Greetings ADXA Folks,

We have had a lot of discussion about the validity of some DXCC countries and whether they should be on the list, owing to not being active for several years and no planned activiation. A lot of this is driven by a desire to achieve DXCC Honor Roll, a very “honorable” goal to set your sights to. Bill, K5FUV has a most excellent presentation he has made at our conference in the past and also an article that appeared in CQ Magazine regarding the DXCC Honor Roll, the effort required, and why it should not be “watered down” to provide instant gratification. Several ADXA members, including me, fully concur.

At the risk of rehashing old details or opening old wounds on this topic, I’ll just state that the concept of an “Honor Roll” was not to provide instant gratification but rather a very noble goal to work toward in your DXCC pursuit and to recognize those who had achieved that goal.

The catalyst for this email came from a call I was on early this morning with the IARU global officers and regional IARU presidents (yes, we have our calls very early USA time to accommodate those in SE Asia where it is evening time and also for those in Europe). IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, noted he had worked ZD9W for #331 and he has now achieved DXCC Honor Roll status after 45 years!! Tim is a very active DX’er and has been a great leader of IARU globally to ensure frequency allocations to the Amateur Radio Service on an international level are protected. His extensive travel demands (not just as IARU President but also as a partner in an international law firm) have no doubt impacted his ability to be on the air when some entities appeared. He never gave up and kept plugging away at his numbers!

Tim has been a close personal friend of mine for over 35 years so it is a great pleasure for me to congratulate him on achieving DXCC Honor Roll and never giving up !!!!!

Now back to all the DX flying all over the bands. GET IN THERE…………………….

73 Joel W5ZN

p.s. Tim also has 8 band DXCC and is now focusing on increasing his 160 and 6 meter numbers!