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<div> I used to write an occasional article for the SWOT newsletter about VHF things, obviously mostly about 2m. </div>
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<div>The below was written a couple of months ago but may be of interest here.</div>
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<div>It's not restricted nor do I have any problems with someone using it as part of something else. However, if you do use it please credit MIVUS and post a copy if you add to it so that its available as a resource for all of us.</div>
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<div>TNX ES 73</div>
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<div><font size="3">Don, NL7CO</font></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 463.5pt;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">2m DXCC<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></font></font></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">An article of faith to most of us is that compared to HF,
most VHF awards are much harder to get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
seems simple enough considering how many HF folks there are versus those of us
who play on high, but is there any way to actually prove this?</font></font></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">One way to do this is to look at common awards given out by
the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is not yet an HF award that directly corresponds to the VHF/UHF
Century Club (VUCC) but there are several awards that have both an HF and a VHF
flavor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “big three” of these are the
DX Century Club (DXCC), Worked All States (WAS), and the Worked All Continents
(WAC). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the very
popularity of these awards make the WAS and the WAC hard to track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are simply too many of them to keep an
accurate account.</font></font></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">But the DXCC Award is the ARRL’s premier award and it is
relatively easy to track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The DXCC
concept is simple, confirm a two-way radio contact with 100 separate “countries”
and you can get the award.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I highlighted
“countries” because the ARRL has different definitions than the Unite Nations
(UN) of what constitutes a country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not going to get into what makes a country
a country for DXCC purposes, you can check out the rules for getting your DXCC
at <a href="http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-rules" target="_blank">http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-rules</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Currently, there are 339 total countries recognized by the ARRL for DXCC
purposes as opposed to the 241 recognized by the UN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is even a DXCC Honor Role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">To
qualify, you must have a total confirmed entity count that places you among the
numerical top ten DXCC entities total on the current DXCC List (example: if
there are 339 current DXCC entities, you must have at least 330 entities
confirmed). Deleted entities do not count towards the DXCC Honor Roll.</span></font></font></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">As of 25 Jan 17,
26,619 hams have earned a DXCC Award in the mixed category which is normally
the first of the 19 separate DXCC awards that an individual earns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the 2m DXCC Award, 133 have been awarded
with a high percentage of them being European which makes sense when they have
so many small countries in an area smaller than the continental US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are 2,150 hams who are sitting at the
top of the Mixed DXCC Award who have confirmed all 339 entities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, you are 16 times as likely to
have “worked them all” on HF as you are to have confirmed the basic 100 on 2m.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By comparison, there are almost 10 times the
number of 6m DXCC Awards at 1,194.</font></font></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">So it does appear
that the 2m DXCC Award is the hardest one to earn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve got 3 confirmed, only 97 more to
go!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How far along are you?</font></font></span></div>
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<div class="aolmail_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Don Ross, NL7CO</font></div>
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