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Author Topic: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?  (Read 2195 times)

W2IRT

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The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« on: January 30, 2023, 10:44:38 AM »

The endless "mode wars" posts that we've been subjected to for the last few years reminded me of a piece written by Paul Dunphy, VE1DX, in the style of the late, great Hugh Cassidy WA6AUD (sk) of the West Coast DX Bulletin fame. It appears to have been written just before CW was officially dropped by the FCC and Industry Canada, but it's now long overdue for a digital update. I've copied/pasted the story below in its entirely, with my own observations below that. All you QRPers will undoubtedly relate. The original is here: https://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/story024.html

We took a walk down to the village last week and we ran across several of the Local QRPers sitting on a park bench talking about a number of things, but mostly DX. Some of these QRPers had been around the track a few times, but we had learned long ago that the true understanding of DX is not always measured by years on the air. Since DX was a topic that always caught our attention, we decided to see what going on. "What's new?" we asked, sitting down.

    One of the more elderly QRPers replied, "We were just talking about the Golden Days of DXing, about those days when things were better than they are today. When DXers stood tall, and were the top echelon of Ham radio. When you could be proud to call yourself a DXer. Not like today. DXing is a lost art. And we all agree on that, but there seems to be a bit of a problem on just when the Golden Days of DXing were."

    We weren't sure that DXing had become a lost art, so we asked for clarification. Two or three of the QRPers started to answer at once so we held up our hand "Take a turn each", we said, "and let's start with the most senior one." The QRPer who had started the conversation jumped up, beaming with pride, "I was first licensed in 1947 when I was just 15" he began, "and I'm sure that the Golden Days of DXing were back then. We built our own rigs, and we didn't have any 2-metre spotting repeaters or anything like that. We found the DX on CW or AM and the DX was real DX, not the stuff that's kicking around today. Once SSB came around, DX was gone!" He looked around at the group and it was clear he was ready to defend his position. No one said anything so we nodded to the next QRPer.

    "Well, I started out in the early 60's and did most of my serious DXing in the 60's and 70's. And that was when DX was DX. When Danny and Gus and Don were activating the new ones. We had a simplex frequency on 2-metres where we all met and exchanged DX information. And we never bothered with AM, either!" he said, glaring at the first QRPer, "No sir, we used CW and SSB. And sometimes we would even call the locals on the landline or give them a one-ringer to let them know when something rare showed up. We all understood the true meaning of DX IS!"

    Somehow we doubted that any of the group understood this, but we simply nodded to the third QRPer. He was ready to make his pitch. "Those old guys can't see beyond their D-104s and straight keys!" he started in. "I've been on the air for 12 years now, and the Golden Days of DXing have just ended. I worked the Big Guns, like Martti and Romeo. The Golden Days of DXing are winding down and will be gone by the end of the year! When us real DXers operated, we all used solid state transmitters, DX spotting repeaters and Packet Clusters. We logged all our contacts with our computers and we worked DX on 30, 17 and 12 metres too! These guys don't even have WARC band antennas and they say they've seen the Golden Days of DXing! How can you say you've done it all when you haven't worked a rare one on 17-metre RTTY that popped up on the Packet cluster?" And he sat down, just as sure that he was right as the other two.

    Things were quiet for about 30-seconds as the QRPers looked at us, waiting for a decision. Son of a Gun! Should you think we were going to offer and opinion on this one, think again. For has often been said, once a can of worms has been opened, you'll need a bigger can to get them all back in. Then the silence ended with "What do you think?" and "When were the Golden Days of Dxing?" and "Tell us who is right!" So we did the only thing we could do. We hauled the group of them up the hill to see the Old Timer.

    He was sitting in front of his rig, tuning 15-metres for the polar opening to Asia. He looked up and motioned for everyone to sit down. After a few minutes he looked over and asked what was new. This brought forward the same arguments as we had heard down in the park, complete with arm waving and pounding of fists as points were made and territories staked out. The Old Timer looked at the QRPers for a moment and then asked, "You all seem convinced that you are right, but what makes you think the Golden Days of DXing are over?"

    On this there was agreement. And to get two QRPers to agree on anything was rare . . . to have three agree was never heard of before. "The Internet and the new HF regulations are destroying DX!" they yelled in unison. We were impressed. The Old Timer took a deep breath, glanced at us with that "Why did you bring these QRPers here?" look and replied. "None of you understand the true meaning of DX IS! Didn't Albert always say that all things were relative, although some more so. He spelled it all out in his Special Theory of DX. But none of you can understand it, can you? Did it ever occur to you that the Golden Days of DXing are right now? And that no matter what the Internet, the ARRL, the FCC, the RSGB or any other technical or political group does or says will change this! The Great Days of DXing are here. The signs are everywhere! And the Golden Days of DXing are the Great Days of Dxing!"

    The QRPers glanced back and forth at each other with confused and puzzled looks. Then, they all got up and slowly made their way out the door. We could hear them muttering as they made their way down the hill and it was clear they did not believe or understand what had been said. And we even had lingering doubts. So we asked the Old Timer, "All this talk about the Internet and no-code lowering the standard and destroying DX . . . do you think the QRPers have a point?" The Old Timer looked up from his rig, stared us right in the eye and simply said: "No."

    And with that he turned back toward his rig and began tuning 15 again. It was clear this was all he was going to say. So we made our way down the hill and toward the library. For a while we were sure we understood the true meaning of DX IS!, we felt it wouldn't hurt to read Albert's book on the Special Theory of DX once again. These are trying times in this world of DX. When the new HF licensing regulations are announced, like the Hero of Mafeking Lord Baden-Powell so often advised, we wanted to "Be prepared!"


My thoughts? Things have certainly changed, but we are definitely in another golden age of DX; one without gatekeepers who only acknowledge the accomplishments of those who can afford the biggest stations and spend the most time on the radio. I'm a past President of the North Jersey DX Association and long before I became a member it was a requirement that anybody interested in membership had to have attained the lofty total of 200 DXCC entities, confirmed by card and recorded by the League. Can you imagine that? Two Hundred! At the time that was Something Special, even with the Gus Browning, Danny Weil, and Romeo DXpeditions, and activations of entities which, today, are ultra-rare being on seemingly every month. Two Hundred! This was often a 20- or 30-year total for "average" stations back then.

Well, I like to count my totals for the CQ DX Marathon; I've never submitted, but I like to compare year-upon-year for my own interest. In just the last 30 days I've worked 192 CQ entities, 39 Zones, and Worked All States on 3 new bands. And I'm a slacker compared to some who are already well over 200 for the year, with all 40 zones. Last year I had 245+40, and in 2020, the year of the lockdowns, I still hit 206+40, and that's while I was working 70-80 hours a week with almost no time to play radio. I think my best-ever was 2016 with 268 worked in that one, single calendar year. Can you imagine those kinds of numbers in the so-called "Golden Ages?" You'd be revered as a DX Deity™.

And sure, we've traded in some of our "599 TU" CW messages for XX9XXX  KA0XTT  RR73 messages, but we've found ways to communicate on bands that would otherwise be considered closed or unusable. The Horror!

But it's also true that even though working DX is now easier than ever, DXing as a long-term goal has become far more difficult than it was in those so-called "Golden Ages." I firmly posit that Honor Roll, as we know it now, might never be attainable by someone just coming into the hobby today since there are a minimum of 17 or 18 entities that have been declared "off-limits" for the foreseeable future and for which permission to operate there might never be granted again in any of our lifetimes. Certainly HR #1 will never be possible for them, and doubtful even for me, sitting at 337. But does that mean the best time for DXing is over forever? Not a chance! DX IS.
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Great times are at hand, and soon there will be DX for all—although more for some than for others.

K1VSK

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2023, 10:59:11 AM »

And those of us who have managed to get to the top of the HR also thought “that will never be possible”.
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K0UA

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2023, 11:30:40 AM »

As a Dx chaser now for coming up on 6 years, I have always wondered what the term DX IS means.  I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word is, is.  :)
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73  James K0UA

VE8EV

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2023, 11:52:39 AM »

<slow clap>

I was wondering when someone would point out the historical comparisons between the previous "end-of-days" debates (AM vs SSB, tubes vs transistors, code vs no-code, etc, I think he got most of them) and the current FT8 vs all-other-modes ridiculousness.

If anyone hasn't read all the 'historical documents' written by Cass WA6AUD (and later added to by Paul VE1DX) they probably should.  His perspective on DXing is the closest thing there is to a DX religion.

73
John VE8EV

Edit: Here is the link to the original West Coast DX Bulletin archive.
https://ncdxc.org/west-coast-dx-bulletin/ 
Cass would close each issue with his unique take on DXing (and make a plug to subscribe to the bulletin!)
« Last Edit: January 30, 2023, 12:09:11 PM by VE8EV »
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WA3SKN

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2023, 12:16:45 PM »

There were no "Good Old Days" of DXing!
Enjoy the now, invite others!

-Mike.
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W2IRT

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2023, 12:50:21 PM »

As a Dx chaser now for coming up on 6 years, I have always wondered what the term DX IS means.  I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word is, is.  :)
It's one of those Eternal Enigmas and Mysteries of the Ages. All things are relative; some moreso than others. Be a believer!

And those of us who have managed to get to the top of the HR also thought “that will never be possible”.
Personally I'd be pickled tink to be proven wrong. But I just don't see most of the out-of-bounds entities being reopened to recreational human activity again in most of our hoped-for lifetimes. I'm thinking specifically about Johnston Atoll, Kure Island, possibly Desecheo, Aves Is., St. Peter and Paul Rocks, possibly Trindade/Martim Vaz, plus ZL9 and ZS8, to name but a few. Add to that Syria and DPRK for obvious reasons, plus Turkmenistan and Scarborough Reef. And I know I'm leaving out a few. Pratas and San Felix have been off for over 20 years now with no sign of approval (but boy do I wish....). It's also been seemingly forever since we've last seen activity from Tristan da Cunha/Gough, Juan de Nova/Europa, Glorioso, and Tromelin, although those do seem to pop up every dozen or so years.

Anything's possible, of course and we can all just keep hoping that someone will finally get the last few Golden Tickets needed to make this all happen, but the trend of the environmental closures is only going one way, and not in our favour.

If anyone hasn't read all the 'historical documents' written by Cass WA6AUD (and later added to by Paul VE1DX) they probably should.  His perspective on DXing is the closest thing there is to a DX religion.  Edit: Here is the link to the original West Coast DX Bulletin archive:
https://ncdxc.org/west-coast-dx-bulletin/.  Cass would close each issue with his unique take on DXing (and make a plug to subscribe to the bulletin!)

There, and on Paul's website, https://www.ve1dx.net/Stories/ you'll just find the tales of the Old Timer, Red-eyed Louie, Sunspot Louie and the legions of beady-eyed QRPers up on the Verandah.
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Night gathers and now my watch begins. It shall not end until I reach Top of the Honor Roll

Great times are at hand, and soon there will be DX for all—although more for some than for others.

K1VSK

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2023, 02:05:47 PM »


Personally I'd be pickled tink to be proven wrong. But I just don't see most of the out-of-bounds entities being reopened to recreational human activity again in most of our hoped-for lifetimes. I'm thinking specifically about Johnston Atoll, Kure Island, possibly Desecheo, Aves Is., St. Peter and Paul Rocks, possibly Trindade/Martim Vaz, plus ZL9 and ZS8, to name but a few. Add to that Syria and DPRK for obvious reasons, plus Turkmenistan and Scarborough Reef. And I know I'm leaving out a few. Pratas and San Felix have been off for over 20 years now with no sign of approval (but boy do I wish....). It's also been seemingly forever since we've last seen activity from Tristan da Cunha/Gough, Juan de Nova/Europa, Glorioso, and Tromelin, although those do seem to pop up every dozen or so years.

Anything's possible, of course and we can all just keep hoping that someone will finally get the last few Golden Tickets needed to make this all happen, but the trend of the environmental closures is only going one way, and not in our favour.



That’s what everyone thought decades ago - that China would never allow ham radio. Albania never. Burma never. Aves Island never., etc… even DPRK was among that “no way” list right up until when it wasn’t.
I’m not sure the number of unlikely activity venues changes; only the names change.
Regardless, it takes time, patience and as they say, if it was easy, nobody would do it. So hang in there as, to use another cliche, all good things come to those who wait.
And yes, there has always been a chorus of suggestions to delete some places because of inactivity and likely future inactivity but the goal has never been to delete legitimate entities as defined by the DXCC criteria (or change the criteria) simply because of current events.
Let the lamentations continue.
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KD8MJR

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2023, 02:32:32 PM »


I was wondering when someone would point out the historical comparisons between the previous "end-of-days" debates (AM vs SSB, tubes vs transistors, code vs no-code, etc, I think he got most of them) and the current FT8 vs all-other-modes ridiculousness.


The previous debates where nothing in comparison because at no point was the operator themselves removed out of the Equation!   With FT8 the operator is no longer needed so we might as well all just set up Autonomous stations and call it a day.

There is no doubt that this Hobby has been on a downward spiral for decades.  I remember as a Kid when Amateur Radio operators where seen as some kind of high tech group of guys on the cutting edge of technology with unbelievable gear that could contact a man in Antarctica or in the Amazon when no other technology could reach them. Now most people see us as a kind of odd fringe group.

There are a lot of changes that have happened over the decades that could be argued as times of watering down of the Hobby.   Things like the exam change and a greatly reduced emphasis on knowing electronics but the essence of the hobby still remained as one of being able to communicate with other people over great distance and being useful in emergency situations. 

The main issue with FT8 is that it is the crossing point where several key aspects of Ham radio are really dying.

Station Operators are now optional.
The art of conversation and the social skills are being removed.
Information transmission or relaying skills are now completely dead
Proper Station building skills are not as useful.
Understanding propagation is not nearly as critical.

Anyway what is really the point of listing what parts of FT8 are killing the Hobby.  The fact that one can use a fully automated version of the program and go to bed while it hunts down stations pretty much sums up why in the long run people will lose interest in the hobby and move on.

« Last Edit: January 30, 2023, 02:40:50 PM by KD8MJR »
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WO7R

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2023, 03:00:14 PM »

Quote
Anyway what is really the point of listing what parts of FT8 are killing the Hobby.

And yet, here you are, spitting into the wind again.

Your post boils down to "this time, it is different."  As if the anti-SSB crowd didn't have its verities that (in the end) were not persuasive.

Wayne Green went to his grave with maybe 1,000 editorials purporting to prove ham radio was dying.  He had his reasons, too.  He went SK in 2013.

It's always dying according to someone.

Those various someones never produce serious evidence.  Are there fewer logs in CQ WW?  Not the last several times I looked.  Are license counts going down?  Nope, been stable to slightly rising for a long time.

Nothing is immortal I suppose.  One day, ham radio will really die.

But right now, there's no evidence.  Just self-assured whining.

The only constant I have seen in 30 plus years of hamming is change.  And people whining about it.
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AF5CC

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2023, 03:59:42 PM »


Wayne Green went to his grave with maybe 1,000 editorials purporting to prove ham radio was dying.  He had his reasons, too.  He went SK in 2013.


Guess ham radio outlived Wayne!  It is kind of ironic that the one with the "Never Say Die" suffix eventually said die.

73 John AF5CC
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W2IRT

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2023, 06:41:00 PM »

The previous debates where nothing in comparison because at no point was the operator themselves removed out of the Equation!   With FT8 the operator is no longer needed so we might as well all just set up Autonomous stations and call it a day.
Who said anything about autonomous stations? That strawman argument is getting tiresome. It still takes the operator to select the station he/she wishes to call, or initiate the CQ routine.

There is no doubt that this Hobby has been on a downward spiral for decades.
Maybe in your mind it is, but I feel it's doing just nicely, thank you.

I remember as a Kid when Amateur Radio operators were seen as some kind of high tech group of guys on the cutting edge of technology with unbelievable gear that could contact a man in Antarctica or in the Amazon when no other technology could reach them. Now most people see us as a kind of odd fringe group.
So? Times change. Maybe now we are a fringe group of loonies using technology that went out of vogue in the Reagan Administration. But who cares! It really is OK! It's fun and thousands enjoy it. And so long as people keep participating and enjoying it, the hobby will thrive. But the more you (the collective you, not the individual you) whizz in their cornflakes and whine about this, that, or the other failing, the more incentive you are giving them to say "why are these Sad Hams so intent on making people miserable," and just walk away from it and go take up something where their peers aren't so damnably negative. You, as a licensed ham, have the duty to Elmer new hams if possible, and to be a good ambassador to the airwaves. You are doing no good by whinging about how X or Y is hurting the hobby. What hurts the hobby is people giving up on it and not using our frequencies.

The main issue with FT8 is that it is the crossing point where several key aspects of Ham radio are really dying.
Station Operators are now optional.
In your mind, perhaps, and in the mind of maybe a couple of fringe operators. But even those few are experimenting with a new or varied way to do something.

The art of conversation and the social skills are being removed.
I can't speak for you or anybody else, but I hate ragchews and conversations. I'm a DXer. Anything more than a report, maybe my name and state, is superflous.

Information transmission or relaying skills are now completely dead
So how many pieces of formal traffic have you handled this year, and if that number is greater than zero, how many of them weren't directly related to the operation of the National Traffic System itself?

Proper Station building skills are not as useful.
That's a silly comment, quite frankly. You've still got to build a station, from power supply to antenna, to play radio at the HF level, although I'll grant you not so much on 2m/440 FM, but has it ever been a big deal there? Even back in the 70s that was still basically plug and play, except for perhaps ordering and installing crystals.

Understanding propagation is not nearly as critical.
Well that was discussed in a different thread earlier today, but your logbook's analysis of where and when the real-world openings have actually occurred is, I would argue, far more valuable information than the theoretical nuances. The chart says 17 should be dead as a doornail to Peter 1 Island at 2:15 AM, so why bother turning your radio on. Oh, wait, you saw the spot that I put on the cluster after I worked them on RTTY with 100W, with one call, the very first night they were on. Because it was open.

Anyway what is really the point of listing what parts of FT8 are killing the Hobby.  The fact that one can use a fully automated version of the program and go to bed while it hunts down stations pretty much sums up why in the long run people will lose interest in the hobby and move on.
Again with the "fully automated" nonsense. Please set fire to that strawman once and for all.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2023, 06:48:00 PM by W2IRT »
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Night gathers and now my watch begins. It shall not end until I reach Top of the Honor Roll

Great times are at hand, and soon there will be DX for all—although more for some than for others.

W2IRT

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2023, 06:53:45 PM »

That’s what everyone thought decades ago - that China would never allow ham radio. Albania never. Burma never. Aves Island never., etc… even DPRK was among that “no way” list right up until when it wasn’t. I’m not sure the number of unlikely activity venues changes; only the names change.

What has definitely changed is that before HR#1 was unavailable for most during the so-called Golden Age of DXing due to, as you said, the closure of Burma, China, Albania, and North Korea. But Honor Roll itself was very possible for anybody, after a reasonable period of time. A solar cycle or maybe two of dedicated DXing would surely get you within ten of the top. That is most definitely not possible today, right now, in 2023. There are at least 16 or 17 that may never be worked within the next 20-30 years, or longer, unless multiple governments do an about-face on these entities. Yeah, I'm not happy that I may stay 3-back for the rest of my life, but at least I'm on the Honor Roll (CW, Phone, and Mixed, and hopefully after Bouvet, only two away from RTTY-Digital). In 15 or 20 years I don't think anybody who starts down the road of DXing today will be within 10 entities of HR#1 as we know it now. I really, really hope I'm wrong!
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Night gathers and now my watch begins. It shall not end until I reach Top of the Honor Roll

Great times are at hand, and soon there will be DX for all—although more for some than for others.

WO7R

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2023, 07:13:40 PM »

Quote
That’s what everyone thought decades ago - that China would never allow ham radio. Albania never. Burma never. Aves Island never., etc… even DPRK was among that “no way” list right up until when it wasn’t. I’m not sure the number of unlikely activity venues changes; only the names change.

"Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

The question is, are restrictions on ham radio DXing growing or shrinking?

I tried to get a handle on this.  The posting may be hard to find, but I basically tried to establish how frequently certain entities had been activated, including very small ones.  That's the thing about some of these -- they were little more than "demonstrations" or "good will" exercises.  5,000 QSOs over 20 years is not my idea of a fair shake. But, I counted those anyway.

I did the top 20 or 25 or so.

Even being generous with places like P5, it was certainly the case that there were many entities that were about the same, but that on balance there were more in the "harder" category than in the "easy".

Moreover, the fact that you can still make this claim at all was because of these things:

1.  The US Fish and Wildlife said "no Kingman Reef ever again, no kidding, we aren't budging".

2. The ARRL promptly deleted it from the DXCC list.

Since 2006, when Amateur Radio was shut down, EZ hasn't had as much as a goodwill demonstration.  So far, they've been harsher than North Korea or Albania ever were.  We're closing in on 20 years of zero QSOs.  I haven't heard the slightest hint of that easing. Zorro, now SK, had done wonders in opening up those kinds of places.  We haven't replaced him and if he ever made any progress with EZ, I never heard of it.  Nor anyone else.

Meanwhile, we have places that used to be activated by literally scrambling up a rope ladder from a speedboat that now requires a helicopter to activate and an agreement not to do it again for twenty years.

Baker was activated, in part, because the team was able to fund a US F&W "compliance officer" and pay her salary while the operation continued.  We did not used to do things like that.  But now, we do.

If  the price of oil rises north of 100 dollars a barrel and stays there, at least a half dozen entities in the southern hemisphere (like Heard and other far southern ones) will become million dollar operations.  We have proven we can do those, but it's not like we can do five of them a year.  And, to my knowledge, we really haven't replaced the Braveheart and its crew, which were vital in many of the operations we did run over the last decade or so.

In some respects, especially over the last twenty years, we're having more trouble with environmental restrictions than we have with the likes of BY.  We didn't used to have to make 'see you in 20 years' kinds of agreements.

So, sorry, the difficulty, on balance, is greater.  And, we have nothing on the horizon for EZ in particular.  HR is a better discussion than #1 HR.  Nobody who didn't have EZ by 2006 has had any chance whatever of #1 HR.  And no prospect of it, either.

Some of the younger DXers are starting to catch on to stuff like this.  They pay attention to EZ because they don't have it.  Me, I have it so, I could settle for plattitudes that "everything always becomes available eventually."  But then, it's easy for me to say when I have the one that is off the air for almost 20 years by fiat, straight from the top.  I might feel differently about my chances if I was looking at EZ on my need list.

Truth is, and I've long said this, #1 HR is the problem.  If you choose to ignore it, your DXing life is a much happier one.  A world where you can miss nine is much more achievable than "getting them all" when we don't control the activation in the end.



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KD8MJR

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2023, 07:47:52 PM »

Who said anything about autonomous stations? That strawman argument is getting tiresome. It still takes the operator to select the station he/she wishes to call, or initiate the CQ routine.
I suggest you take a look at what is out there for download and what it can do because you obviously do not know what out there.

As Wayne pointed out do you really think a certain Op was working FT8 for for all those hours?

Quote
I can't speak for you or anybody else, but I hate ragchews and conversations. I'm a DXer. Anything more than a report, maybe my name and state, is superflous.

Is this not the group that hates 59 - 73?  I like Ragchews, it's great when your talking to someone who can hold up an interesting conversation. 

Quote
So how many pieces of formal traffic have you handled this year, and if that number is greater than zero, how many of them weren't directly related to the operation of the National Traffic System itself?

This year none but I have already had to handle two emergency calls from  a Franciscan monk living in the Amazon in a remote village.  Which included contacting his Family to pass messages and getting Blood work information that had been sent up weeks before and they needed to know the results.

Quote
That's a silly comment, quite frankly. You've still got to build a station, from power supply to antenna, to play radio at the HF level, although I'll grant you not so much on 2m/440 FM, but has it ever been a big deal there? Even back in the 70s that was still basically plug and play, except for perhaps ordering and installing crystals.

You know I am talking about building a station like yours instead of the most new Hams who buy a 7300 and strings a wire Antenna and then use 100W to work FT8.

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Well that was discussed in a different thread earlier today, but your logbook's analysis of where and when the real-world openings have actually occurred is, I would argue, far more valuable information than the theoretical nuances. The chart says 17 should be dead as a doornail to Peter 1 Island at 2:15 AM, so why bother turning your radio on. Oh, wait, you saw the spot that I put on the cluster after I worked them on RTTY with 100W, with one call, the very first night they were on. Because it was open.

The same cluster that keeps listing P5 and also FT8WW in just the last few days?
I don't like depending on Spots all that much.  I prefer to turn the dial and listen.  I am also not into greeny points so working every band is not my style.  I do not even have an Antenna for 160M and I never will.

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Again with the "fully automated" nonsense. Please set fire to that strawman once and for all.
Once again do your research.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2023, 07:49:55 PM by KD8MJR »
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“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”  (Mark Twain)

KD8MJR

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Re: The Golden Days of DXing or the End of Days?
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2023, 07:55:19 PM »

What has definitely changed is that before HR#1 was unavailable for most during the so-called Golden Age of DXing due to, as you said, the closure of Burma, China, Albania, and North Korea. But Honor Roll itself was very possible for anybody, after a reasonable period of time. A solar cycle or maybe two of dedicated DXing would surely get you within ten of the top. That is most definitely not possible today, right now, in 2023. There are at least 16 or 17 that may never be worked within the next 20-30 years, or longer, unless multiple governments do an about-face on these entities. Yeah, I'm not happy that I may stay 3-back for the rest of my life, but at least I'm on the Honor Roll (CW, Phone, and Mixed, and hopefully after Bouvet, only two away from RTTY-Digital). In 15 or 20 years I don't think anybody who starts down the road of DXing today will be within 10 entities of HR#1 as we know it now. I really, really hope I'm wrong!

At least we agree on one thing and that is why I can only dream of a mixed award, but I know now that even that is a pipe dream.
Maybe if I had started 10 years earlier it would have been possible.
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“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”  (Mark Twain)
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