From: sas@opus.xyplex.COM (Scott Sminkey - Sustaining Eng Group)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: DXer mentality
Date: 20 Nov 92 18:45:51 GMT
Reply-To: sasminkey@eng.xyplex.com
Organization: UCSD Usenet Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsd.edu
Originator: daemon@ucsd.edu

Being a DXer, I've just got to respond to a recent unsigned posting
criticizing the "DX'er mentality".

>All those DX'ers are striving for big amplifiers bigger beams
>and the biggest signals :-)

No, they're actually striving for bigger stacks of QSL cards :-)

I see the smiley face there, but I'll reply anyway...
In chasing DX, I find that the most rewarding catches are those made
with QRP power, a simple wire antenna, mobile, etc. What a thrill it
was to get through the pileups to work and A2 (Botswana) and HB0
(Lichtenstein) while mobile on the Jersey turnpike!

>  The DX'er mentality is not a very nice thing at all:

Hey, this is getting nasty. I don't see a smiley face here! Let me
take your points one at a time...

>     Only rubber stamp contacts

I'm not sure what you mean by a "rubber stamp" contact. Do you mean a
simple exchange of call signs and a signal report ("R 5NN TU" or
"you're 59 thanks"), as opposed to a ragchew?  I'll be the first to
label a QSO like that as the "fast food" of ham radio! I don't want
to do that all the time, but if I'm on the air to (1) work DX, and
(2) that's the kind of QSO that the DX station wants, then that's
what I do. Why do it all, you might ask (as I used to ask myself)?
Again, there's that satisfaction and thrill of having my (little)
signal heard by a station is some faraway land, particularly when
it's some desolate, hard rock in middle of the South Atlantic, or
particularly when I can get through a big pileup.

Then again, maybe "rubber stamp" was meant to suggest that the
contact is not a legitimate one, i.e., no information was actually
successfully exchanged between the two stations. I've only heard
of this in DX nets where some net control stations give hints or
help to one or both stations having trouble copying each other.
Judging from discussions in The DX Magazine on this, I believe
this is quite uncommon. For those who cheat this way, they'll
have to live with their conscience...

>     Only prepared to contact stations which are rare enough

When I want to get on the air *TO WORK DX*, I prepare myself *TO WORK
DX*, I get on the air *TO WORK DX*, and (hopefully) I then *WORK DX*!
I go after countries I haven't worked. That's what DXing is about.
*BUT* I do get on the air other times when I don't want to work DX
and then I work stateside, Canada, Europe, etc.  Once in a while, I
get a nice surprise when a DX station wants to ragchew.

>     Always ready to insult anyone else who tries to work them
>(particularly beginners and those demonstrating to visitors..)

Yeah, I heard a particularly obnoxious one from St. Augustine,
Florida, who hangs out on 14.150001 really chew out a Canadian who
answered his "CQ DX"!  As a DXer, it *really* ticks me off to hear
other DXers behave like this. As far as being obnoxious like that,
I don't think the DX community has sole ownership of that character
trait (flaw?), though. Just listen to 75m phone any evening if you
don't believe me.

>     Bands filled with high power stations all calling CQ in the hope
>that something rare will show up.

When I'm looking for DX, I tune and listen, tune and listen, tune
and listen. On neither phone nor CW do I hear anything close to bands
being "filled" with CQ DX or even open-ended CQs for that matter. In
fact I hear a lot more of the just-plain "CQ"s than "CQ DX"s...

>   Sure, there are some who chase DX, yet do so in a gentlemanly
>fashion...

You're damn right! There are a *lot* of DXers like this, particularly
on CW. (no fuel for CW wars intended)

>...but the vocal majority have made the tag "DXer" an insult.

Nope. Wrong. It's that simple.

The (obnoxious) "vocal *minority*" in amateur radio will continue to
surface in all of the various facets of amateur radio, perhaps more
in some than others.

So...let me define the "DXer mentality"

  - an efficient operator: if the goal is to make contact, that's
                           all he does
  - a skilled listener
  - persistent and dedicated
  - passionate about DXing and excited to tell and show others about it
  - human: sometimes gets cranky, angry, or frustrated

Sounds to me like the DXer mentality is pretty well suited to weak
signal work!

73 de Scott WO1G  (FP/WO1G Aug 1991)

==========
Scott Sminkey
Xyplex, Inc.
330 Codman Hill Road
Boxborough, MA 01719
email  sasminkey@eng.xyplex.com
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc