[ADXA] 160m DXing in the "old days"... Glad got my DXCC in 1980. VHF chasing.

[Sandy Hutson]

My 160m DXCC # 18 was signed by Harry Dannals, W2HD as President and W1XX John Lindholm, 40 years ago in December 1980. If Harry is still living he would be in his mid 90s in age!  I have 215 confirmed on 160m, a low # compared to other ADXA members and just wished I had a decent 1.8mc antenna after moving in town in 1995. 

I basically chased one here and there these past few  years and have only confirmed 7 new ones since early 2018, 3 years ago. No antenna now on 1.8, sorry to say. Sure have good memories of the 70s through mid 90s with good shunt fed towers and ½ wave rotatable slopers as an antennas. A “T” antenna worked well too, fed at bottom with only 4 radials but a good ground rod is all anyone needed with the “T”. An inverted L was used a lot in 1974-76 in Hot Springs.

Years ago several of us used regular telephones or a fixed secret 75m SSB frequency to notify each other of “middle of the night” schedules or having just worked one, mainly helped with EU, AF and SA QSOs. Many I worked on 160m were moved there after an 80m QSO (1977-83)…  Two years after 1980, MANY stations were working 100 on 1.8mc in a year or so after getting on the band, mainly due to propagation changes.. No emails or cellphones back then. A single ding on a friend’s house phone told someone to go to the “secret” frequency. Did not want to wake up the wives! Then that person called other close friends. A cobweb of calling going on. Some of the participants were me, W1BB, KV4FZ, N4WW, W4QCW, W8LRL and others. 

FT8 has surely helped 160m DXCC chasers and also many DXers on 80m. Times a changing they say! 6m DXCC was a bit harder in some ways, varying in 11 year cycles, etc. I always wanted the low band 1.8 and high band 50.1 DXCCs to have ‘em on both ends of our main DXing bands.
Regards to all our ADXA DX chasers and a special congrats to those who have high totals on so many of our 10 main bands. 

A real “bugger” was chasing DXCC on 144mc. My total there ended at 29 (Cuba in Nov. 1996), but I had to use EME except for VE and XE. Joel and others, I am sure, have some DX worked on bands 222 and up. The antenna requirements are so demanding to set up and use of EME is a necessity. 
San YY

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Jay Bromley
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2021 11:24 AM
To: 'Trent Fleming'; 'Steven Rutledge'; 'adxa'
Subject: Re: [ADXA] First new DXCC of 2021

Hi Trent,
Congrats to George!!

I will agree it is a big deal!  The DXCC’s I value the most are 160m and 80m.  Those were before FT8, hi.  Mostly all CW.  If I can find the certificate I think my 160m DXCC had Joel’s signature on it.  So that makes it even cooler.  😊

You make it, just stay at the bottom of the band and hunt!  Verticals rule the lower bands!!

73 de jay/w5jay..

From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Trent Fleming
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2021 9:49 AM
To: Steven Rutledge <crownhaven at bellsouth.net>; adxa <ADXA at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ADXA] First new DXCC of 2021

Steve is right!  80m DX is a big deal.  I'm at 68 confirmed, with 3 pending confirmations.  All on phone.  It can be done, I'm basically 100w and a vertical (although the 7700 now offers me 200 watts and that helped when I worked Serbia on 80 last week.) I have South Africa, Australia, and Japan among others, so when conditions are right it can be done!  I find 0000-0200 a good time and 1100 - 1300 as well.

Good Dx to all!

73,

Trent
N4DTF

On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 9:10 AM Steven Rutledge <crownhaven at bellsouth.net> wrote:
Hi George.  DXCC on 80 IS a big deal.  I recently completed mine after making a concerted effort.  Congrats!

Steve, QQ

On Jan 20, 2021, at 9:06 AM, WB5JJJ <wb5jjj at gmail.com> wrote:

I know this is not a big deal for 99% of the members, but I FINALLY got a new DXCC on 80m this week.  Madeira Island, Jose (CT3MD) made his appearance on 80m FT8 in a short burst Tuesday evening (local).  He was -20 and actually gave me a -20 as well.  It was one of those contacts that could have gone either way in just 15 seconds.  After seeing his RR73, I saw him no more, but noticed others were still calling and a few appeared to still be able to work him.  

I now have Jose on 10m (2013 SSB), 12m (2014 SSB), 15m (2012 SSB), 17m, 20m, 30m, 40m & 80m are all in the last 3 years and on FT8.  

My Challenge points are now up to a whopping 1162 with this addition.  A very long way to go to the 3000 benchmarks set by Rick and Joel.  In checking my LoTW stats, in 2020, I got 23 new ones and in 2019, the biggest count of all with 35.  But this is where it drops off, mostly because I didn't have a very good antenna for 80m with only 9 in 2017 and 2018 combined.  The next ONE was back in 2007 from the USA.  A 10 year gap between the first one and the more recent ones.  Looks like I slacked off in 2020.  Gotta work on that.  

At two a month (typically), I won't reach that level for 76 more years or until 2097.  Don't think any of us will be around then to celebrate.  However, 1500 is only a slightly more reachable target in just 18 years, I'll just be 91 then.   Of course some very good band conditions in the next few years will help out greatly.  

73's
George - WB5JJJ


4
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