[DX] Ducie VP6DI Kudos...and a reminder

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 11:37:05 -0500

--------------------------- 
Steve Wheatley KU9C 
PO Box 5953 
Parsippany NJ  07054-6953 
U.S.A. 

email:  [email protected] 
http://www.ku9c.com/

That could be.....and certainly the operators had some significant personal expenses, not to mention time off.  It's important to remember that when they run a pileup in a way different than you'd like them to...or if they spend a few moments saying hi to an old friend rather than working a few more Q's.

I have no idea of the expenses involved in this operation, but it appears they chartered a vessel, etc to go to Ducie (Think it was the Braveheart, perhaps of ZL9CI fame?)  And, perhaps Kan did fund a major portion of it.    I'm going to guess the bill was at least $10K, probably a LOT more.  Should Kan, or ANYONE, singularly fund an operaton on their own to bring us a new one?  That's the question. 

I've not seen any budget on this operation....maybe someone will post it on the return.  BUt, if you toss a few greenstamps in, or whatever you're comfortable with, if they don't want it, they'll likely return it.  

As an aside, this discussion, and the intent of my initial posting, was not specific to Ducie.  I saw a lot of folks saying 'thanks' to the team and the pilot stations.  I've also been involved in enough dxpedition planning to tell you that the thanks are certainly appreciated, but it's tough to pay the bills with them.  There has been a number of recent dxpeditions to some of the rarer countries in our hobby.  The points made vis-a-vis Ducie apply to all of them.  

Suffice it to say that, if you're happy with a DXpedition, consider sending a donation, if you can, with your QSL request.  You can have several thousand in your shack equipment which, if you are a DX chaser, will do you a lot less good if folks don't plan, enlist folks to take vacation to go, and make the trip to places like PW0T, XR0X, VP6DI, TI9M and many other fairly recent operations (I'm sure I forgot some!).

As an aside, assuming the dxpedition does answer bureau cards (usually required if you get funding from the major foundations)....you actually cost the operation perhaps 10 cents a QSL card for your request with SIMPLY a SASE.

Maybe Kan funded this on his own.  I suspect not, but even if he had, is it fair for him, or any individual or small group of individuals, to expect them to fund our enjoyment of this hobby (I'm sure some of us wondered how enjoyable it was in the pileup.....but when you heard your call come back, my guess is a sigh of relief, and a big smile!)

Back to the cards...

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: WYsixK <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:07:57 -0800 (PST)

>I thought Kan always pays for his DxPeditions himself so he can do them
>the way he wants to do them.  Right?