Best Years Behind Us
This may sound a bit discouraging , but I believe that the best 11mtrs DX'ing years are behind us.
Still, there will be a few real "new ones" on the air, but there aren't so much left. And among the "never activated on 11" group, some will remain impossible.
The radio hobby is dropping. GSM phone, Email, Internet took over. There are fewer and fewer people on the air.
In the past, there were radios or CB everywhere, and sometimes, someone played with it, found out there were some folks chatting on it and took the mike to call them ... Quite interesting if the guy was from a remote Pacific island !
Also, scientific or humanitarian missions crew were from times to times on the radio during their spare time, lucky people managed to work rare places this way. Now these crews probably spend their spare time on Facebook with a Satellite Internet connection.
HAM licence is easier to get now, in some countries, CW is no more needed to access HF bands, so lots of 11mtrs ops have now become HAM. If they are on a DX'pedition, not sure they will give a call on 11mtrs especially because of the big troubles that happened to some well known HAM/11mtrs Dxpeditionner. Also, these new HAM are maybe not interested anymore in 11mtrs.
Very strict air travel safety and controls won't probably encourage people to smuggle radio gear in "hot" countries.
There were times some green stamps and a bottle of whisky made everything possible with the customs and with local police, but this days are over too.
For sure, we will still have fun on the radio working new ones or semi-rare ones, but to me, don't expect too much. "Sleepers" (=DX hunters with > 285-290 countries who only take the mic to work new ones) won't have much work in the future years.
That's probably why lots of groups put the emphasis of IOTA, IWI, MOTA, SOTA and so on. This will be the next challenge when DXCC challenge is slowling down.
Hobby is in Great Shape
Hi Mr Gun, Adrian, Jeremy and All,
I guess that's one point of view, Mr Gun. I too think that the arrival of other more reliable forms of communication have lessened the involvement of persons in our hobby. I also think that the relaxing of ham radio licensing systems such as the CW requirement have had some impact too.
The close community feel of Freeband radio, however, ensures many of those guys either return to the hobby after tasting the ham stuff momentarily or balance the two simultaneously. That's my experience anyway and I’m sure others will say the same.
It's difficult to say if the best years of Freeband DXing are behind us or not. It's easy to think that here in Oceania where the band has been hibernating for a few years now, with only sporadic openings every 6 months around Christmas and OC Contest time to keep us interested. One only has to tune in to the live feeds in Europe, however, to see that the hobby is well and truly alive with much activity on the band and plenty of DXCC to work in most continents. I have no doubt this will be upon us soon in OC.
On another note, in the Pacific islands area, there are still cbs everywhere as 27 MHz is still the main medium of communication. I have many friends in this area through DA-RC and they are say the same thing. I guess the only thing that has changed now is that the cbs have been replaced with 10m transceivers due to the fact that the production of cb radios has dropped considerably in the last 15 years and 10m rigs also pack a little bit more punch for the same price.
So don't give up hope there Big Gun of working an island where the operator has just dusted off the cobwebs of an old rig and provided some air time. It will happen and, in fact, still does!
Furthermore, I can tell you now that DA-RC is one club that does NOT put more emphasis on non-DXCC activities due to the fact remaining DXCC are more challenging to realise :-) For us, the interests of our members are diverse and passions exist in many areas. For me, for instance, an activation of a rare Pacific or Indian Ocean island (IOTA) gets the blood pumping much more than an activation of a rare DXCC would. Because, to me, the world of IOTA and IOTA DXpedition work is much more exciting and much more challenging. That's the beauty of our hobby though...we all think differently.
In fact, I think it’s fair to say that DXCC hunting is only one very small element of our hobby. Tiny in fact. For guys who are solely DXCC Hunters though, I can only say that with the arrival of DA-RC, you will start seeing some of those most wanted DXCC entities being more accessible in the future. Plans are already underway to activate 2 new DXCC in 2010, for example.
So keep your head up, Mr Gun and all. Our hobby is a great one and in my opinion, in terrific shape :-)
73 de Darren
43DA010/001
Admin
Hamming It Up
Jeremy sums this up perfectly ! You would need to be an incredibly sad person to only come on the radio to try and work a new country ! Who really cares what anyone else works anyway ?
If you're so pathetic you wish to indulge in this sort of childish one-upmanship / competition , you may aswell go and collect badges , or caps or something .
What some folks simply fail to appreciate , or don't wish to understand is that the vast majority of CB users are very passionate about the hobby , and have absolutely NO interest in ham radio .
Hey guys ! I should have
Hey guys !
I should have said this article was intended to DXers.
It's indeed all about DXCC hunting.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, but this article was meant to explain that there won't probably be many new ones on the air in the future and that the golden era was over.
I don't want to be rude, but I didn't really appreciate your critics about my vision of the hobby : some people like local CB, other like IOTA, other SES, other just enjoy talking skip and some, like me, just show up to work new ones.
This is my pleasure on the radio, a personal competition and a life long challenge.
I'm not into the social thing, the "friends who have never met" story.
I don't like to ragchew, but if you like it, then it's good for you and I won't judge it.
should have but did not
yup thats says it all
Dont you believe it!
Maybe to a few shallow operators that may be the case, Biggun, but to most folks on 11m, its the fun of chatting on 11m that fits the bill.And the internet, skype, Facebook, etc. just can't compete; they have their uses, for sure, but just the thought of picking up the phone and dialling a number, whether its landline, cel, skype, etc., is too easy.
And a lot of the freebanders-turned-ham, probably turned ham for the "free" use of the radio and the ability to fool around with their hobby or take it to the next level; but once hooked in 11 meter, you'll always return, just for the fun of it.
If all you're interested in is making and confirming a new country, then I am afraid you run the risk of being labelled as somewhat shallow. Surely, when you've made the country contact, made a friend, you are going to go back and make more friends in the country, like a sort of social network....?
Well, that's my enjoyment of the hobby, anyway, and, Ham or not, 11 meter will always be there for me to work my friends in far off places who I'e never met in person
Jeremy, DA330, EDX111
I don't see the competition
I don't see the competition from VOIP / Skype etc. Radio DX is something totally different. It's like saying that more public transport will stop people from going car racing.
Radio is radio, wired is wired.
If anything is a problem, I think it is that there is less appreciation around for what radio actually is and how the whole DX thing works, the skill and the art of the operator. Maybe the ease of communications using Skype / VOIP etc has hidden that magic. Hopefully eventually some of the kids will get sick of the 6 lane Skype highway, see da light and head for the hills to find some HF DX with us !
Personally I don't care where I work, other than working local friends, further is better, I like those weak signals :)
73s
Steve
43DA101
Good on ya Steve, I, for
Good on ya Steve, I, for one, will be listening for that "weak signal"
Jeremy, DA330, EDX111