[SFDXA] DX’ing - Time for a Change - W9KNI

[Bill]

Bob Lochner W9KNI, well know ham and author of???The Complete DX???er???, 
shares his feelings to current DXCC status. He offers a Proposal for 
changes.
 ??- Bill W2CQ

*
**DX???ing - Time for a Change Active DX???ers everywhere are concerned - 
where are the young DX???ers?* I should note here immediately that I am 
talking about DX???ers with a competitive streak, people who have learned 
that working DX reliably requires a significant station, antennas and a 
skill set. We do see new faces - who almost invariably drop out. In the 
mean time, the DXCC program is seriously stale. The bands are often 
empty even though there is good propagation.

Let???s look at the history of the DXCC Program to see if we can learn 
why? What has changed?

The Mixed Mode DXCC started it all. It was very popular for a while, but 
then bogged down. Some of the countries on the list had disappeared, 
never likely to return, yet they still counted for the totals at the 
top. Serious DX???ers who had not been in the game at the beginning became 
discouraged and dropped out.

In due course, realization of this problem became more and more obvious, 
and the deleted country list was formed. This now allowed newer DX???ers a 
potential path to the top of the Honor Roll, and enthusiasm for the 
program was largely restored.

A Phone only version of DXCC was implemented and this too proved popular.

In 1975, the ARRL Board of Directors, concerned about the diminishing 
level of CW activity, created a CW DXCC. This program had a unique twist 
- all contacts had to be made after January 1, 1975. All other DXCC 
Awards accept contacts back to 1945.

The new CW DXCC was immediately popular, especially with newer DX???ers - 
but not only because it was a CW award. It also gave newer DX???ers an 
opportunity to get in on the ground floor! Right from the get-go, a 
newer DX???er was not already 20 or 30 countries behind the top totals, 
even with a deleted list.

Monoband DXCC???s, a Digital award and a Satellite award were also added 
as time went on, and these created a lot of interest as well.

But then, a few old timers, intent on further cementing their position 
on top of the DX World hierarchy, brought in a new award: the DXCC 
Challenge. Almost certainly, the League supported this award also to get 
critical mass for the ARRL???s Logbook of the World. (LOTW) Levels of 
achievement were created, starting at 1000 entities, increasing in 
levels of 500. Quickly, the recognized level of achievement became 3,000.

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that geography had an undue 
influence on success. Essentially, the further away you are from Western 
Europe, the less chance you have a?? chance to be competitive. Without 
truly heroic effort, it is essentially impossible to achieve for someone 
operating from the West Coast of the USA to achieve the 3000 level.

Even so, the Challenge program began to remake the face of competitive 
DX???ing. Any major DX???pedition had to make a serious effort to activate 
all bands, especially 160 meters and even 6 meters at the bottom of the 
sunspot cycle, for example greatly encouraging 6 meter moon bounce.

The Challenge Award program incorporated major flaws that guaranteed 
inequality. One is the geographical disparity already mentioned, and 
this was then especially exacerbated when 160 meters and 6 meter 
contacts were allowed to count.?? But the real kick in the teeth to young 
DX???ers was the rule allowing contacts with current countries from 1945 
to count, instead of the start date of the program.

A competition is supposed to be simply that - a competition, and there 
is an implied presumption in any competition that everyone competing 
will have an equal chance. This obviously was never given much 
consideration when the DX Challenge was established.

Let???s step back now and look at the various DXCC programs from a 
newcomer???s perspective. The new operator at first has a great deal of 
fun chasing the new counters. But if he or she has a competitive spirit, 
after a while they start realizing the game is rigged, and certainly not 
in their favor. The more they examine the ???competition??? the uglier it 
gets. In the Mixed Honor Roll total listing, there are people with 
scores just shy of 400 entities. (Your author has 382) Most of these are 
people rarely if ever heard on the bands. Indeed, a check of the upper 
reaches of the Annual Listing and the DXCC Honor Roll reveal that a 
goodly number are DEAD! Yet their calls remain on the listing.

But at least the deleted countries don???t count to attain the Honor Roll.

Then the young DX???er examines the entities list. The barriers to a 
number of entities ever being on the air again continue to grow. It is 
probably just?? possible to make the bottom of the Honor Roll within ten 
years. Getting to the top of the Honor Roll borders on being hopeless in 
this day and age.

But the situation is even bleaker for anyone chasing the DX Challenge. 
How do you compete with someone who has been chasing everything since 
the 1950's or 60's? Back when there were sunspot peaks that made 6 
meters look like a world-wide ionospheric mirror?

How to be a top competitor for the DX Challenge? First, start being 
active no later than the early 1960's, preferably the ???50's.. Ideally, 
live preferably somewhere in southwestern Europe. Have a significant DX 
property - 20 acres should work nicely; enough room for receiving arrays 
for 160 meters.?? Pay special attention to 6 meters and 160 meters. On 6 
meters, maintain moonbounce capability. Select your career carefully. 
Best choice of careers for a DX???er is to be of independent means. 
Failing that, a work-from-home job is ideal.

Most of the competitive world works on the basis of this question: ???What 
have you done lately???? DX???ing as presently structured is more towards 
???What did you do 40 years ago????

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Why are 48 hour contests relatively a lot more popular? And why do 
contests have an upcoming crop of excellent younger competitors? A crop 
sadly missing from the DXCC chase? In the contest world, a relative 
newcomer can still make a splash, and earn international recognition 
within a very few years if he or she has what it takes. There is no 
possible way this can be done in the DXCC program as it stands today.

What can we do to make DX???ing and DXCC vibrant again? Permit me to offer 
a few modest suggestions.

The existing DXCC programs should (mostly) be unchanged. DX???ers who have 
participated in DXCC most of their lives deserve this, and in turn would 
bitterly oppose significant change. The following suggestions are for a 
new program that is an OPTIONAL overlay to existing programs.

I propose that ARRL start a new, additional DXCC program commencing 
January 1, 2020, and ending December 31, 2030, then restarting. The new 
program should include all the present DXCC awards, all starting fresh. 
Include a new DX Challenge, again rolling over in ten years but this 
time without 6 meters or 160 meters, making it a much fairer program.

LOTW has changed the face of QSL???ing - gaining confirmations for a new 
series of awards will be far less difficult and expensive.
Also, the CQ DX Marathon and the UK???s CDXC variant should be much more 
heavily publicized,?? emphasized and supported. Among other things, these 
programs create interest in DX???ing YEAR round - not SIX DECADES round.

I want to empathize that it is very important that the current programs 
should be continued as they are. The new program as suggested above 
should be an overlay of the existing program albeit an extremely 
important and promoted overlay.

There would certainly be some additional cost to ARRL, in that there 
would be more entrants in the program, but the cost would not be large. 
And if it revitalizes DXCC it would be cheap at th price. Fees should 
help offset the additional expense.
The various DX Foundations need to do rather more to encourage 
operations that get an entity on the air, rather than the over the top 
operations with 15 operators on 8 bands. Operations that concentrate on 
working as many different stations should be much preferable to 
operations whose major goal is to give more band counters for the DX 
Challenge; especially when such operations exceed US $500,000 in cost. 
While ARRL is not directly involved with the DX Foundations, it has 
considerable influence and should use that status to encourage change.

Special effort and resources should be devoted to getting indigenous 
operators in smaller countries into being active.

A DXCC Honor Roll in Memoriam should be established and maintained for 
Silent Keys. In
turn, Silent Keys should be actively removed from all current listings.

DX???ing as it stands today is stale and dying, and is far too much 
dominated by old timers. If you are an Old Timer - and let???s face it - 
most of us are - if you love DX???ing - open the doors to the newcomers 
and welcome them instead of repressing them. And after all, if we don???t 
get new blood, who is going to climb our towers in future?
We need to make DXCC and DX???ing vital and fun again. It is not too soon 
to start.

Bob Locher, W9KNI, the author of this proposal, has a present score of 
382 countries worked. Bob is the top DX???er world wide in the CW DXCC 
Listing. He is also the author of the book, ???The Complete DX???er??? which 
is sold by ARRL and for which there are over 28,000 copies in print. Bob 
lives near Grants Pass, Oregon, and remains actively chasing DX, 
especially the CQ DX Marathon. Bob is 76 years old, and no longer climbs 
towers. Bob is a member of the Maxim Society.