It would be interesting to hear the take on all this from Mr. Lane OH2BH, who has made possible many “impossible” entities. There are many places where he has shown up, provided diplomacy, and provided long lost entities. Albania (ZA)
once unworkable, comes to mind.
Dale K8TS
Sent from
Mail for Windows 10
From: Skip
Sent: Wednesday, June 2, 2021 2:13 PM
To: ARRL-Awards@...
Subject: Re: [ARRL-Awards] 5B DXCC and WAS Medallions
Agree with Gary. The Summits On The Air group decided that, while a particular valid summit might be on private or native land and inaccessible, or possibly a bombing range
for military training if you live in Nevada, that can change and inaccessibility is not grounds for removal from the summits registry. Admittedly, there are vastly more summits worldwide that meet the SOTA requirement [150 m prominence] than there are DXCC
entities, so the idea of "Climbing or Working All Summits" is just a pipedream, but I think the concept is still valid. Alpine County CA has no active hams [actually, it is close to having no people], yet NCCC still offers the Worked All California Counties
award ... there's always one or two teams that activate it during Cal QSO Party, and an occasional mobile will drive through.
Clinton DeSoto's original DXCC proposal was "work and confirm 100 countries." There are way more than 100 available countries [or entities in today-speak] for anyone who wishes, which I finally did after ~50 years, to get DeSoto's DXCC award. The concepts
of 100 or more on each band or mode, and working them all, came after as the award grew in importance. I view those pursuits as semi-separate from DXCC. I would suggest not tinkering with it. Full disclosure: Two of my 150 mixed are BS7H and Czechoslovakia,
neither of which are available or likely ever will be to someone starting out today.
My DXCC certificate [kind of impressive, nice wood frame from Target] has the 150 sticker on it. I may work a few more over what time I have left [81 today], but working them all is a task that I won't have to confront.
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
PS: In case anyone wonders, 81.0000 feels pretty much the same as 80.9973 did
On 6/1/2021 11:39 PM, Gary Hinson wrote:
Hi Bruce.
Everest is still there, even with your no-climbing signs.
Pretending that EZ or P5 don’t exist simply because there’s no amateur radio there at present is daft.
I understand your point, Bruce, but that’s not how DXCC works.
The challenge to work EZ or P5
includes the challenge of convincing the authorities that amateur radio is at worst benign, and in some ways beneficial for them. Getting operating permission and the correct paperwork from the relevant authorities is part of the battle to reach the
summit – just as chartering a ship, braving the roaring forties and scrambling up ice cliffs with the gear and supplies is part of the battle to activate Bouvet, Heard or Peter islands.
You seem to believe EZ will
never be activated, at least not in your lifetime or mine for that matter. I’m more optimistic, idly wondering what, if anything, the global amateur community can do to help surmount the obstacles …
73
Gary ZL2iFB
