Bill, W4ZV said:
> SNIP
> Under the present DXCC Rule 9 this is legal...as it would be
> for a station in UA0 (far Western z19) using a remote in UA9 (far
> Eastern z17). DXCC once had the restriction that all contacts must be
> made within ~150 miles (uncertain of that exact distance)
> SNIP
>
>
I have heard many horror stories about hams refusing to pick up roots
because all they had worked for in DXCC would have be washed away.
The ARRL DXCC location rules were once very much not in balance. A one
point if you stayed within the call district, in my case W0, you didn't
have to start all over. So when away to Augustana College, Rock Island,
Ill I picked a QTH a few miles away, across the river in Davenport, Iowa
because I would have had to start DXCC all over over on the east bank of
the Mississippi. But the last two years at the University of Minnesota
my QTH was in Minneapolis and on the east bank of the same river but
still in W0...so I am OK for now. Then after college I was offered a
job at Gates Radio in Quincy, Ill.......start over? Like Bill W4ZV
feels...never. So I commuted across the same Mississippi from Maywood,
Missouri. Later I drove to Durango, Colorado for vacation about a 1000
miles to the west and worked a ton of JA's on 160 with 100 watts and a
inverted L. They still counted even though I was in a difference part
of the country and totally different propagation region. There was never
in my mind any justification for the very arbitrary DXCC location rule.
In 1968 the lure of the warm tropics, my wife's job with Pan Am, and
being closer to my Latin American region, was two much a strong
influence to put DXCC ahead of better choices. So I started over again
and got to the DXCC Honor Roll rather quickly. My new QTH now away from
the great auroral RF sink hole of the northern Midwest made things easy.
Also having 30 countries within 300 miles is great for low band contests.
Starting over is fun even though some of the countries I worked in the
60's don't exist any more...but dozens of new ones were created and I
was in the same boat as everyone.
Like so many I am glad that the old seemingly unchangeable traditions at
the DXCC HQ finally gave way to logic and reality of a mobile society.
HNY and many !60 new ones for you.
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
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"160-meters is a band for men, not for sissies!" - SM5EDX
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