[Elecraft] PS on The Complete DX'r

[Julian (G4ILO)]

I used to feel that way when I was just another guy running 100W to a 
no-gain antenna. Then I built the K2 and discovered the joys of QRP. It 
never ceases to amaze me that my signal, using barely enough power to light 
a torch bulb, energizing a loop of wire in my loft, manages to make it to 
the other side of Europe, never mind half way round the world as it does 
when conditions are right. Does the guy running a kilowatt into a big beam 
on a tower still experience that thrill? I doubt it.

I think the downside of becoming a DXer is that the joy of making that 
unexpected DX contact is replaced more often by frustration when you don't 
work it. You only have to listen to the behaviour of people in pile-ups to 
see what I mean. Many of them sound stressed. They don't sound as if they 
are having a good time to me. Is there pleasure to be had in shouting the 
last two letters of your call into a microphone for half an hour, 
especially if at the end of it you have no result.

Each to his own. But I think that the real problem with this hobby's 
obsession with DX is that it puts people off starting the hobby because 
they think that there is no point in being a ham unless they *can* run high 
power into a good antenna. Personally I think there is more fun to be had 
chatting with like-minded people using a radio you built yourself than 
there is working DX using thousands of dollars worth of commercial gear
and an antenna that annoys the heck out of the neighbours.

73,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, G-QRP, K2 #392)
G4ILO's Shack: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo

tlogan7 wrote:

Well there WAS one thing that bugged me - the book makes me jealous as all 
heck 
of people with rotors and great antennas!!!!! Oh well.....some day. 73/Tim 
NZ7C