[ADXA] Assessing DXpeditions In Today's DX Environment

[Trent Fleming]

Joel,

I remain grateful for your leadership in this and other matters around our
hobby!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

73,

Trent
N4DTF



On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 10:48 AM <w5znjoel at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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