[SFDXA] Signs of life? - True Blue DXErs,

[Bill]

Signs of life?
Dear fellow True Blue DXErs,

This is a short message combining the regular TBDXC newsletter and the 
Ultra-Marathon update.

As the membership of the Club continues its slow but steady growth (as 
of today, we have 1,712 TBDXC members), I believe the state of the HF 
bands gives us some modest reasons for hope.

I don’t know if it’s only me, but I seem to have noticed a bit of an 
uptake in CW and SSB activity in the recent past. Perhaps the novelty of 
FT8 is eventually beginning to wear off, perhaps the new Cycle 25, which 
is off to a reasonable start, is giving people more reasons to be on 
air, fact is that, as I tune the bands, I seem to find more activity 
than I used to. Mind you, it’s still like moving from clinical death to 
suspended animation, but it’s still movement. Also, as many of us are 
coming out of the long, terrible planetary winter of COVID, people start 
travelling again and DXpeditions begin to appear. It is so damned 
refreshing to see higher HF bands jumping with signals, and even more so 
to see rare country prefixes generating good old pileups! I think that, 
as TBDXC members, we should ride this wave and encourage more activity. 
How so? By simply turning the radio on, calling CQ or answering calls! I 
know it sounds silly, but I know for a fact that many, frustrated by the 
low levels of activity, still cannot be bothered. In short, be the 
change that you want to see… make QSOs!

Speaking of which, participants in the TBDXC 2021 Ultra-Marathon have 
certainly been busy making QSOs. We are now way past the quarter of a 
million mark, and as I write as many as 303.595 contacts were made for 
the Marathon. How many of these would have happened without the 
Marathon? Difficult to say, but here to I like to think that our 
initiative did indeed make a difference in the levels of activity. I, 
for one, am active every day, even if I certainly am not a contender for 
the top positions. This is something I wouldn’t have done without the 
incentive of the Marathon. And, as a CW participant, most days I hear 
the CW top scorers calling and making dozens of contacts. Would have 
they done so without the Marathon? I doubt it…

Without entering into details, it is also interesting to note that the 
competition is heating up as we head towards the end of the event. 
Whilst the very top positions in the various categories are – I believe 
– unassailable, immediately below that there is plenty room for upsets. 
Watch, for example, positions 5, 6 and 7 in the HPCW category (I2IFT, 
LB6GG, OZ3SM), and positions 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the HPSSB category 
(OE1HHB, KL7KK, IN3ZNR, MI0BHX)… anything can still happen there. In the 
LPCW category, positions 4 and 5 (NK4O and IN3FHE) are within a hair’s 
width.

We have already started thinking about the 2022 edition. The idea is to 
make it even more “ultra” by allowing mixed mode and QSOs on all 9 HF 
bands. These changes will hopefully provide even more chances to make 
“meaningful” contacts, by taking advantage of whatever band happens to 
be open at various moments in time.  From my QTH, for instance, 30 and 
17 are often in better shape than 20 metres – next year I will be able 
to make QSOs on these bands to my heart delight, and to boost my modest 
score!

To conclude these brief notes, let me remind everybody that we have a 
reasonably active Facebook group, where we discuss various topics, 
exchange pictures, and more. Why don’t you join us? The address is: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tbdxc

73 to everybody and good DX!

Pete MM0TWX
TBDXC Founder and CEO

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The True Blue DXers Club
www.tbdxc.net