Topband: K4M and DXpeditions in general

[Julius Fazekas]

This may be preaching to the choir, but think there will always be folks disappointed with some aspect of a DXpedition.

I think we have to cut the K4M and FT5GA folks some slack, both had limitations either known or unexpected. Dem's da breaks...

I managed to worked K4M on 160, only had to fight QRN there. The QRM was horrible on 40 and 20 for them. So thank you 160M. I did hear FT5GA a couple times, never on 160. Part of the problem there was that I was away for beginning of the DXpedition and really didn't have the time to watch for them when they were operational. Not much one can do about that...

At SEDCO this year, and at previous SEDCOs, Bob, K4UEE, has made presentations about several of the major DXpeditions. The planning is impressive and knowing some of the folks who were on the Midway trip, I suspect they had thought out the trip well in advance, including Top Band activity. Murphy threw a pipe wrench into the mix.

The goal of most DXpeditions is to work as many people as possible, including the difficult areas. At some point in time, one goal will outweigh the other. It's a tough choice, but a realistic one.

Peter 1 and Ducie were two exceptional DXpeditions. When Bob was asked how he judged a DXpedition, I thought his answer was quite interesting, first thing was that everyone got home safely. One of the others was the cost per QSO, as I recall, Peter 1 was the highest at around $5 per. Wonder what Ducie's was?

Sadly, there probably would have been many more in the logs of recent Dxpeditions had it not been for the intentional misconduct. 160M still seems to have more "gentlemen" than the higher bands. More DXpeditions are operating on 160 as well, which is a wonderful thing.

Patience is still the key ;o)

73,
Julius
n2wn