[TowerTalk] Dxing - Re: Feeding single band HF yagis 500+ ft from the shack

[Lux, Jim]

On 5/18/22 12:19 PM, Wes wrote:
> The future of DXpeditions  FT8 and 
> https://ncdxc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IDXC2021-15May-07-RIB.pdf
>
> Or as I would put it, DXing RIP.

well, more that there's nowhere left to DX to that's actually 
accessible.  The whole DX entity thing is kind of 
political/philosophical - How big a rock sticking up counts as an 
entity, and does it have to be above water level all the time.

I think there is great potential for alternate forms of DX expeditions 
beyond getting the entities. Checking off countries (DXCC) is just an 
easy (and long honored) list.

It is difficult to find such challenges that are easy to explain, and 
don't devolve into a series of increasingly fine distinctions at the 
corners of the rules. I will say that in other contesting (e.g. 
motorsports) there's a long tradition of exploring corners of the 
rules.  There's a limit on the fuel tank size, but (at one time) no 
limit on the diameter of the fuel line.

There will be pride in various aspects - Someone who built their own 
gear might be distinguished from "appliance operators" (a 
semi-perjorative term) - Sitting in front of the actual radio, showered 
by the sparks from the rotary spark gap - as opposed to sitting in a 
control room at some distance.

I look forward to contests and quests (DX-CC and its ilk are more quests 
than contests) that reward cleverness - setup time, portability, energy 
efficiency.  Looking at the folks in the club at JPL, there's a whole 
lot of interest in DX contacts with portable stations (we're in the LA 
Basin, and it's noisy, and hard to put up big antennas).  The appeal of 
grinding down the DX entity list is limited, since there's an advantage 
to "time on the air" - all those guys who started in the 1960s have 
already accumulated all the easy ones, and had longer to work the 
obscure ones.


>
>
> On 5/18/2022 11:45 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
>> Given how much operating is being done these days using complex 
>> remote stations, it strikes me that a 10x10 hut at the base of the 
>> tower, with everything in there but the operator end, is entirely 
>> feasible and not even that expensive.  There are wifi extenders on 
>> the market that certainly could reach that far, and it wouldn't take 
>> many copper runs for RF, rotators and other control circuits to far 
>> exceed the cost.
>>
>> 73, Pete N4ZR
>
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