ZL1BYZ – John Shaw, Pukekoe

The election of John Shaw, ZL1BYZ as the 8th inductee to the NZ DX Hall of Fame recognizes his extraordinary abilities as a contester and DXer. Licensed in 1983, John has proven to be a prolific contest operator with nearly 70% of his operations on CW. He usually places highly in major international contests and generates enormous pileups when he operates from his Pukekohe farm. John was a member of the ZL6QH contest group, ZL7T DXpedition, ZL6LH Light House team and a long time active member of the Papakura Radio Club. He has recently joined the ZM4T East Coast Contesters in Napier and joins us whenever he is able to get away from his farm.

He has won the Doug Gorman Frequency measuring contest and numerous Jock White Field Day contests. He was recently made a member of the ARRL A-1 Operators Club. John will be joining the ARRL DXCC Club soon with an initial entry of over 300 countries. He contributes much to the sport of Amateur Radio Contesting and DXing in New Zealand.


We wish John well in the future and hope that he will enjoy having the NZ DX HoF award plaque on his shack wall.

Regularly the source of a pile-up and works DX for DX…  not for John.

To 12th December 2010, John has recorded over 26,000 QSO’s and worked DXCC on 30M, 20M, 17M, 15M, 12M and the race is on for the remainder of 2010 to move on from the 86 DXCC countries logged on 10M. A new computer router might cut down the noise on 40M for John and that band may also be added to his tally. Recently worked a CQ WW Contest … single band 15m… logged 2300 plus contacts and 112 plus DXCC countries in 36 operating hours.

10M Contest over the weekend 11~12/12/2010 heard ….  CQ CQ 5NN 516…. CQ 5NN 517…. CQ CQ 5NN 518…. CQ 5NN 519…. that’s John ZL1BYZ on CW during the contest. Not a pileup but just a steady flow of contacts from all over to world, finishing the contest with a total around 700 contacts for his 16 hours operating.

QSL cars are delivered to the Papakura Radio Club where John is a long standing member. Many of us collect up to 10 cards at a time…. John walks out to his car with his forearm full from elbow to finger tips and the remainder in his other hand…. cards are collected monthly!

Worked and won Doug Gorman Frequency Measuring Contest as competitor and as a team member of Papakura Radio Club for the branch award.

One of the ZL6LH International Lighthouse and Lightship weekend team since start in 1998.  Takes the bait of the on line log challenge of DXpeditions (like many of us!). Worked on JWMFD contests as team member, solo operator and been on top or towards the top of that section every time.

In considering equipment, John does so much research, if he bought it… so would I! This was the case with DX4Win and Writelog.

Back to top^