If hunting DX was a felony crime then this guy would undoubtedly be handcuffed, jailed, and the key tossed in a river!
Today, from the French Republic, we welcome to the Dx Adventure Radio Club—14DA070 Franck—a guy whose impressive demeanor and commitment to radio communications demonstrates the exact values we strive for as a club.
The World Atlas indicates that Franck’s DXCC, France, shares borders with Belgium (16 Division) and Luxembourg (54) to the north, and Germany (13) to the north east.
To the east, Switzerland (15), Italy (1) and Monaco (107) to the south east, Andorra (51) and Spain (30) to the south are all important maritime and/or land borders for our population of dx adventurers .
It also shares a maritime border with the United Kingdom (26, 108, 29, 68) to the north west.
For us, 14DA070 Franck is a guy who basically needs no introduction; except to say we’re super excited to have his presence in the DA-RC from late June 2024.
For a quarter of a century, this punchy DX Man has been implicated at the forefront of hobby comms.
In fact, cluster databases confirm that he’s built a praiseworthy DX compendium that would put most serious DX Hunters to shame.
This has been through rewarding associations with the Hotel Florida (HF) and Tango Whisky (TW) clubs, respectively, of his mother country.
Unanimously, the World HQ Team has approved Franck’s membership via the DX Hunter category where his 200 DXCC worked and confirmed certainly satisfies requirements.
14DA070 Franck’s work on other HF bands as a licensed ham, and the technical experience he’s amassed here, also adds to his credibility in this category.
Not only does 14DA070 Franck appease DA-RC membership criteria as a world class DX Hunter, but he also nails down requisites in the DXpedition category.
DXpeditions to the mountainous Mediterranean island of Corsica (EU-014), the central EU country of Slovenia (327 Division) and the tiny principality of Liechtenstein (40 Division) were inspiring enterprises.
Coupled with successful field ops in Flora & Fauna (FF), among other concepts, and these embellish an already remarkable DX résumé.
According to the DA-RC’s membership directory, 14DA070 Franck resides in Azy-sur-Marne.
This is a tiny French town in the Aisne department in the Hauts-de-France region.
According to the World Atlas, Azy-sur-Marne is located on the banks of the Marne River.
Here, buildings and other infrastructure were bombed and left in ruins.
These days, Azy-sur-Marne is almost entirely farmland with small forests in the north and west.
Given the absence of major infrastructure, it’s the perfect QTH for DX work, given the low noise floor.
14DA070 Franck’s home shack has an intense Yaesu feel which offers a somewhat intimidating presence on several bands given the quality of the brand.
This includes his favourite VFO setting, eleven meters!
The ideal DX weapons, Yaesu FT-897 and FT-857D transceivers—with a matching MD-100A8X desktop mic which provides awesome audio gain modification—are conspicuous features of his desktop.
The icing on the cake, however, is a 4 element quad on a 10m tower, as shown above.
BANG!
This antenna—which almost guarantees his signal soars across the ionosphere and is heard in all corners of the globe—is the ultimate DX warhead given any inch of propagation.
After retiring as a bus driver, 14DA070 Franck enjoys a passion for the great outdoors which he’s known to enjoy with his lovely family.
As the pictures show, Franck is a skilled fisherman; one whom is capable of landing an incredible prized catch!
This recreational pursuit combines well with his love of travel—across 14 Division and other European countries—which offer beautiful scenery and, of course, fish-filled waterways!
Furthermore, owning a motor home in which he can live, sleep and chase DX makes him the envy of almost every dx adventurist on the planet hihi!
Hi Franck,
Welcome in DA-RC , enjoy with your new callsign !