A couple ponderings about DXing:
DX Clubs
Attended our area DX Club meeting last Saturday. Very interesting presentation by Mike W9MK about the T42T Cuba event. That presentation was done by Zoom and other than the specific Q&A of our specific day’s presentation, you can actually find the presentation as a YouTube available on demand.
The rest of the meeting was ritual recanting of upcoming DXpeditions, selection of two of these DXpenditions to send $200 each as a gesture of support, a 50/50 raffle which raised less than 10% of the meager monies we will be sending off, and a discussion about discussing possibly sourcing of club polo shirts.
I’m thinking most of the attendees (there were just ten) would have in their pockets many times the $40/head we just sent to DXpeditions, especially in light that everyone bought themselves breakfast and drove (in many cases some distance) to be there.
Sending $200 to a major DXpedition when projected costs are known to be six-digit seems weak. Having to raid the club treasury for each $200 seems doubly weak.
Some realities are we don’t have much for a club resource, having sold many members a Life Membership which cut off future dues income, and were approaching our spend with yesterday’s prices in our heads.
As a club we were being cheap-Charlies with our meager sponsorships.
I’d thought of offering to match the donations pledged, but knowing that might be felt as a shaming held me back.
And why donate indirectly rather than directly as a K9ZW donation?
DXpeditions cost more than money
There are a lot of risks.
Risks to body & health. Being someplace pretty much “the end of the earth” decreases one’s odds if something bad comes up.
There there is the toll from being away so long.
One guy recounted coming back from a DXpedition to find his wife had moved out. Doubt DXpeditioning was the only cause, though also doubt it helped the situation either.
A lot of the DXpedition are physical marathons being run by the few old timers who somehow have escaped their Canes & Walkers. Is it a young person’s pursuit being taken up by the retired?
RIBS and other Remotes Muddy the Waters
Did you work that DX operator ? Or did you work just some hardware that happens to be at the DX site with the operator somewhere else? Was that DX operator out there, or out there nearby on the boat, or linked by satellite to their home country?
Have we let clever Technology drain the soul out of DXpeditions?
Not to be a spoil sport, but a Remote Operator claiming to be the DX is not a bonafide DX Operator any more than the guy I work by Satellite is a real Astronaut.
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