I would start with past ARRL President Bob Dennisiton, W0DX / VP2VI, who has been credited with being the "father of the modern Dxpeditions." Bob headed up the "Gon-Waki" dxpedition during the 1948 ARRL DX Contest. The call used was VP7NG and the name was a play on words from Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki" expedition the previous year. He showed up on Clipperton in 1954 and gave me Malpelo in 1969. Bob retired and moved to VP2V land where he ran an island hotel and bar until he became a SK.
Another pioneer and good friend of mine was Dick McKercher, W0MLY, from Iowa. Dick or WOHMMLY as he was sometimes called, went into deepest, dark Africa (Dick's description) in the early 60's with a convoy of vehicles loaded with generators, amps, etc. Try to imagine the logistics of transporting a fully equipped KW station across Africa in 1962. He operated from, TJ, TL, TN, TR, TT, TX, and a few other places that I can not recall at the moment. Too many years ago. Either CQ or QST had a cover picture of Dick's Hallicrafters invasion of Africa. I saw Dick at W5KFT's Dx Bash a year or so before he became a SK in 1999. Still full of stories. Wouldn't it be fun to set in on a reunion of these folks. A whole room full of those "one of a kinds." Wonder if Dick would organize a little commotion like he did at the NJDXA's Dayton hospitality suite in 1974? I will leave it to the NJDXA guys to tell the rest of that story. John AE5B Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
