Countries (1939)The January 1939 issue of QST showed again an updated ARRL Countries List., used to calculate DXCC standings. Among the changes in the list, you could find the new American Pacific prefixes, the consolidation of the British New Hebrides and French New Hebrides under one head (after it was determined that whether a French or English call is signed depends solely on the nationality of the operator!), and the deletion of Austria. Austria still did count, under Rule 6 of the Club rules. Clipperton Island was also added to the list, but without a prefix. No one had been active before on this strange spot on the globe.Samoa, American was listed with prefix KH instead of KH6. This was a typo of course, but the list below shows how the Countries list was published in the January 1939 QST.Remarkable is also that the prefix J9 did belong to 2 different entries; Marshall Islands and Taiwan (Formosa). And Zanzibar was listed with the correct prefix VQ1.The Countries-List printed in the January 1939 issue of QST did have 249 entries. Some countries (49) on this list did not have an official prefix. There was probably no ham in that country active on the amateur bands.Cheating.Because of the DXCC award, the demand for QSL cards, for confirmation of the QSO did increase rapidly. The Americans had of course the advantage that they could claim countries for QSOs made in the ARRL DX Contest. But for the most applicants the QSL was the only proof of a claimed QSO with a DXCC country. And If a station showed up from a "rare" country, he or she was "hunted". This hunting cause the usual things such as "phonies". Believe it or not, but some of the leading well known DXers tried to improve their DXCC score by changing QSL cards by themselves. This, of course was not the intention of the DXCC. So it was logical that ARRL did sent out a warning. Every change or forgery of QSL cards should lead to exclude the ham from the DXCC program, and the call of this ham would be removed from the DXCC list.However ARRL did not publish any cheater-call, and DXCC members were afraid this removal would happen to them also. So QSLs were checked carefully, and they looked careful in the members lists in QST, to find out calls of missing (removed) members. This check of the members list was not as simple as it would be today. You could not make a copy of the QST page, and cross out calls against each other. You had to type over the page, and using a pencil for crossing out. The ballpoint was invented in 1938, but the product did loose ink too often. The ballpoint became a commercial product after WW II.ARRL was accused of writing lies in QST, but yet it was the truth as was written in "How's DX" of June 1939 QST. Here is the full text.A few months back, mention was made that some of the DXCC guys were going to be dropped because they had been caught altering cards submitted in evidence. Apparently this little item caused some of the lads to check up immediately on the list to see if they were the ones left off, or to see if they could find who the rodents were. When they finally determined that no one had been dropped, they wrote in and accused us of running a bluff. No bluff, my hearties - it just takes a little time to check on some of these things. You'll find a few missing right now. Go ahead and check up; we'll wait for you.You found them, did you? Well, we could have saved you the trouble by naming them outright, but we've decided never to mention them again on this page. We don't go much for fellows that attach so much importance to their relative standing on the DXCC list that they cheat to beat out their fellow hams. In the immortal words of that sage of radio, W1QV: "After all, it's only a hobby."DX is !! AllwaysThe Last numbered DXCC members list.In the August 1939 issue of QST the last numbered DX Century Club was published. The lists published after August 1939 did not show the number anymore. So the last know DXCC number: 156, was issued to W1ZI having confirmation of 106 countries.This is the last publication of DXCC members from which their DXCC number is knownThe world is rumblingOn September 1, 1939 the German "Wehrmacht" invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939. the United Kingdom and France made a declaration of war to Germany. WW-II was started. Of course the war was of big influence on ham radio. America was ask to stay neutral, but the shadow of war was seen very clearly. Despite the declaration of war there was still ham activity from the British commonwealth and the French dependencies outside Europe. QST mentioned several calls, such as ZC6AA, VS6AF, FB8AD etc. in the "How's DX" reports.Belgium and Netherlands were still neutral, but there was no ham activity. Dutch hams were off air from August 30, 1939. The activity from hams all over the world dropped to 115 countries. South Africa did close ham radio on October 29, 1939.Above is the list of stations, getting their DXCC membership after August, 19391940 and the WarThe hams in America kept continue operating on the bands. DXCC hunting did not stop. In January 1940 the last changed DXCC rules were printed in QST. Some of the changes are very remarkable;•In cases of countries where amateurs are licensed in the normal manner, credit may be claimed only for stations using regular government-assigned call letters. This shall not militate against claimed credits for contacts prior to publication of this section that might otherwise have been claimed earlier. No credit may be claimed for contacts with stations in any countries in which amateurs have been temporarily closed down by special government edict where amateur licenses were formerly issued in the normal manner.•QSO's taking place after December 15, 1939, with any stations in any countries included in any Proclamation of Neutrality of the President of the United States of America, shall not count for Century Club credits. The countries listed in such proclamation are: Germany, France, Poland, United Kingdom, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Union of South Africa. If further countries are added to this list by the President, QSO's with those countries shall not count from effective date of such additional proclamation.•In accordance with the Century Club policy as outlined in the How's DX department, April, 1939 QST, all confirmations must be submitted as received from the stations worked. Any altered or forged confirmations submitted for C.C. credit will result in disqualification of the applicant from QST listings as well as from membership in the club. Any Century Club member submitting forged or altered confirmations must forfeit his membership.At the end of February 1940, only 2 European countries did not forbid ham radio; Estonia and Hungary.In May 1940, QST announced a different way of printing DXCC lists. No DXCC numbers anymore, but the new DXCC list did show some Honor Roll listing. Stations with 115 or more confirmed countries had a different print-layout than the stations with fewer credits.At the end of July 1940, the activity of American hams were also restricted. Only QSO's between Americans mutually and between Americans and the ham in American possessions were allowed. They could also make QSOs with hams in the Canal Zone and the Philippines.Prewar DXCC Phone.There was also a DXCC-Telephony ONLY. The list shows only 5 calls. It was not easy to get the 100 needed countries confirmed. CW was the preferred kind of transmission in those days. Congratulations to these five hams. Two of them, W2GW and W4CYU did also have the Normal DXCC.W2AZ did get DXCC-Phone Number 1, with 101 confirmed countries. Unfortunately, Dorothy, W2IXY, did not make it to get in the list.The last known Prewar DXCC Honor Roll leader was W2GT. He did get 152 countries confirmed. G6WY did lose his first place, but with 145 confirmed countries he was the first European in the Honor Roll list.In December 1940, publications of DXCC was temporarily postponed. In 1941, QST showed some minor changes in the DXCC listings. These changes are captured in the listings on this page.The notice in QST that the DXCC listing was postponed "for the duration" brought forth a few cries of anguish and despair from the poker men who play 'em close. The listing should go on until they got one hundred. But the door was temporary closed. ARRL quoted:To take care of these fellows, cards will still be checked and certificates awarded to those who can hit one hundred or more with cards and other confirmations, sent in all at one time. Thus there is still plenty of incentive to scare up as many of the possible countries as possible, to get the award for the shack wall, but the burden of cards straggling in a few at a time will have been removed from the card-checking department. But we hate to think of the deluge when the listing is re-opened, in the very near future, we hope!America in war in 1941.The attack from Japan on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 came as a big shock for the American people. On December 8, 1941, America declared war to Japan. Now America was also in war, in the Pacific, but also in Europe. The same day F.C.C. announced that all Ham radio activity was forbidden.Ham Radio was silence.EpilogueAfter World War II it was still possible to sent in applications or additional credits for the Prewar DXCC. However none of these additions where printed in QST.After inquiry at ARRL in May 2017, I got the message that ARRL did lose all Prewar DXCC records. There are no Prewar DXCC archives.I you have additional information about the Prewar DXCC, or corrections, please let me know.73, Wino, PA0ABM
Prewar DXCC
DXCC-Countries A-FAden . Aegean Islands, Afghanistan, YAAlaska (including Pribilof Islands), K7Albania, ZAAldabra Islands,Algeria, FAAndaman Islands,Andorra,Anglo Egyptian Sudan, STAngola, CR6Argentina, LUAscension Island, ZD8Australia, VKAzores Islands, CT2Bahama Islands, VP7Bahrein Islands, VS8Baker Island, Howland Island and Am. Phoenix Ids, KF6Balearic Islands, EA6Baluchistan,Barbados, VP6Bechuanaland,Belgian Congo, OQBelgium, ONBermuda Islands, VP9Bhutan,Bolivia, CPBorneo, Netherlands, PK5Brazil, PY British Honduras, VP1British North Borneo, VS4Brunei,Bulgaria, LZBurma, XZCameroons, French, FE8Canada, VECanal Zone, (K5)Canary Islands, EA8Cape Verde Islands, CR4Caroline Islands,Cayman Islands, VP5Celebes and Molucca Islands, PK6Ceylon, VS7Chagos Islands, VQ8Channel Islands, GChile, CEChina, XUChosen (Korea), J8Christmas Island, ZC3Clipperton Island,Cocos Island, TICocos Islands, ZC2Columbia, HJCook Islands, ZK1Corsica,Costa Rica, TICrete, SVCuba, CM-COCyprus, ZC4Czechoslovakia, OKDanzig, YMDenmark, OZDominican Republic, HIEaster Island,Ecuador, HCEgypt, SUEngland, GEritrea,Estonia, ESEthiopia, ETFaeroes The, OYFalkland Islands, VP8Fanning Island, VR3Federated Malay States, VS2Fiji Islands, VR2Finland, OHFrance, FFrench Equatorial Africa, FQ8French India, FNFrench Indochina, FI8French Oceania, FO8French West Africa, FF8Fridtjof Nansen Land (Frans Josef Land),
ORDER NO. 87At a session of the Federal Communications Commission held at its offices in Washington, D.C., on the 8th day of December, 1941;Whereas a state of war exists between the United States and the Imperial Japanese Government, and the withdrawal from private use of all amateur frequencies is required for the purpose of the National Defense;IT IS ORDERED, that except as may hereafter be specifically authorized by the Commission, no person shall engage in any amateur radio operation in the continental United States, its territories and possessions, and that all frequencies heretofore allocated to amateur radio stations under Part 12 of the Rules and Regulations BE, AND THEY ARE HEREBY WITHDRAWN from use by any person except as may hereafter be authorized by the Commission.By order of the Commission:T. J. Slowie,Secretary