No other entity in the Top 10 lists have been inactive longer than Heard Island! Heard Island was last activated in 1997, so that was 18 years ago.

Navassa is on the air now, Bouvet was activated in 2008, North Korea in 2002, South Sandwich and South Georgia in 2002, Crozet in 2009, Scarborough Reef in 2007, Tromelin in 2014, Kingman Reef in 2000, Palmyra in 2005, Pratas in 2003, Juan deNova / Europa in 2003.

Heard Island is the “next up” as far as top 10 Most Wanted entities in the DXCC Program’s entity list. After K1N is over, Heard Island will rise up to #4 in the DX Publications Most Wanted List – but this is of course always subject to change due to those who participate in the poll each year:

And will be #5 in the Clublog Most Wanted List – and this also changes based on those who upload their log files:

The DX Publications survey was done in October, 2014, and since then, Tromelin, and now Navassa have been activated. Only Navassa affects the Heard Island position in this survey, and in fact also in the Clublog list.

While both of these “surveys” are subject to all kinds of variables, DX-pedition leaders do look at these when considering where they might go next – so they are useful. And they are fun for DX-ers to “dream and scheme” as far as thinking about that next big ATNO!