it can not be seen! QSL to
Jose Pastora, POB 300-1000, San Jose ,Costa Rica, Central America.
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Upcoming DXpeditions & New 10-10 Country Activity:
Heard Island by a large group of DXpeditioners about January 13, 1997 for two
weeks. Look for Ralph K0IR #2629 and two other members. Good luck on ten.
J52IM Guinea-Bissau Africa by Dave Bendt #24392 ex 4K0IM and other US calls.
Dave s current posting will keep him their long enough for me to work a new
1010 country, I hope. Dave became a member when he was in Azerbaijan several
years ago, a nice achievement for him! Now he is waiting on a 40 foot tower
and some parts to help his station in J5. QSL to KB9XN #57389 Howard Barbrey
, 306 Greenfiled Cir, Geneva, IL 60134.
CQ WW SSB Contest: XE1L by Louis #18056 QSL to WA3HUP Mary Ann Crider, 2485
Lewisberry Rd., York Haven, PA-17370, USA. XK7CFD by David VE7CFD #64675.
CI2QK and XM2MCZ by Jim VE2QK #42050. LP7N by Carlos LU2NI #25994.
4M2BYT by Alberto YV2BYT #27200. CT8T by Jose CT1EEB #58967. IQ2Q by Luca
IK2AEQ #38320. QSL via Buro. _____________________________________________
Skip for the ARRL Ten Meter Contest will be better than last year! As I said
in my last two articles, the much improved skip is slowly returning on Ten.
The DX opening this fall will start about 1500 Z for us in the middle of the
US. I am sticking to my comments about May 28, 1996 being the start of Cycle
23. With the increase in average solar flux up above 100 last week and the
predictions by NOAA, we have started the next cycle.
Propagation: Solar flux will range from 77-110 in the
Winter of 1996, as I write this, the Solar flux is 91, the A index 4 and K
index 1, about 20 points higher than last quarter! In the transition from
cycle 22 to 23, expect large swings of flux as new spots appear near or
above the equator on the sun. For stations in the Eastern US, expect a 15%
chance of DX propagation to be East-West paths into Europe or Africa, for
stations in the Western US, expect a 5% chance of DX into Europe. All of the
US into S.America, expect a 25% chance of DX skip. Expect continued Sporadic
E Layer conditions during the winter to be 2-4 hop skip that will travel 500
to 2500 miles with fading. F Layer skip will return with cycle 23. Remember
to listen for the beacons (28.175-28.3) to check conditions.
Thanks to: Russ Gauthier (N5EJS@linknet.net) for his assistance; To everyone
for the letters and photos that you have been sending; To the on-line DX
Reflector, QRZ-DX & Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins. Send photos to Mike Davidson,
3518 Bellefontaine, Houston, TX 77025 USA or Email: KC5CP@aol.com.
Remember, DX IS !
Good DX & 73. ... Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Tadjikistan EY8CQ Alex #39387 ex.UJ8JCQ RJ8JAB EY1ZA EY2Q EY5OV & EY8AB. All
QSL must be sent via Alex Rubtsov, Box 32, Moscow, 117449, Russia.
Charlie KA5EAV/KA2CC #45835 (KA2CC is Japan) sent this: "QSL via USBURO -
AA1MF, John, has established a QSL bureau for stateside swapping. For more
information, his Email is: 102452.2315@compuserve.com. I will send all
unsolicited QSL's to this bureau, if you have an SASE on file, you will
receive my QSL. SASE's sent direct to me will of course be answered. When you
have a club/net meeting, this info could be of interest to other hams, why
not pass it along. Check KF7VY's homepage (
http://www.accessone.com/~vbook/hronline.htm ) for a good description of this
service. 73 Charlie "
On-line DX information:
Want to see the latest sunspot number predicts from the U.S. Dept. of
Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center? Check out:
http://www.hamradio-online.com .
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The following is a summary of the old USSR regions that now have new prefixes
for each new country accordingly:
EK.........................Armenia (ex- UG)
EM..EN..EO..........Ukraine (ex- UB)
ER.........................Moldava (ex- UO)
EU..EV..EW..........Belarus (ex- UC)
EX.........................Khirgizstan (ex- UM)
EY.........................Tadjikistan (ex- UJ)
EZ.........................Turkoman (ex- UH)
R1A......................Antarctica (ex- 4K1)
R1F.......................Franz Josef Land (ex- 4K2)
R1M......................Malyj Vysotskij (ex- 4J1)
RA,RN,RU,RV,RW,RX,RZ1,3,4 & 6........European Russia
RA,RN,RU,RV,RW,RX,RZ8, 9 & 0.........Asiatic Russia
RA2,RN2,RU2,RV2,RW2,RX2,RZ2.......Kaliningrad
UA-UI1, 3, 4 & 6.............European Russia
UA-UI8, 9 & 0.................Asiatic Russia
UA2..................................Kaliningrad
UJ..UK..UL..UM.............Uzbekistan (ex- UI)
UN1..................................Karelia (Eu Russia)
UN2-0..UO..UP..UQ........Kazakhstan (ex- UL)
UR,US,UT,UU,UV,UW,UX,UY,UZ...Ukraine (ex- UB)
4J..4K...............................Azerbaijan (ex- UD)
4L.....................................Georgia (ex- UF)
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