Next year 2010, will mark the 10th anniversary of the PODXS Ø7Ø Club, and with the upcoming celebrations which are sure to take place, for our members certainly do like to celebrate! 
, perhaps it is time to finally set down, for the record, the history of the Ø7Ø Club. But before the history of this very active group can be examined, one must first look at the roots of the sponsoring organization, the Penn-Ohio DX Society. The birth of the Penn-Ohio DX Society (PODXS) is an interesting story in itself, perhaps a subject for another time. What follows is a short synopsis, so the reader can understand the driving force behind the Ø7Ø Club and how it came to be.
A short time after PODXS was formed, KA3X joined as the fifth member of the group, to bring the total regular membership to five. The regular membership of PODXS has never numbered more than 5 members and currently stands at three: N3DQU, AA8QQ and N3XC. Over time however, a number of honorary members have been privileged to join the PODXS ranks. Except for a yearly meeting and a "changing of the hats", PODXS remained a loose-knit group, putting their efforts into enjoying this great hobby of ours, rather than getting caught up in the mundane organizational aspects that tend to be a drag on what an amateur radio club should be all about.
In the original bylaws, the stated purpose of PODXS was "...to enjoy the traditional aspects of amateur radio and to maintain an active ARRL-VEC testing team in the New Castle, PA area." The phrase "traditional aspects" refers to all those activities that one normally associates with HF operating: sky wires, chasing DX, contests, wallpaper and QSL cards, sunspots, propagation, etc. Not long after the inception of the club, the VEC testing team was dropped for certain reasons, leaving the stated purpose to stand as it has been ever since, "The Penn-Ohio DX Society exists to to enjoy the traditional aspects of amateur radio."
Fast forward to the year 2000. Something new has been happening in the amateur radio world and it is significant in a hobby, where numbers are beginning to be negatively affected as the advance of the internet threatens the hobby's membership base. The "soundcard modes" have emerged, bringing new and old blood back into amateur radio and it looks like PSK31 is leading the pack. But something is missing. There are amateurs out there putting PSK31 on the air to be sure, but except for one-on-one QSO's, there is not much out there for them to do, no base of operations, no flame to congregate around. Enter the Penn-Ohio DX Society.
Jay Hudak, KA3X, affectionately known as the "Old Dood", was the first PODXS member to experiment with the new soundcard mode, PSK31. Once the other members got involved, it became obvious that here was an opportunity for "The PODXS Boys" to give something back to the amateur radio hobby, in a sense to become part of amateur radio history. KA3X and N3DQU decide to form a support group for PSK31, called the Ø7Ø Club, a reference to some of the operating frequencies where PSK31 can be found, with KA3X as the Club Manager and N3DQU doing yeoman service as webmaster, awards boss, et al. On September 21, 2000, the Old Dood, Jay Hudak, KA3X, officially becomes the very first member of the Ø7Ø Club, as Ø7Ø #001. By the end of 2000, the Ø7Ø Club boasted a membership of 25 members, and now at the time of this writing, stands at over 800 members worldwide.
Except for a very short period, the Ø7Ø Club has always offered membership free of charge to all amateurs licensed to operate on the HF bands. The Ø7Ø Club is very proud of the fact that all operating costs have been paid by donations of time and money from the members of PODXS and the Ø7Ø Club.
Of course, the Ø7Ø Club did not blossom to over 800 members over night and there is still quite a bit yet to tell...of endorsements, the TDW, PSKFest, Dayton eyeball QSO's, Honorary PODXS members, APE, LONP and the Low Band Sprints, Rollo, Mona and her cat...all parts of Ø7Ø Club history. But this article is long enough. For now, let me tell you something you probably didn't know. Back in 2001, the Old Dood and I talked about just how far we were going to take the Ø7Ø Club project. After all, it looked like PSK31 was starting to take off on its own and there were other outfits out there that were offering contests and awards for the fledgling mode. We had accomplished what we set out to do, to give something back to the hobby, maybe even make our mark in amateur radio history. So it was decided that, once we hit member #100, we would pull the plug on the Ø7Ø Club and move on to other things!
Little did we realize... 73 de Jay, N3DQU, Ø7Ø #010 ..