[SFDXA] REMARKS OF DON MILLER, AE6IY (EX-W9WNV)THE DX FORUM DAYTON HAMVENTION 2003,

[Bill]

I found this in deep my archives, and thought some of you who remember 
Don Miller, might enjoy reading the speech he made in 2003.
Bill W2CQ


DAYTON HAMVENTION 2003 THE DX FORUM REMARKS OF DON MILLER, AE6IY (EX-W9WNV)
         MILLER:  Good morning.  I think the first thing I should say up 
here is QRZ.  (Laughs.)


         But, I want to tell you just how grateful I feel and how 
blessed I feel to have so many hundreds of DXers, mainly, who have given 
me so much encouragement and so much support.

         I want to thank hundreds and hundreds of DXers who have 
supported me.  They're the most -- I think, of all the friendships in 
the world, those with DXers are the most enduring, at least I've found 
it that way, and the most forgiving, and the most loyal, and I am so 
grateful today to have so many friends, and I'm so thankful to be here 
to talk to you.

         I have a couple of thousand color slides all laid out.  I went 
through some of them.  I left them all at home because, basically, I 
just want to talk to you this morning.  And, I'll try to make it short.

         I'm going to talk about a couple of controversial things and 
get those out of the way.  I think I have somebody I need to apologize 
to.  And, then, I want to tell you just a little bit about some things 
about our DXpeditions that maybe you don't know, even you oldtimers.

         I had the pleasure of operating from 58 different countries, or 
DX entities, of which about 10 were quite common, such as Australia, 
Kenya and so on.  So, there were about 48 countries that were either 
brand new or extremely rare or scarce, I would say about three-quarters 
of  million QSL cards, not the computer variety.

         Of these operations, of the 48 or so, I believe seven of them 
were disqualified, and most of those should have been disqualified.  
There's one I want to talk to you about that caused a great deal of 
controversy toward the end of the three-year expedition, and that is St. 
Peter and St. Paul's Rocks, which I operated along with a friend of mine 
-- it wasn't his fault -- where we weren't at the location.

         That always was -- that was a new country and everybody needed 
it, and while we were planning to be there, a young German ham showed up 
there for about an hour and worked, maybe, 50 or so DXers, most of them 
from a particular club, and I didn't think much about it at the time 
because I was in the process of obtaining a license from the Brazilian 
government to operate there.

         And, when I did, I found out that we were the first station 
that was licensed to operate from there, that the first one truly wasn't 
licensed, and may not actually have been there. So, when it came to 
where we couldn't find any ship to take us there, we found five or six 
very seaworthy vessels but it was a very difficult landing and none of 
the captains, nobody, would take us there.

         I figured, in my warped reasoning at the time, that, "Well, if 
the League was going to count an operation which it knew was not 
licensed and may not have been there, certainly it would give me the 
chance to give everybody else in the DX fraternity a chance to talk to 
the same place with a DXpedition that wasn't there also, but which was 
at least licensed.

         So, that's what turned out to be the biggest controversy. It 
infuriated some people and caused a lot of political doings and so on.

         Now, the one operation that should not have been disqualified, 
which was a hundred percent legitimate, was one of the most difficult, 
and that was Navassa Island, which virtually everybody needed as well.

         There were hostilities in the area, there was some trouble with 
Cuba at the time, and I had heard that somebody in the Air Force or the 
Navy didn't want anybody on the island.  But, when I checked, I found 
that it was more or less -- their attitude was, "Well, you go there at 
your own risk," which is the case with many of the places that we 
visited on the expedition.

         So, I planned to go there.  And, on the way there, we stopped 
at the Coast Guard station and stayed overnight in Ponce, Puerto Rico, 
on the south coast, and they gave us a clearance, an official port 
clearance, to go there.

         So, it was a very difficult operation.  We had to climb up -- 
there may be some here that went on subsequent expeditions there.  But, 
we had to climb up some very steep cliffs.  There was a ladder to help 
us part of the way.

         We had to use a pulley, a makeshift rope, to bring the 
equipment up on the rock piece by piece, and we had a small, 16-foot, 
fishing boat, which had to be careful not to be dashed on the rocks 
below, due to the enormous swell.  It was scorching hot.  We had a 
limited amount of water that had to be rationed.

         And, there were some fighter planes that came over from time to 
time from, probably, Cuba, but didn't bother us other than that.

         It was a difficult, hard-fought, DXpedition, and we took great 
pains, as with all of them, to try to work everybody, and it was very 
difficult to work JAs from there because it was a strictly north polar 
route and the propagation wasn't good.  But, we did.  And, we were very 
happy.

         And, then, it was disqualified, allegedly because the Coast 
Guard didn't want us there, or the Navy didn't want us there.  But, I 
have never been able to find any regulation, or ordinance, or law that 
prohibited it.  So, I'm going to ask the League if it would reconsider 
that one place, because it was so difficult and so hard-fought and a 
hundred percent legitimate.

         We painted our callsigns all over the rocks and there was no 
question about being licensed or about being there.  I just wanted to 
get that off my chest.

         One good thing about the controversy that occurred is that the 
League made some changes and DXCC is extremely fair, extremely well 
organized now, and there were some really wonderful changes made.

         Our expedition, we conducted it and it cost us $30 a day, 
total.  That includes the ship, the fuel, the food, the equipment, 
everything.  And, when my money ran out, Ack, W4ECI, who had helped to 
sponsor Gus, prior to me, pitched in, and when that ran out a lot of you 
DXers would send checks with your QSL cards. And, we made an effort to 
send a direct QSL card from the island, or from the next place where 
there was a post office, to anybody who had done that for us.  We did 
QSL a hundred percent.

         We were lucky, somedays, to make 50 miles, depending on the 
wind and the current.  If you can imagine that you need at least a 
gallon or two of water, per day, per person, and you have three people 
on a little, 30-foot, boat, and you're going to be gone for 60 days, and 
you figure out the weight at eight pounds per gallon, and add that to 
the weight of the generators, and the equipment, and the antennas, and 
the food and a little bit of clothing, and a 55-gallon drum of petrol, 
you wind up with three to four times what the capacity, the cargo 
capacity, of a little ship like that is.

         So, it was quite dangerous.  And, as you probably know, we lost 
our ship in 1966, in the Pacific, in a tropical cyclone, in a 
hurricane.  My best friend, Chuck, who organized the expedition with me, 
another ham, Ted Thorpe, from New Zealand, who was in radio and 
television down there, a Fijian lad who was the mate on ship, and a 
doctor who was not a ham but owned the boat, and his wife, who was 
pregnant, and she was a former Miss Hawaii, they perished.

         They were on Wallis Island.  I was in North and South America 
talking at some DX clubs, trying to raise some funds so that the 
expedition could continue.  And, I heard that they never made it back, 
and then I heard about the hurricane.  We searched.

         As you probably know, any place in the world that a vessel, a 
plane, or a ship is lost, there is some country that's responsible for 
searching in that area.  And, in this area, it was New Zealand, and New 
Zealand sent a great, big, flying boat.  And, my friends at Hickham -- 
I'm formerly from the Air Force -- Hickham Air Force Base -- sent, also, 
a search and rescue team, and we searched for about five days, oh, every 
square inch of sea that you can imagine.  We had volunteers on the 
search team.  And, we didn't find anything.

         I went down to Wellington, New Zealand and talked to Ted's 
wife, Colleen Thorpe, and we managed to get the New Zealand authorities 
to make a second search, because in calculating the drift rates, we 
thought that they may have washed ashore somewhere, and we searched a 
different area.  And, we found one piece of the hull of our ship -- and 
I know it was our ship because of the color and the canvas and so on -- 
and that's all we ever found.

         So, I had visited the families of those involved.  That was 
about it.  But, the DXers seemed to want to continue, and I know that 
Ted and Chuck would have wanted to.  So, I met up with a fellow named 
Jack Astley who had a 30-foot trimaran, and we spent the next year or so 
going to the remaining places that we had wanted to go to begin with.

         I'm proud that during that time we did accomplish something.  
First of all -- and, I say "we" because I wasn't the only operator at 
time; there were others -- and, we wrote the first DX handbook that came 
out.  We set records in contests.  I think we held them from four 
continents at the same time.

         I think we set some operating standards which didn't exist 
before that, such as one contact per band per mode.  I handled the 
pileups myself.  We didn't leave until we had just about everybody 
worked who was calling us.  Sometimes it took longer than others. At 
least we tried to.  We QSLed everybody, tried to be on the air during 
the contests, which always caused quite a stir.  So, there are some 
things I'm proud of.

         But, there are some things I'm not so proud of as well. So, 
first of all, I'd like to apologize to anybody that was disillusioned or 
upset that -- especially about the PY0 operation.  I've told you the 
reason for it.  I don't think anything justified it, but that's what 
happened.  It's in the past.

         And, there's another group of DXers I'd also like to apologize 
to, and I hope there are at least some here today. During the course of 
the operation, sometimes you're the only person there.  Our expedition 
wasn't like some of these that you saw.  Very often, I would be the only 
person on the island or there would be one or two helping me.  The 
landings were difficult.  We had been at sea, sometimes, for a long 
time, and I reached the island, sometimes, really exhausted.

         Sometimes the island was very difficult to find.  We had a 
sextant, we had WWV, and we had a chart, and that's how we found the 
island.  There was no navigational system.

         But, on reaching the island, I had to set up the antennas by 
myself, usually the tent, the generators, get the fuel ashore, and 
usually, if everything was working or when everything was working, I was 
too excited, as tired as I was, to just turn it off and get a few hours' 
rest.  So, it was usually a nonstop type of thing for several days, with 
maybe a couple hours of sleep here and there.  So, I was in kind of an 
irritable frame of mind.

         And, when some people would call me for the second or third 
time on a band, I'd scold 'em.  And, finally, I started forming this 
list of DXers, or people that I wouldn't work.  It wasn't on paper; it 
was just up here in my head.  And, the list grew, and I know there are 
hams on there that did absolutely nothing wrong, it's just my fault, and 
I wouldn't work 'em.

         And, I didn't realize at the time -- I didn't stop and think -- 
you know, there was a time when I was back here trying to work DX, and 
what it would do to somebody who needed a country, on top of the list.  
And nobody, I think, should put themselves in that position to judge or 
to exercise that kind of power, so I think it was wrong.  And, I've 
apologized to a few people involved.

         But, here today, one of the things I wanted to do is offer a 
heartfelt, deep, apology to anybody whom I frustrated and angered by my 
conduct at the time, because I think it was completely wrong.  And, 
there are a couple of oldtimers, unfortunately, who passed away here 
recently, whom I wanted to personally apologize to.  So, if you can 
accept my apology, I'm very grateful for that, and if not I understand.  
And, if you're here, I'd like to talk to you afterwards or sometime in 
the future.

         Now, DX has been, and ham radio has been, wonderful to me.  I 
first got involved in the fifties.  I was awed at the thought of -- and, 
that was during the Cold War -- talking to Russian amateurs, talking to 
those behind the Iron Curtain, even just to exchange a name or a 
callsign.  And, in my travels during the three years of the DXpedition, 
I met the most wonderful people, and all through my ordeal the last 20 
years, many of them have supported me, come and visited me, and 
encouraged me, none more so than a group of Japanese amateurs whom I 
originally met when I started out in Korea as HL9KH, the first of the 58 
or so foreign callsigns, back in 1960.

         I used to go over to Japan, I met some Japanese DXers, and any 
place I would go -- in those days, most of the Japanese DXers were 
running 25 watts and a dipole.  The technology wasn't what it is today 
and it wasn't available.

         So, in certain places of the world, it was very difficult for 
them to communicate, due to the paths, the communications paths, 
propagation paths.  So, I made an effort to work all the JAs I could and 
we've remained friends, and during the last couple of years a group of 
them, literally, came to my rescue, and helped me spiritually, 
economically, and in every way possible.  So, I want to thank that group 
of hams, in particular.

         There's one here that's representative of the group that I 
would like to stand up, and if you would just give him an 
acknowledgement.  His name is Izumi Soma.  He is now KH6JA. Soma-san, if 
you're here, would you just raise your hand or stand up, so people can 
see who you are?

         (Applause.)

         MILLER:  I think this is typical of DXers, and I've just run 
into, probably, a couple hundred of you here in the last day or two and, 
I'm telling you, I'm so grateful that you feel the way you do.  And, one 
of the reasons for that is that I had planned to leave on another 
expedition this fall.  I'm not able to.  But, I will.  It may be a 
year.  I've got a very, very excellent ship, one that'll make four times 
the speed of anything I've been on before, at my disposal.  It has, 
also, twin diesels that will give it another 1,500 or 1,600 or maybe 
1,800 miles range, if needed. I've got a pledge of some equipment and 
some funding.

         And, there is one new country out there.  There is one. And, 
what's coming up in the horizon politically, there may be one or two more.

         And, people have asked me, when I've said this over the last 
few years, "Well, where is it?"  And, I haven't said anything, but I met 
somebody here yesterday who knows about it as well.

         So, I listened to Wayne Mills speak earlier, and I listened to 
him mention that there are still revisions going on in DXCC.  And, I 
would like to recommend just one revision.  If somebody goes to a place 
and operates and it qualifies as a new country in all ways, and the 
League committee looks at it and approves it, it should count.  You 
shouldn't have to get it qualified first, because I think that creates a 
little mischief. And, I've seen a couple of instances here in the last 
year when there's actually been some rather cutthroat competition to get 
somewhere first, and the one with the most money and the most facilities 
seem to prevail.

         I think that, if a person goes somewhere and if it's not on the 
list, he goes at his own risk, or her own risk, as the case may be.  
And, that's the way it should be.  If it turns out to be a country, it 
should be validated on the basis of whether it qualifies, not when the 
person was there.  So, I hope the DXCC committee looks at that and just 
lets people know that if they go and it's not on the list, that they're 
going at their own risk.

         And, if I go somewhere and if it's not on the list, I just 
think you'd better work it.

         (Laughter.)

         MILLER:  I want to thank you all.  I don't want to take a lot 
of time.  I have a lot of stories I could tell you.  I'm organizing my 
slides.  I hope to get around to some of the clubs and show them.  And, 
I want to leave the rest of the time for any questions and answers that 
you have.  I know you've had a lot of questions for me when I've met you 
in the hallways.  I want to thank you again for being such good friends, 
being so kind and so supportive and so forgiving.

         The DXers are the greatest guys in the world and I just want to 
say thank you and answer any questions you might have, with whatever 
time we may have left on the program, if you have any questions at all.

         (Applause.)

         MILLER:  Any questions at all?  Okay.  Oh, we have one up here.

         QUESTION:  I was a teenager when I think I worked you on a 
location called Minerva Reef.  I don't know if there's anything more you 
can say about it, but I'm curious if you have any recollections of 
Minerva Reef.

         MILLER:  Yes, Minerva Reef is one of those countries that did 
not count.  But, it's not true that the reef is completely underwater.  
There are times when, certain times when, it surfaces.  And, we went 
there.  But, we couldn't find it.  So, that card is no good and it 
shouldn't be any good.

         You say you were a teenager at the time?

         QUESTION:  Yes.

         MILLER:  Okay.  All right.

         QUESTION:  Do you still have the logs?

         MILLER:  The question is about the logs.  There is one place 
where there may be a majority of the logs and I haven't been able to 
reach this person yet.  He's passed away and I'm trying to locate some 
family.  But, the majority of the logs were in one place.

         What I did, before I left, I designed a new form of log, which 
in its time was quite unique.  It was on NCR paper and we would -- to 
preserve the logs, we would distribute them in a certain way in case one 
set got lost.  We didn't have the type of communications we have now.  
So, one complete set ought to still be somewhere around St. Louis, 
Missouri, and I'm trying to locate them.  And, if we can, and if there's 
somebody that still needs a QSL card, we'll try to accommodate you.  All 
right?

         Are there any other questions?

         Okay, guys, it's time for lunch.  Thank you so much. Happy DXing.

         (Applause.)

         (Pause.)

[While taking my microphone off the podium, I realized there was a large 
crowd of DXers gathered around Don, so I grabbed my microphone and got 
in there with it "just like a real reporter." I had missed a little bit 
of the after-presentation talking, but most of it was just informal 
well-wishing, "Welcome back," that sort of thing I believe.  I did get a 
little bit of it to give you the flavor.  I was especially pleased to 
see OH2BH waiting in the crowd for a word with Don and I made sure to 
keep the tape rolling for that!  Though they had met before, it was a 
special moment when one of the top DXpeditioners of his day again met 
the top DXpeditioner of today.  Those talking to Don fell into several 
categories:  well-wishers who had worked him "back when," well-wishers 
who got into DXing after Don's DXpedition career ended (until now), and 
those wanting Don to speak to their DX club -- and with interest in his 
future operations.  Here is a bit of it.]

     ***

         K8MG:  I never got a chance to work you, but I heard a lot 
about you and enjoyed your presentation.

         MILLER:  Well, we hope to work you in the future.

         K9IR:  K9IR, Paula.

         MILLER:  Were you active back in those days?

         K9IR:  Unfortunately, I wasn't.  I wish I was.  I'd love to 
invite you back to join the rest of us in the Midwest for W9DXCC.

         MILLER:  I still have a reel-to-reel tape I prepared in Korea 
with all the W9s that I arranged in order of signal strength.

         K9IR:  Well, that's wonderful.

         MILLER:  Then I sent a copy back to our club meeting one time, 
but I have another copy.

         K9IR:  Can we get you to come out to talk with us in September?

         MILLER:  In September, I don't know.

         K9IR:  W9DXCC, "your convention," from what I'm told.

         MILLER:  Oh, just remind me, just remind me, I'll try.

         K9IR:  What's the best way to get hold of you?

         MILLER:  E-mail.

         K9IR:  Okay, let me give you my card.  What I'll do is this:  
We put together a history for the 50th, last year.

         KE3Q:  Don, you know Martti Laine, don't you?

         MILLER:  Marty who?

         (Laughter.)

         MILLER:  Yes, I want to introduce him to DXpeditions.

         MAN:  You're the only man in the world who can get away with 
that one!

         KE3Q:  Are you going to show him how it's done?

         MILLER:  Oh, he knows how it's done.

         K9IR:  But, I'll send you the history that we did last year.  
Hopefully, that'll help entice you to come out and see us. We'd love to 
see you.

         MILLER:  I'll try.  That's all I can tell you.

         K9IR:  All right.  I appreciate it.  Thanks again.  Good 
meeting you.

         MILLER:  Yes, nice meeting you too.  Are you in Chicago or a 
suburb?

         K9IR:  Yes, in the Chicago area.

         MILLER:  I'm going to be there Sunday for a couple days, with 
my son.

         K9IR:  Oh, whereabouts?

         MILLER:  I don't know.  We're staying on the northside. Around 
Diversey.  Maybe two or three days.

         Martti?

         OH2BH:  This had to be done, Don, this speech.  You did it very 
well.

         MILLER:  Oh, you think it was all right?

         OH2BH:  You haven't lost anything during these years.

         MILLER:  Oh, you're a good man.

         OH2BH:  And, I'd like to remember the meeting that we had 10 
years ago.

         MILLER:  Oh, that was wonderful.  I enjoyed meeting your son, too.

         OH2BH:  Yes.  Petri was 10 years old and we had a wonderful day 
in San Luis Obispo and I thank you very much.

         MILLER:  Yes, it was like a breath of fresh air.

         OH2BH:  I felt so sorry for you because, on that day, you said 
that I was the first out of state visitor for so many years to come to 
see you.

         MILLER:  Yes, you were, you were.

         OH2BH:  So, there were so many of these people who should have 
kept in contact with you.

         MILLER:  Well, they did, in their own way, many of them, and 
then especially -- a few before that time, but many after that time.

         OH2BH:  Well, thanks.  Welcome back.

         MILLER:  Well, we'll be talking, because I need to talk to you 
for some advice.  All right?

         OH2BH:  Advice!?

         MILLER:  I need advice.

         KE3Q:  On that new country you've found?

         MILLER:  No, not that!

         (Laughter.)

         MILLER:  I need some help.

         W6OSP:  Bruce, W6OSP, up in Napa.  And, I'm the Treasurer of 
the Northern California DX Foundation.

         MILLER:  Oh!  That's great!

         W6OSP:  My e-mail address is on there.

         MILLER:  Okay, I was going to try to make the Northern and 
Southern [Visalia] but I wasn't able to make it this year.

         W6OSP:  Well, if you find out that you're going to be up our 
way, let me know.

         MILLER:  Well, thank you very much.

         W6OSP:  You're welcome.

         MILLER:  All right, Bruce.  Is Dave still around, W6WX?

         W6OSP:  Yes, he is.  He is.  Good seeing you.

         MAN:  Would you autograph some cards for me?

         MILLER:  Sure.

         MAN:  Why didn't you take your old call?

         MILLER:  W9VNE has it.  It's now called the Don Miller Club or 
something, and they promised it back to me.

         KE3Q:  Do you want it back, when you can arrange it?

         MILLER:  Yes, sir!  But, it's in good hands.

         MAN:  It was a pleasure to work you 35 years ago.

         MILLER:  I enjoyed it myself.

         MAN:  I want to say it's an honor to finally meet you, sir.

         MILLER:  Oh, did we work in the old days?

         MAN:  No, I was a novice in 1972.

         MILLER:  But, you're a DXer now?

         MAN:  I try to be.

         MILLER:  That's great.  Maybe we'll have a chance to talk.

         MAN:  I look forward to it.

     END