The Short Wave Magazine January, 1977 [antikvár]

Volume XXXIV THE SHORT WAVE MAGAZINE 659 COMMUNICATION and DX NEWS --- E. P. Es ser y, G3KFE ALL the Top Band enthusiasts of long standing will be saddened to hear of the death of Bob Palmer, G5PP; back in the days when SSB was just another rare variety of Phone signal, G5PP used to go on his summer trips around the rarer Scottish counties, and ali the county-chasers would be happy, knowing that they ail would have a chance with G5PP at the DX end. Bob's first licence was issued in the Twenties, and he had been active on most bands at one time or another. Certainly he will be greatly missed in the amateur radio world, not just for his operating record, but, maybe more, for his kindness and readiness to help; who but Bob would have thought of making a small production-run of bug-keys, to save everyone having to get used to the one on the NFD operating table or remembering to bring their own—and G3KFE has treasured for years the one allocated to him which first made him realise that CW as a mode has its own fascination just as Phone. Looking at the bands this past month, things have been about par for the course for those who could tolerate conditions in their shacks; but there will be many who have not been on the air simply because the weather has made the shack un-habitable. In addition, it is notice-able that there has been little of the "expédition" type of activity; the expeditioneers doubtless feeling that it is better to wait for a few more sunspots to make conditions all round more conducive to worldwide coverage from the DX spot. On the other hand, it is also true to say that there is no shortage of the more run-of-the-mill DX about; ali you have to do is to be "on" at the right time and with the right conditions, and (more or less!) there you are. Of course "conditions" as we think of them are really a function of both station and propagation, as for example the chap with full power into a beam at sixty feet will have an opening that starts before and lasts after the time during which it is apparent to the fellow with the "bit of wire" and low power— indeed in the worst case this chap may not even be aware of the existence of any opening until he reads this piece and notes that the other chaps can both hear and work DX. At that stage, he does one of two things, namely—1. Become convinced that the "other chap" has ten kilowatts of power, thus forgetting that QRO outgoing signals don't help the incoming ones; or 2. He gets off his butt-end and settles down to the task of getting the best aerial possible into his plot and with his local planners in mind. That just leaves 3. The chap who buys his first receiver after he gets his R.A.E. pass, and then spends his life sitting on a repeater or a simplex channel, disregarding even the DX on the bottom end of that band, let alone coming down on the HFs, simply because he's never, ever, heard amateurs chasing and working DX without the aid of a black box, and a repeater. So, you may well be saying, what's this got to do with DX? Just this, that one is sure that many a new licensee spends hard cash he can ill afford on a commercial rig because he doesn't know how to get on the air without it. Isn't it about time we in the hobby got around to trying to make people realise that, in the economy class, one can still use a BC348, or an AR88, or an HRO, along with a home-brew rig made of bits bought at the club junk sale, and get on the air for a tenner. Whether you or I like SSB only is quite irrelevant; the point is that by seeing the cheap bit of gear, and the cards it has obtained, our newcomer will have already exposed himself to more facets of the hobby, and so he will be much more likely to stay in the hobby, and to get more fun out of it; and, of course, the special-event station and its display should always show, alongside the costly transceiver, the poor mans home-brew version which gets just as many countries. The public then at least see two extremes of the hobby, and so you have twice as many chances of recruiting a new DX-er.