[IRCA] OT: RE: DXing

["Konnie Rychalsky" <dxbox87@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

IRCA,
It doesn't take a village to make a hobby... like a fine wine, the fewer 
bottles there are, the more valuable they become... and as long as there is 
still one bottle.. there will always be one wine connoisseur... as long as 
there is "one" listener to distant radio signals, there will always be a "DX 
hobby."  The hobby is what you make it for yourself, not what a club makes 
it, or by memberships.  The hobby is not defined by membership numbers 
either... just recently my daughter, early twenties and a medical doctor, 
was in Radio Shack when another woman customer was returning her Grundig 
radio - a Christmas gift.  With the little DX experience she has, an 
interest inherited from my own conversations over the years, she 
single-handedly instructed the other woman how the SW bands work, and the 
times they work...since the clerk admitted knowing "nothing" about the radio 
(and was the one who directed her to my daughter).. and finally after the 
"friendly" chat, the "woman" decided to keep the radio afterall.  If you are 
going to "enjoy" anything in life. you might want to consider how you can 
give and contribute to others, like giving time of yourself and give a talk 
at a local school, library, or church function on the hobby.  It's clearly 
obvious that radios are definately purchased each year in the 
thousands...and never used; perhaps the problem is clubs become 
self-focused.  If my daughter can do it, ten there's no excuse why DXers who 
are pro's at this shouldn't be out there "giving" of themselves.  Clubs 
comprised of "professionals" should be respected like the last bottle of 
wine in existence - rare and valuable.

It doesn't take a village - just one person.  Likewaise, if I were a station 
manager, I'd discard club letterhead... I enjoy when a recent "personal" 
report to a station waranted a personal phonecall from the station's 
owner... and may result in a QSL card for all to benefit from.

73s
Konnie

>From: "Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of 
>America<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of 
>America"<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [IRCA] DXing
>Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:42:48 -0400
>
> > Bob Young wrote:
> > Incidently I got bounced off the NRC list tonight, must have offended 
>some
> > iBlock stooge over there, that's all right I resigned my membership 
>also.
>
>First of all, I'm sorry to see there is still a more difficult mindset
>there.  A shame, but IRCA was founded by NRC rejects and rejectors.  I do
>not personally dislike the NRC people, just some of their actions and
>policies like this.
>
>Kind of brings to mind a bigger topic.  In MW DXing there are perhaps a
>hundred active people in North America, and maybe another hundred or so
>lurkers.  My guess is the rest of the rosters are padded with people who 
>use
>it for information related to work, or simply think they'll get back to it
>"some day".  The people who actually contribute are few.  The clubs should
>bend over backwards to avoid ticking them off.
>
>With the onslaught of other interests, general AM band noise, and now IBOC
>at night, I suspect more than a few will drop out.  Heck, we have seen it 
>in
>the past year.  I'm going to cite some facts only because they are readily
>at hand, and it's NOT intended as a dig.  Last year the NRC E-DXN site had
>perhaps 200 members and around 600-650 messages.  Half those messages were
>by one person, and most of the rest by other moderators.  I just looked and
>membership there is down to 150, and fully 2/3rds of the messages are by
>that one person.  The vast majority of the remainder seem to be by the 
>other
>moderators.  These are facts that were gleaned by looking at that site, and
>figures provided by their software.
>
>DXing is shrinking as a hobby.  Some of the people here are talking about
>moving to other bands.  Will AM DX survive?  Even I'm thinking that the 
>site
>I run isn't worth the effort.  I've neglected it due to work (mostly) and
>some other hobbies that have become more rewarding.  Sometimes I think I'm
>just burnt out with radio.
>
>I believe we need to really think about where this is going and what can be
>done to bring the fun up a notch.  All the groups, and not just IRCA.
>
>Craig Healy
>Providence, RI

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