[FARC] DX NET

[Kirk Talbott]

Most of the club's HF users may be aware of this already, but in case some 
aren't I found an interesting DX net on 20 meters.

A net control station (In my case W4KRT Fred on 14.245 MHz. in St. Augustine 
Fla.) lines up a group of DX stations in Europe then calls for check-ins in 
the USA to talk to the European stations. The net is called the W7PHO Bill 
Bennett Family Hour DX Net, and it operates Monday thru Friday 1400 GMT. 
The net has been in continuous operation 46 years so most of you probably 
already know about it.  The net has a web page, www.w7pho.net/index.html, 
however I was unable to pull it up.

I could only communicate with net control due to poor propagation and 
limited equipment. But if propagation soon improves on 20 meters then I'll 
be able to participate as well.

As the only new ham in the club I think the DX "broker" or net control 
method for contacting DX stations seems like a neat idea since it avoids 
pileups and would give any check-in at least a fighting chance of being able 
to talk to a DX station.  I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but the 
standard method of trying to "out-holler" the mob in order to talk to a 
particular DX station for a few seconds seems ridiculous to me.

KB3ONM
(Kirk)