Very wise statements, Urb. I agree 100%. I've commented on other reflectors about DXing on VHF. Seems the VHF+ ops I know are a whole different breed of cat than the HF DXers. Skill with and knowledge of conditions, luck and equipment are everything there. There are usually no pileups on 2304 MHz to contend with. It's you against Mother Nature, not you against other ops. And for some reason, no one that I know ever lies about the grid square or location he's actually in and no one questions it. Maybe that honesty comes about because the competitiveness isn't against one another as a rule. "DX" does refer to distance. It's a LOT harder to work someone 300 miles away on 2304 MHz than to work someone 100 miles away.
As far as countries or "entities" go, I don't care what's added to the list. The only thing about withdrawing entities is that people get upset when something gets taken away from them without their full consent. They feel like they are losing something. So there are going to be some people who complain about that, probably more so than those who would complain about adding an entity. I don't have a kW or big antennas but I do have what I consider a superb rig (TS-850). So in some ways I guess most of us have been spoiled in one way or another by modern technology. What would it be like using a Viking transmitter, Hammarlund HQ-180 receiver and wire antennas, no packet, etc once again? 73, Zack W9SZ On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Urb LeJeune wrote: > I totally accept the fact that I'm an old fart and that the condition > colors (and reduces) my thinking process. Having said that I fail to > understand some of the thinking express during the recent new country/ > Mt. Athos threads. > > There is a danger in any discussion that the definitions of key > terms may not be universally shared. To wit, what do we mean by DX? > To be sure, at one time DX was defined by distance, this is still a valid > criterion on VHF and especially UHF bands. I don't think that defination > is valid any longer. I have a converted CB SSB rig on ten meters. There > is no question that at some point I have put a S9 signal at an point on > this planet. If someone was there, and listening for me, I could have > easily worked them. The same holds for anyone reading this message. > So the distance test fails for DX as we know it. > > I would hope we would all agree that our attraction to DXing has > at it's base the element of difficulty. The difficulty can take many form, > competition, propagation, and lack of activity from a particular DX entity. > > Since there is a competitive element, a measurement metric is > involved. Many of us have chosen a country count as that metric. If that's > true, why difference does it make what the countries are as long as we > all share a common list. Why should it make any difference if the > "country" is an "office building" in NYC or a small group of buildings > surrounded by Greece? Indeed, why should on-the-air activity make > any difference in the recognition of country status? > > It seem to me this thread (and I contributed to a portion of it) > really is about how to create a new country and how to remove a country > that is already there. > > It the first case, we already have a set of rules. If you don't like > the rules, lobby to change them but there are rules. In the later case > it would seem to me that any country not meeting the test of the current > rules should be removed. We are then left with something approaching > what we have now. An all time score and I score base on the currently > available countries. If you live long enough you may well become number > one on the first list. > > I started DXing in the late 50s and things have changed. I'm not > necessarily saying the old way was better (although I really do believe > it was.) Back then few DXers ran a KW, many didn't have a beam, and > there were no packet clusters, lists, and DXpeditions (as we now know > them) were relatively rare. At gatherings of DXers that talk center on > how to work some station that show up about twice a year for about > an hour each time (AC5PN) or who would once in a while show up in > a French speaking phone net in the then DX portion on the upper end > of 20 meter phone (FW8AA.) > > Can it be that we have become spoiled by high power, big > antennas, packet clusters, and DXpeditions having 40K contact in a > few day? > > Urb, W2DEC Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
