[ADXA] Assessing DXpeditions In Today's DX Environment

[w5znjoel at gmail.com]

Greetings ADXA Folks,

 

Assessing the seriousness and competence of planned DXpeditons in today's
world of DX is challenging. 

 

Sixty or so years ago, an individual would pack up a Collins S-line or Drake
line, jump on a boat to a remote island or step off a plane and drive six
hours into remote Africa and fire up the radio. Licenses, operating
permission, and everything else was in order, well most of the time except
when Romeo or Don Miller were involved !!! We had some ADXA members who did
this, Lloyd and Iris Colvin did, as well as many others.

 

Then came the era of the BIG DXpedition. Those multi-million-dollar efforts
with chartered sea going vessels, helicopters, and a large team of high
profile and extremely efficient pileup operators who chunked in tens of
thousands of their own dollars to support the DXpedition. They knew how to
erect effective antennas that worked, how to abate RX noise, and most
importantly they knew how to LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN for weak signals and to
stay on the band because they knew propagation and when it would change,
maximizing the effort to get those weak "DX puppies" in the log. These
adventurers successfully activated a ton of remote islands and other
locations that afforded those of us who are now "Old Dog DX'ers" many new
ones and helped place us at the DXCC level we have achieved. If you've never
attended one of the old DX Convention's 4-hour long banquet wearing a coat
and tie, listened to boring speakers, award presentations, and had to watch
a more than one hour video with penguins running around a tent erected in
the snow with 60 MPH winds blowing, well you haven't missed anything! But
back then we were all excited to see the photos, videos, and hear the
stories from those DX adventurers! Of course, these operations were all on
CW and Phone, and some RTTY. FT8 and automatic systems didn't exist then.
With the exception of one current planned DXpedition this type of BIG effort
seems to have faded away.

 

Today we see just a few individuals, maybe even just one, boast about a
planned BIG DXpedition to a highly needed DX entity then get off a boat or a
plane, throw up a short vertical and fire up an automatic FT8 machine
running 24 hours a day then zip over to the bar for a few beers while the
"machine" is running. You think I'm making this up??? I recently had an
in-person conversation with an individual who had been on a couple of these
and he told me, with no concern or reservation whatsoever, that is exactly
the common practice now. Oh sure, after a few beers the one, or the few,
will fire up a second radio and make a few CW or SSB Q's to somewhere close
to make things "look good" then claim bad noise or no prop. There is no
planning as to how to maximize receive capabilities or enlist operators who
actually understand radio and radio propagation. Just let the machine do the
work. This has negatively impacted the game of DX and taught new DX'ers they
don't need to know anything other than how to click a mouse button.

 

So, Harrison, why is this important for you to want the ADXA folks to read
this, if you've read it this far? It all comes down to evaluating
DXpeditions for ADXA funding. We want to support serious DXpeditions to
areas needed by our members to help you be successful and move up the ladder
to achieve the coveted Honor Roll. It's your money and we want you to get
results from your investment. There are several BIG DX clubs that fund
DXpeditions. NCDXF is one, INDEXA another, and many more. These groups have
resources to financially sponsor DXpeditions well beyond ADXA's ability. So
when a DXpedition is announced to a much-needed location one of the first
things we investigate is whether these large DX clubs are sponsors, or
planning to sponsor. If not, that's sort of a yellow flag. Not a red flag,
but a cautionary one as the large groups traditionally only support serious,
well planned DXpeditions with a high level of success potential. This was an
initial "yellow flag" for VU7, a much-needed entity but no large support.
The upcoming CE0X effort is another, the lone individual has no club
sponsors, only individuals.

 

I'm not passing judgement on today's DXpedition style. I'm from the old
school and have very fond, exciting memories from those old DXpeditions and
beating all of you (OK, some of you) in the pileup. But I'm still in the BIG
DOG DX game and will GET IN THERE AND WORK 'EM regardless. Times change and
we ADXA folks must be diligent and focused on how we assess planned
DXpeditions and use your money to support adventures that meet the
expectations of our pursuit of DX! On behalf of the ADXA board, we will
continue to do just that!

 

Now, GET IN THERE and if a rare one pops up out of nowhere as always, WFWL

 

Happy New Year to all,

 

73 Joel W5ZN / ZF2ZN

 

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