Real DX

["Stig Hartvig Nielsen" <hartvig@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a message from "Stig Hartvig Nielsen" <hartvig@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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Thanks for the response regarding my note to Martin Elbe, Germany.


To Martin Elbe: Well, fine if you've send all the logs from Hune to the
MW-editor of SWN, Ydun. How could I know she had omitted certain log's.
Any such omission of logs was not mentioned in the column nor the
editorial of SWN. And after all  - the MW log section of SWN  has included
exotic stations such as Radio Luxembourg on 1440 and HitRadio Veronica on
1224 - heard in Europe - for a long time. So how on earth would I know
that  when someone had heard something interesting - it was not included
???

I have been DXing for more than 25 years now. Over the past few days I
have had the opportunity of doing a lot of "serious" DX and was happy and
a little proud of having heard a number of stations not previously being
heard in Denmark - to the best of my knowledge. One of them being WWL.
When I mentioned this on the Internet - immediadly someone from Germany
came and told me he had heard the station in northern Denmark: "WWL was a
daily catch up here! Sometimes they came in like a local station"; in
other words: HA HA - that's nothing to hear WWL, you fool! 

Fine if that's the way you want to boast about your exploits. But I am
feeling kind of sad about it now. 

I always take a pride in telling the truth, but apparently I was lying
when I told everybody that I was the first to hear WWL in Denmark. 

But please bear in mind: Your logs have not been published anywhere. Not
in any Danish nor in any other Nordic DX-magazine - so how would I know
??? 

Only "a selection" of stations was mentioned in SWN no. 3 - 1996. (These
logs even appeared anonymously under the abbreviation "HDX". Apparently
all four DX'ers taking part in this DXpedition were catching the same
stations - or for whatever reason - have chosen not to let outsiders know
who logged the various stations).

Martin Elbe asks "what do you think what you can hear in a big city like
Copenhagen, Berlin, Hamburg etc. ?". If you are a DX'er I dont think you
would choose to live in the centre of one of these places. I would
recommend living a few minutes outside of town where DX conditions can be
fine. Take for instance the DSWCI AGM which is held annually just a few
minutes outside Copenhagen, and that's a fine place for DX'ing. 

Finnish DX'ers are going to Northern Finland and British DX'ers are going
to the northern part of Great Britain - in order to log a lot of rare
stations, as you mention. Fine - but then - why don't you go to Northern
Germany instead? 

Another bilious (?) comment (hi!) of mine could be that the Hune
DXpedition is a very "closed" thing - only for insiders - not welcoming
any other DX'ers. On a number of occations we in the DDXLK invited
participants from the DSWCI to our DX weekends, but noone ever showed up
(except for one meeting, as far as I remember). It appears that not even
other members of the DSWCI are expected to join the DXpedition to Hune, or
perhaps I missed the invitation in SWN? As far as I understand both
Sheigra and the DXpeditions to Northern Finland and Northern Sweden
welcome fellow DX'ers to join. In Hune a group of foreign DX'ers are
coming to my country - not even bothering to invite the DX'ers living
there (of DDXLK nor DSWCI) to join. I know I am pushing it more or less to
extremes, but there's something in it. I do know other Danish DX'ers who
are puzzled about the Hune DXpedition.

The reason why I mentioned Cuba/Jamaice is because there seems to be a new
way of practice among some DX'ers these days. (I'm not saying that you,
Martin, is doing this). Let me explain, to make my point clear: Very often
you'll see DX'ers travelling to exotic places - like the Caribbean - and
sending plenty of reception reports to the local stations there. EVEN
medium wave stations that sometimes are available in the country where the
DX'er lives. In Sweden some DX'ers are travelling by car all over the
country to log the new local, commercial radiostations and are sending
reception reports to these stations asking for a QSL-card. Take the most
recent issue of SWN: A German DX'er has travelled to Belgium and received
3 QSL's from Belgian stations. A DX'er from France has gone to Portugal
and forwarded a report to Radio Renascenca (on MW) and obtained a QSL. 

That is not real DX and that is destroying things for other DX'ers. In
Sweden some stations are now very reluctant to send ANY reply to DX'ers.
Even when someone actually - perhaps after days/weeks/months of listening
- finally succed in catching one of these stations under very good
conditions. The stations are under the impression: "Well, that's probably
one more loony - listening here in our own backyard" - or they have given
up sending out QSL's because they get so many reports.

I hope I have made my point clear: What I mean is, that DX'ing has
something to do with listening to radiostations over a more or less long
distance. It does not mean to travel to Jamaica and log Cuba there and
sending a reception report to the cuban stations from there.

Traveling to Northern Finland (by the Finnish DX'ers) in order to try to
catch rare stations from the Pacific, Asia and the Americas is of course
not the same. 

But it is my humble opinion that you should do your loggins and especially
your writing of reception reports from your own country. Personally I have
been on many DXpeditions in Denmark - arranged by the DDXLK - but have
never written a reception report from there. I have always felt that would
be wrong for me to do that. The challenge for me (when it comes to my
collection of QSL's) is to listen to the stations from my home and not
travel anywhere extraordinary in order to hear certain stations.    


To Udo Deutscher: How I envy you. Hi!  Going to Cuba for six weeks. I have
been to the Caribbean several times as well, and have always brough a
receiver with me. Listening in the Caribbean is really great - especially
if you are near the sea, of course. You can hear plenty and plenty of
stations from all of the Americas, the Pacific, Europe and some Africans
too.


To the DX'er who send me private mail: Sorry, but I hope that I am still a
"nice, friendly and polite guy". Usually I dont want to quarrel when it
comes to something like DXing, that ought to be fun. But the letter from
Martin Elbe made me change my mind (as a rare exception) - but I beleive
that I am entitled to have an opinion (?) - even though most people may
disagree with me...  


With friendly greetings, best of 73's and GOOD DX,

Stig Hartvig Nielsen




PS!

I dont think "Hard-Core-DX" was meant to be the forum of a discussion like
this? So .. sorry, guys!  I'll close the computer now and switch on my
radio instead. Hi!