Looking Back at Cycle 23

Cycle 23 was a much bigger cycle with higher sunspot numbers than Cycle24.  1998 was at the beginning of that sunspot cycle and 358 stations and 167 unique DXCC were announced at NG3K's website.   There are many notable DXpeditions - among them Somalia, Scarborough Reef, Juan de Nova, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, Revillagigedo, Palmyra, Midway, Kure, Heard Is, Burundi, and Amsterdam Island.

In 1998, Baker and Howland was activated and Amsterdam Island was activated again.   Other notables included Crozet, Kerguelen, Kingman Reef, Kermadec, Saint Brandon.  Zorro had his 10th expedition to Myanmar XZ1J.  332 Stations were announced in NG3K website and 152  were unique.

In 1999, Glorioso Island and Johnston Island were activated along with Tromelin.

In 2000, Yemen, Pratas, Bouvet, Johnston, along with Chesterfield Island were all activated.

In 2001, Malpelo, Mellish Reef, Niger, North Korea, San Felix, Spratly, Tromelin (again), Syria, UK Bases in Cyprus,

In 2002, there were several expeditions to Afghanistan, and an expedition to Macquarie, South Orkney

In 2003, there were several expeditions to Christmas Island,

In 2004 Aves Island was activated

In 2005, Clipperton was activated. In 2006 Lakshadweep was activated along with the UN HQ. In 2007, Jan Mayen was activated.

In 2006, Aves Island was again activated.  Glorioso Island and Peter 1 were also activated.

In 2007, Syria, Spratly and Scarborough Reef were again activated.

The only entity, as far as I can figure out, that was not activated in Cycle 23, was Navassa  island.  The last activation of Navassa was in 1997 which arguably can be part of Cycle 22.  The bar graph in the plot is a "what if" projection based on the ratio of sunspot numbers between Cycle 23 and Cycle 24.  All the DXCC I am missing now were activated in Cycle 23.  It would have been possible to get to Honor Roll in one solar cycle and Cycle 23 is that one.   It may have been possible for other solar cycles but I do not have the DX activation data to prove it.  Everyone I know who is in the honor roll got theirs partly from Cycle 23 or before and they are all old timers who have been hams for a long time.  The latest inductee into the honor roll who I know well is Vlad N3CZ.   He got to 300 in Cycle 23.  He got the remaining 30 in Cycle 24.  Amongst the people I know - he is the standard bearer for the shortest time to Honor Roll.   It looks like I will have to wait and slog it out through cycle 25