LAST UPDATED: 26th August 2010

So what is DX?

‘DX’ means different things to different people. To someone running low power, DX could be any contact no matter what the distance. But to a seasoned DXer, DX could be that new entity or the last one needed for an award etc. DX is an old Morse abbreviation meaning ‘long distance’. However we hams have modified it’s meaning to suit our purposes and now it has come to mean a combination of distance and difficulty/rarity. Usually though, if a station were calling “CQ DX” (i.e. I am calling for DX stations), it would mean they were looking to contact stations outside of their own continent.

Sometimes a station could be quite close geographically but still classed as DX because the area they are transmitting from is very rarely heard on radio, for instance take the station 1A0KM, operating from Italy. Italy is not usually classed as DX on the HF bands BUT the 1A0 prefix makes this part of Italy very rare. 1A0KM is the station of the ‘Sovereign Military Order of Malta’ which qualifies as a separate entity (or country as they used to be called). 1A0KM is only activated maybe once or twice a year at best and is only on for a few hours at a time (this is a deliberate decision by the SMOM), so trying to work this station is very difficult indeed despite the fact it is only in Italy. It is not the signal strengths that stop you from working it—signals from this station are usually quite good. What does stop you is the sheer volume of other stations calling at the same time (a ‘PILE UP’!). Trying to make out a single voice from literally hundreds calling takes a lot of skill and patience. An area of Rome that counts as an entity in it’s own right is the Vatican, or Vatican City State. The Vatican is tiny but does nevertheless count as an entity. It’s prefix is HV and there have been numerous activations from there over the years. This is another prefix that attracts a LOT of attention when it comes on the air. I have been very fortunate to have worked 1A0KM on 6m, I have heard the Vatican on 6m but could not get through the hundreds of callers although I have worked it on HF a few times.

Sometimes we have a ‘new’ DXCC entity on the air, and of course everyone goes nuts trying to work it. One recent example is one that they have probably already worked previously, before it was a new entity. Where am I talking about? What used be known as ‘Yugoslavia’ spit into the various regions that comprised it: Croatia and Bosnia were two, the third was comprised of Serbia and Montenegro together. In July of 2006, Serbia and Montenegro split into separate entities and we now have Montenegro as a brand new one to work. Not the most challenging new one, especially from Europe but it’s still another one for the tally. Another new entity  surfaced around the same time as Montenegro, this one is a little more exotic though! One of the outlying islands of the American Samoa group now qualifies under the new DXCC rules as a separate entity, thus we have Swains Island (located at 11S03 171W05) - the callsign used for this first activation was KH8SI.

It is important to keep up to date with not only DXCC entities but also prefix allocations as they change from time to time and can catch you unawares. One example of this is Bosnia-Herzegovina which was allocated the prefix of T9x when it first became independent, this has subsequently changed and now has the prefix of E7x. The Cook islands are another example (were ZK... now E5...). Use the variouis bulletins available to keep check on these. The Russian Federation is changing some prefixes at the moment to keep in line with political policies. They used to be based on the old Russian ‘oblast’ (regional political departments, like counties/states) system) but is now being brought in line with the current regime (I may well post the details here when it has all settled down!).

The DXCC roster now stands at 338 and the current ARRL DXCC list can be viewed HERE.

HOW TO WORK MORE DX!

So how can you work more DX? There are several things you can do to ensure you have the maximum chance of catching a new one. Firstly set up your station so that it is efficient as possible and is working as well as it can. Being efficient can mean anything from not having unnecessary joins in cables to having the best physical layout of equipment. This may not seem a big thing but believe me the last thing you will want to be doing is stretching across or standing up to adjust a control when you are struggling to winkle out a weak signal that is an all time new one in the log. Things that are used frequently, such as the transceiver/transmitter/receivers and ATU, linear amplifier (if you use one) should be within easy reach as these are the things that are going to in almost constant use (the ATU and linear will need adjusting when changing band or sometimes within a band if a narrowband antenna is in use) Transistorised linears and auto ATU’s somewhat negate the need to make constant changes but can be expensive to buy and may not be suitable for your situation. Valve linears and manual ATU’s are far more common, particularly for higher powers when it comes to designing your own. Have a look online at pictures of various station layouts, I have seen all sorts from the tiny (a mobile transceiver and a PSU on a bedside table) to full blown multi operator contest stations and everything in between. As you browse you will see how equipment is arranged and this should give you a good grounding when it comes to designing your own layout. The next thing to sort out is antennas - you need to use the best antenna you can fit in to maximise your chances. Remember the old adage: “If you can’t hear them, you can’t work them”. Seperate antennas for each band is the ideal answer but in real life that is unlikely to happen. Don’t just buy the first or cheapest antenna you see for sale, and also be very wary of manufacturer/retailers performance figures. These are usually inflated to make the antenna appear better than it actually may be. They may not be lying but instead quoting figures based on a different reference point (a typical example of this is where the gain of an antenna is quoted - the usual reference point for this is in dB (decibels) compared to a half wave dipole (dBd) - but some of the shadier manufacturers tend to quote the gain figure with reference to an ‘isotropic’ (which is a perfect, lossless, theoretical antenna in free space) antenna (designated as dBi). The dBi figure is 2.15 times higher than the dBd figure, so a half wave dipole has a gain of 0dBd or 2.15dBi. Bearing in mind that 3dB is a power gain of 2, you can see why an antenna having over 2dB more gain than another looks attractive. If an antenna from one manufacturer seems to offer a distinct gain advantage over another similar design from another then beware as the gain may be quoted in dBi (they should give a reference point but often don’t) - I have seen numerous adverts for ‘high gain’ CB base antennas quoting gains of 3 or even more dB for a half wave vertical - this just isn’t possible if it were being quoted in dBd (unless they were quoting  ground reflection gain or quoting gain at some strange angle). A half wave dipole takes some beating, especially if it is at least a half wave above ground and in the clear. Research as much as possible before committing to an antenna, especially if space is limited. If at all possible, steer clear of these ‘wideband’ vertical antennas that claim to cover from 1.8MHz right up to 30 or even 60MHz without radials and without an ATU - they are, on the whole, very inefficient. Most are around 5m long, which on 1.8MHz makes it a very short antenna in respect to wavelength and even if properly tuned with a dedicated matching circuit would onlly be 5% or less efficient (i.e. if you put 100w into the antenna, only 5w would be radiated, the remaining 95w would be dissipated through the antenna loading coil as heat. If you can only put up a vertical, it would be best to concentrate on 1 or 2 bands. Try making one for 20m (a quarter wave on 14MHz would be 5m or so) and you will also be able to use it on 30m and 17m (and probably other higher bands too) with a tuner. Make a 3 band vertical - there are numerous dessigns on the web and you will be able to cover from 20m up to 6m (and the chances are that you will be able to tune down to 30 and maybe even 40m). One of the more common CB verticals says that with a tuner it will cover from 40m upwards. Verticals, while not taking up as much physical space do tend to pick up more electrical noise than horizontal antennas. So that is the shack and the antenna sorted but that is not the end of the story, you need to familiarize yourself with the operation of all your equipment so that adjusting it becomes second nature. You really don’t want to be  thumbing through an instruction manual to remember how to change the filter bandwidth or something when you are in the heat of battle for a new one! Once you know how your equipment works, you  need to learn how to operate effectively. You may wonder how some guys can come on, give one or two calls and work a station that you have been trying to work for the past 3 hours! It is down to technique, operating skill and listening to the dx station. Many dx-ers will call a station blindly without first listening and the only thing they will achieve is to annoy other operators. There are some simple rules that should be obeyed when trying to work DX which, if everybody adhered to, would shorten the time required to work the dx and create less QRM. Try to follow these guidelines and you will begin to notice that you get through more times and get through sooner.

To be continued....

STATISTICS FROM THE G4UCJ / G4001SWL LOGBOOK

Here are some statistics from my own logbook now that I have well over 70,000 QSO’s and loggings: I began keeping this logbook back in July 1996, so all information is from then on. I have just had a thin out and removed any duplicates from the log, plus checked that all the dxcc are correct (do not rely on your logging program to be 100% accurate, the country data that it uses needs to be carefully checked so that the correct DXCC is assigned to each callsign (and this is especially true with the more unusual callsigns and special prefixes).

DXCC Entities Heard (and mostly Worked) from 1996-Date

DXCC by BAND   DXCC by MODE   ALL 160 80 40 30 20 17 15 12 10 6   MIXED PHONE CW DIGITAL RTTY PSK ALL 319 114 190 249 263 300 269 259 227 224 104   319 260 313 251 210 221 2010 216 43 78 117 98 187 125 150 61 80 70   216 151 172 167 93 161 2009 205 3 5 87 97 186 65 57 10 25 9   205 23 71 180 43 177 2008 134 49 50 71 83 99 37 10 1 1 1   134 10 48 122 47 114 2007 155 4 37 71 69 119 73 50 15 34 46   155 56 86 134 73 124 2006 201 11 25 77 55 169 80 91 23 27 82   201 106 157 140 92 114 2005 239 81 127 169 126 202 154 169 67 75 56   239 195 224 149 123 110 2004 244 89 130 177 158 212 143 184 92 116 52   244 143 228 160 123 128 2003 128 29 50 69 65 73 39 48 15 27 23   128 29 121 45 29 34 2002 193 0 57 113 91 123 95 105 75 98 29   193 1 193 40 39 5 2001 157 8 54 79 48 101 24 93 34 82 11   157 11 147 94 69 60 2000 212 32 73 113 101 156 112 150 106 148 0   212 77 210 0 0 0 1999 208 15 63 129 99 154 110 147 94 130 0   208 86 205 0 0 0 1998 181 5 51 97 37 136 79 101 66 90 49   181 71 179 2 0 0 1997 170 0 14 108 6 138 0 56 14 42 0   170 53 168 0 0 0 1996 114 0 1 96 2 85 7 4 0 3 0   114 57 107 0 0 0

WPX - Prefixes Logged

US States Heard in 2010

(Maximum of 50 - that is 48 ‘Lower’ (or Mainland States), plus Hawaii and Alaska)

CQ Zones Logged in 2010

(Maximum of 40 per band and mode)

So how many modes are there? Lots I think is the easiest answer to that one! I would hazard a guess that in general amateur use there are probably more than 30 but if you include military, diplomatic, govermental   and commercial I am sure that number would easily top 100. To give you an idea of how many modes there are around, I have looked at my log and found the following modes have been logged:

CW; RTTY; AM; BPSK; CONTESTIA; DOMINO; DRM; FSK31, FM; HELL; JT64a; JT65; JT6M; MFSK; MT63; OLIVIA; PACTOR; PACKET; QPSK; ROS; SSB; THOR; THROB; TOR and WSPR.  That is 24 different modes- not including all the sub modes (such as BPSK31, 63 and 125 etc).

I am keeping my statistics updated and each year I try to set a goal, to keep the excitement going -  for 2009  my goal was to get as many countries on PSK31 as possible. It was quite a challenge and tested my station well. This year I am again chasing DXCC on digital but as something else I am trying to hear all 50 US states on CW, SSB, and Digimodes - I managed to get the last two states needed (Wyoming and Nevada) thanks to the WPX RTTY contest and some very good propagation (almost 20 from the West Coast in just a couple of hours, which is the most I have had in one go)  - I find that the Dakota’s, Idaho and Wyoming tend to be the hardest to hear for some reason- presumably it is to do with the distance falling in a ‘skip zone’ as it has been noticeable from 3 different locations now. The West Coast (California, Oregon and Washington) is heard most days on JT65 or PSK31. Also I don’t think there are that many active hams in Wyoming. Well over the last couple of days both Alaska and Hawaii made it into the log, after I made a special effort to be around when it was likely that I could hear them if the path was open - that is a fundamental rule of dx-ing, you need to know where the bands are likely to be open to at any given time and at any time of the year. Some bands such as 160m can have a a very short ‘window’ in which certain countries can be worked, sometimes as little as 20m a day and only at certain times of the year and solar cycle AND providing propagation is suitable -  that is a lot of variables to take into consideration when planning a dxing session. The example I just mentioned is the case when trying to work ZL (New Zealand) from the UK, not only does propagation have to be very good, you need to find a station who is on at the precise time the band opens and is listening for weak dx. You may then get lucky, but then you may not, it’s the chase that keeps us going! As a matter of interest, I have not logged ZL on top band - yet (after over 30 years of listening!), but I will keep trying.

I can see where I need to make improvements and where it is working as I would like. One thing that was highlighted was that my antennas were not performing as they should. I raised my active loop about a metre higher than it was and it has made quite a difference as far as reduced noise level is concerned. I managed to get my G5RV up to its full height of 10m and raised the legs as high as I could get them (one at about 8 feet and the other at gutter level). This has dropped the noise level on this antenna enormously and is quiet on most bands, except when someone switches on a Plasma TV. I am noticing an improvement on average distance received too - I am getting more stations from the 5000km and upwards region now.  I did not manage to operate at all during the CQWW CW contest in November 09, which is a shame but I don’t think I suffered too badly as the majority of stations were on before and after the contest. A couple of interesting stations around have been TX3A on Chesterfield Island and FK8DD on New Caledonia, which I have heard on PSK31 for 4 mornings in a week (at a distance of around 17000km - dx by anyone’s standard!). Also VK9XX on Christmas Island has been active and heard on a few bands here. So on to 2010, once again I will be chasing countries on PSK31 and other modes. This year should benefit from an increase in solar activity, and hopefully some good dx-peditions will be around to activate some rare and exotic places.

Getting to 300 DXCC was difficult, 310 was much more difficult and it gets harder with each one you hear, and of course takes much longer as the ones you want are very likely to be from places that have no resident amateurs. Hearing the last 25 or so  is going to be MUCH harder as most of these are usually only operated by DXpeditions, and you may have to wait years for such an expedition. Then of course there is propagation to take into account, just because a station is on the air doesn’t mean that you will hear it! There are a very few DXCC entities that are virtually impossible at this time, such as North Korea (activity is not permitted, there was a legal operation a few years ago but even that was terminated by the authorities and sadly I was not able to hear it). Keeping your ear to the ground and a careful watch on the various dx bulletins will give you a ‘heads up’ as to forthcoming DXpeditions and operations so that you can be in the right place at the right time to catch that elusive new one - who knows it may never be activated again so make sure you don’t miss it!

Spare a thought for the operators that put these weird and wonderful places on the air, some take years to get the necessary documentation through to operate, never mind the getting there and the cost of the operations. That in mind, you really should look at the pictures of this expedition, it is a REAL eye opener, operators sat perched on a rock barely big enough for an operating table literally 100’s of miles from anywhere - This is Scarborough Reef! BS7H, one of the newest DXCC entities and wanted by everyone. There was every chance they could be visited by pirates (real ones!), literally risking life and limb to put this little group of rocks on the air for us. Now THAT is dedication to your hobby!!

Check out the BS7H website: http://www.scarboroughreef.com/4rocks.html

I am hoping to include some propagation information and tips for catching the dx here in the near future. Until I can do that, here a few things to remember:

Always use the best antenna you can - if you can’t hear them, you can’t work them, and a great receiver on a poor antenna will perform poorly, but a poor/average receiver with a great antenna will give consistently better results.

Do all you can to reduce man made noise levels, many weak signals can be masked by noise from everyday electronic equipment - computers, switch mode psu’s, plasma tv’s, monitors, mobile phone chargers, satellite systems, even house lighting can all add to the overall noise floor. It’s difficult to reduce noise that is not coming from your house, the best you can do is to try to situate your antenna as far from the noise source as possible and ensure that your connecting cables are in good condition and offer adequate shielding. Also make sure any ground/earthing system you use is as low resistance as possible and any connecting lead is as short as possible. Check on the internet for a wealth of information on this subject.

With the plethora of odd prefixes around the bands it is not surprising to have logged well over 3000, and even nearly 1700 this year (and it is only March). Keeping up with which prefixes belong to which country is hard work! Sometimes I have heard a really unusual prefix and thought it might be somewhere exotic and new only to find it belonged to a very common country.  I try and keep up with the prefix allocation but I have to admit that occasionally I get caught out and have to consult a list.

UK CALLSIGNS - how to work out what license class and region the prefix is from

Even the UK has a multitude of prefix allocations, such as GA-GZ , MA-MZ, 2A-2Z. What is difficult is working out which license class belongs to which prefix. Below is a rough guide to our callsign system both present, and a little information on previous systems.

M0 and M1 are Full Licenses (before the requirement for Morse was dropped M0 were class A and M1 were class B), M3 and M6 are foundation licenses, 2E0 and 2E1 are Intermediate licenses (the ‘E’ is for England (only used with ‘2’ calls), other sub prefixes for the UK are: I for Ireland, M for Scotland, W for Wales, J for Jersey, U for Guernsey and D for the Isle of Man). All ‘G’ calls are full licenses. However the situation used to be very complicated, and the license type depended on a combination of the number after the G and the number of letters in the suffix. Thus G8AA would be a class A/Full license, but G8AAA would be a class B/VHF license BUT G3AAA and G3AA would both be class A/Full licenses!).

In the UK, the licence system has been simplified somewhat and consists of three license classes, Foundation which is the lowest license class and carries several restrictions, such as a maximum power output of 10 watts and access to segments of certain bands.

The next license class is called ‘Intermediate’ (under the old system, this was the ‘Novice class’ and carried a maximum power of just 3 watts and severe restrictions on band usage). The Intermediate class license now has a limit of 50 watts output and access to a much greater part of the HF spectrum.

The third and final class of license is the ‘Advanced’ license, which allows full access to every band and mode with a maximum power output of 400 watts (but there are some power restrictions on certain frequencies which are detailed in the license conditions).

However, you can apply for a ‘high power’ ‘Notice of Variation’ (NoV) to your license, which, if approved, would allow you to run 1kW (or possibly more - I do  not know anyone that has this NoV) which can be used for experimental purposes such as EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) contacts etc.

Obviously if you are intending to run upwards of 1kW your station must be up to scratch and will be inspected to ensure that no health and safety issues are apparent (exposure to strong RF fields etc) and that you are in a suitable location - running 1kW into an attic mounted dipole or an antenna on the same pole as TV antennas etc, is not going to do anyone favours!!

Here is a simplified version of the current UK licensing system:

License Class Prefix (For England, see below for other regions) Foundation M3, M6 (plus 3 letter suffix) Intermediate 2E1, 2E0 (plus 3 letter suffix) Advanced G0, G1, (plus 3 letter suffix) G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G8 (plus 2 or 3 letter suffix) G7, M0, M1, M5 (plus 3 letter suffix) Beacons/Repeaters/Special Event Stations/DX Clusters GB (Non georgaphical) Digital Nodes MB (Non georgaphical) Special Contest Callsigns G or M 1-0 plus 1 letter. (i.e. G5J or M9L) Clubs or Associations GX, MX (Prefix for England only, see below for other areas)

UK Region	Region Designator (2nd letter of pfx)	Sample callsigns for each class + club call
		Advanced	Intermediate	Foundation	Clubs
England	None, X  (Club)	G4UCJ	2E1QQQ	M6QQQ	GX4UCJ
Scotland	M, S (Club)	GM4UCJ	2M1QQQ	MM6QQQ	GS4UCJ
Wales	W, C (Club)	GW4UCJ	2W1QQQ	MW6QQQ	GC4UCJ
Northern Ireland	I, N (Club)	GI4UCJ	2I1QQQ	MI6QQQ	GN4UCJ
Isle of Man	D, T (Club)	GD4UCJ	2D1QQQ	MD6QQQ	GT4UCJ
Jersey	J, H (Club)	GJ4UCJ	2J1QQQ	MJ6QQQ	GH4UCJ
Guernsey	U, P (Club)	GU4UCJ	2U1QQQ	MU6QQQ	GP4UCJ

There is an excellent web page that explains the UK licenses past and present and gives dates when the various callsign series were issued (for instance the G4 plus 3 letter series - such as G4UCJ, was issued between 1971 and 1985) - Mine was issued in 1983.

See: http://www.electronics-radio.com/articles/ham_radio/call-signs/uk-amateur-radio-callsigns.php for much more information.

The world is split up into zones (ITU and CQ) for the purposes of radio communication. The are 90 ITU zones and 40 ‘CQ’ zones (this was devised by the American radio magazine “CQ”, which sponsors a number of major contests and award programs). Knowing which zone a station is in is not always easy, particularly if they are in an unfamiliar location. The list below will help with some of the less obvious cases (such as the USA, Canada and Russia, each of which has numerous zones).

CQ Zones details

Coming soon - how to maximize your chances of increasing your DXCC totals