Re: [IRCA] Worldwide, DXpeditions Hunt Elusive Radio Signals

[James Renfrew <jim.renfrew@xxxxxxxxx>]

Restaurant choices are limited - it's off season, and all of the places are
some distance from Cappahayden.  As a vegetarian (no fish either) it's
positively meager around there.  As for the time required for Perseus files
review - I'm still working on files from 2010 and 2011 - why it's very hard
to submit a complete report to the DXing world after the fact.  And I'll
probably have to go over them again before my life is over, perhaps once I
master Portuguese!  Seems pure folly to go again this fall to add to the
backlog - but who ever claimed that DXing was rational?

Jim Renfrew, Holley NY


On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 10:04 PM, Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> On the Newfie DXpeditions we usually just did lunch around noon (after
> catching some minimal amount of sleep in the 6-11 a.m. stretch).  By 2 p.m.
> local, TA DX was already rumbling in on the Beverages even though it may
> have been 2+ hours pre-sunset.  By the time it was dark for an hour or so
> and we were getting blase about the initial rush of DX from Europe, Africa,
> the Mideast, and sometimes India, then the Brazilians, Argentinians, and
> many other southerly goodies started rolling in.  Depending on conditions,
> these could persist well into the wee hours of the morning.  Additionally,
> as westerly-progressing sunrise knocked out one group of TA's after
> another, lower powered British and other stations on the western flanks of
> Europe and Africa, signals previously buried by Mideast megawatters, would
> come into their own.
>
>
> In essence, maybe only about 6 hours out of 24 could be considered non-DX
> time.
>
>
> There were some decent fish places in the area the first few times I went
> up to Cappahayden (e.g. 1991, 1993).  The poor economy caused by the
> decline of the fishing industry around there resulted in one restaurant
> after the other "going dark" as the years passed.
>
>
> Typically the communal DX shack room had snack material (chips with dip or
> salsa, pretzels, nuts, crackers, cookies) of dubious nutritional merit.  At
> least once in a while, oranges or other fresh fruit showed up.  No matter
> how you looked at it, however, there was nothing distinguished from a
> culinary standpoint.
>
>
> Drinks?  When actually DXing, it was usually about the caffeine: tea,
> coffee, hot chocolate, and cola prevailed.  Beer, wine, and that
> distinctive local "hooch" known as "Newfie Screech" weren't usually trotted
> out until the last DXpedition night as a celebration of the "job well done"
> and as a sort of farewell send-off.  DX efficiency typically declined a few
> notches at that point.  Some of us had very early flights out the next day
> so we couldn't get too blasted.  On the subject of diminished DX
> efficiency, of course nowadays with SDR's, most of the serious DX analysis
> goes on weeks or even months after the actual reception times.  So as long
> as you're not so inebriated that you delete (or fail to save) the capture
> files, you can still make a go at some good DX as long as the alertness is
> there when you finally do get to dig through all those captures.  Even with
> the benefit of an eventually-bigger logbook, the after-the-fact nature of
> DXing with SDR's does take away some !
>  of the old-school "fun factor" of immediate gratification and in-person
> real-time success-sharing with your DXpedition comrades ... stuff that the
> late John Bryant celebrated so well in his kid-in-a-candy-shop-enthusiasm
> writings from the ol' knob-twisting and cassette-recording "dark ages".
>  After-the-fact DX also tends to take useful tools such as shortwave
> parallel checking, webstreams, and remote web receivers out of the game.
>
>
> I guess what I advocate is a 50/50 blend of SDR-band-capture modernity and
> Bryantesque "waist-gunner onna NRD-525"  (or was it SX-28?) "live" DXing.
>
>
> Back on the food topic ... local group DXpeditions here on the
> Massachusetts coast, not surprisingly, sometimes have a seafood restaurant
> get-together meal prior to the set-up of mobile DX gear / antennas at a
> suitable shore site in time for high-productivity listening starting 15-30
> minutes before sunset.  See "DX Clams" reports such as <
> http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/dx_clams_2005.htm> for an example.
>
>
> Mark Connelly, WA1ION
> South Yarmouth, MA
>
>
> <<
> The only 'big meal' we normally have at the LBI DXpeditions is breakfast,
> when
> there's little to no DX.
> Lunches and dinner are usually nearby takeout pizza, subs, etc. Of course
> there's also beer, soda
> and various munchies in stock.
>
>
>
>
> ?
> Russ Edmunds
> 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia
> Grid FN20id
> <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Walter Salmaniw <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
> <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 12:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [IRCA] Worldwide, DXpeditions Hunt Elusive Radio Signals
>
>
>
> Seems that the culinary and beverage side of DXpeditions on this coast has
> been sadly lacking.? Although we did go for some nice meals in Grayland,
> once in a while!? We must take DXing much more seriously.? Who has time to
> eat, when the DX is so good!?  73,....Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 4:29 AM, Nick Hall-Patch <nhp@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> > What are these "beverages (often of alcoholic origin) " of which the
> > author speaks??  All these years, I thought they were antennas, hi.
> >
> > Some years ago I think the Nagoya DX Circle provided a link to photos of
> > Japanese DXpeditions which looked as if there was a strong culinary
> streak,
> > not to mention, ah, beverages.
> >
> > Nice link, capturing the international flavor of DXpeditioning.
> >
> > best wishes,
> >
> > Nick
> >>
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