Lost Island DX Society

Sky Champion S 20 R

Type CRV-46151 Aircraft Receiver

The enigma of the Lost Island DX Society haunts me like a looped dream where time is suspended and space is meaningless. Certainly, after reading the first installment about this mysterious society, I was merely intrigued however something happened between then and today. They are out there watching over RadioSport perhaps slowly guiding the destiny of ham radio's top and most relevant 21st Century attraction.

LIDS live among us.

My search started in Santa Maria, California after discovering a receiver coded with 250 on its tuning knob. I understand the want to remain anonymous while club meetings are synonymous with ham radio. One cannot have one without the other. The question flashed between my wetware hemispheres like a long delayed echo after 30 plus hours in the RadioSport chair, "By what method are the LIDS organizing their meetings?"

Subtlety.

Numbers. It is all about the numbers. If one is to pass traffic without publishing a flyer, a newsletter, or posting on a reflector then how does an organization organize? Where would I most likely not look?

Hamfesting.

What better method at confusing the data than a hamfesting where numbers are tossed around like dice at the Casino Royale. Perhaps, this is a dead end path however, please note the similarity of S 20 R with SO2R on the Hallicrafter's Sky Champion receiver. Coincidental? Or incidental? Likewise, the RCA aircraft receiver appears to be salvaged perhaps even from a venerable DC-3 that crashed on the Lost Island? The owner was not available for questioning and his wife was not interested in discussing any detail.

America's riviera is Santa Barbara, California.

I recently visited Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club hamfesting in Goleta, California with a few Beach Boys ARC participants. We scoured the hamfesting for deals and no deals when I stumbled across the Hallicrafter and RCA receivers. Each evoked images from my looped dream where time is suspended and space is meaningless.

Photographed artifacts from ham radio's history are likely candidates especially the incidental connection between S 20 R and SO2R. Likewise, I imagine LIDS members at the dawn of RadioSport probably flew from one hot zone to another in Douglas DC-3s before settling for an island of undisclosed coordinates. Did they crash land on their way to the 1st Annual Lost Island DX Society convention when lightening struck the fuselage of their aircraft somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle? The pain of conjecture is mine.

Life is wireless.