DX Stories by Paul M. Dunphy, VE1DX

Basic DXing

by Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD

Originally published in the WCDXB, 20 July 1976

(With a minor modification by VE1DX, 18 January 1997)

One of the Local QRPers came up the hill last week and he was not happy. "Put me down as another one who missed VK0IR", he said. "Those high-powered, non-stop-calling Eastern types pushed the QRM needle off the peg at my place." We were properly sympathetic for a broken heart is a nagging burden. "Too bad", we said, hoping to ease the grief with some small talk, "we heard you in there calling and figured you'd worked them. We could not hear him here."

The QRPer shrugged. "Oh, I wasn't hearing him. I was in there calling blind. Called for three days and got nothing. Nothing at all with all that eastern QRM." We had to think this over a bit for it appeared something was not meshing. "If you could not hear him", we asked, "how would you ever know if he came back to your call? Wasn't that a bit of a futile effort to call blind?" The QRPer bristled. "Look", he said, "If I didn't call, how would they have heard my call and come back to me? Heck! That's basic DXing."

We were still not getting the story. "But if you call blind and you are not hearing the DX station, how will you know when he comes back to you . . . if he does?" The QRPer started to bristle again . . . and it was apparent we had run our string. "I can see you really never will be a Big DXer", he said devastatingly, "You just cannot understand that they won't hear you if you don't call. You just don't understand!"

Son of a Gun! Let's face it. There are some of the Eternal Enigmas that only a few will understand. These are trying times in this world of DX, although for some more than others. We thought again about what the QRPer had told us. We pondered the Mysteries of the Ages, for there is often wisdom hidden beneath the surface and there are none so blind as those who will not see. After a few minutes, we decided a visit to the optometrist wasn't necessary . . . and while one of us wasn't seeing, we had convinced ourselves that our eyes were just fine! So we turned back to the rig and waited for the Heard Island boys to flash up again on fifteen. The Great Days of DXing were at hand. DX IS!

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