No. 24 October 20, 1997
L.I.V.E. DX
(Low Impact, Vegetarian, Environmentally Safe DX)
The Lost Art
We live in a less than ideal world. It is because of the advance of communications technology: Radio, telephone, satellite, fiber optics, etc. We could be free of answering machines, pagers, e-mail. We could be regularly conversing with other civilizations and worlds. We should have been able to do this right now, today. Ahhh, what we’ve missed.
As the Eighteenth Century drew to a close, the British were fighting a war in Afghanistan. In those times, communications consisted of signal flags, fires and messengers. When the British made battle plans, natives at distant outposts knew about them immediately. "Had we sent out our swiftest messengers, we would have been much too late," said Lt. C. J. Forbes, "we scoured the hilltops for signs of fires or flags. We even bribed them with great sums of money. Nothing would pry the secret from them. They seem to look upon it as a religious possession."
Roger DuPuis was an official in the Dutch East Indies in the early nineteenth century. "When there was a shipwreck, or a murder on a distant island, the natives knew of it immediately," Dupuis recounted, "months later, a ship would arrive, the travelers breathless with the news, but we already knew."
"Even though I lived for several years on those islands in an official capacity, I was never able to induce them to divulge their methods."
The Egyptians were even more openly clairvoyant. "The day that England lost General Gordon at Khartoum, people in the streets and bazaars of Cairo knew of his death," said Clifton Archibald III, Royal Historian.
As the Age Of Invention opened, great minds began to investigate this simple power of mind-communication. Then came the telephone, the telegraph, radio. The investigation was abandoned. In our rush to open the floodgates of commerce, to leap into patent wars and litigation and to enrich the Westinghouses and Morgans, we turned away from a new Age Of Enlightenment.
If every individual could cross the borders of war, space and misunderstanding, would they not all be able to coexist as if they could meet and talk at will? Certainly, they would have the same conflicts, vested interests and anger, but it would be on an entirely different level. We would know a lot more than we do now.
Is there a place on Earth where the ancient, mystic clairvoyant arts are still practiced? If so, it is extremely important to travel there and learn the secret. Someday, we will be able to turn off the transmitters, scoop up the satellites and reel in the cables. Life will be simpler and much more efficient.
Until that day, you can crank up the tower and add a radial or two to the R-7000. There’s been preview of great DX to come. Ten and twelve meters opened up, and daily, fifteen meters has been teeming with loud signals from Europe. Abubaker has been manning the operating desk at 5A1A in Tripoli, Libya. He’s been showing up on fifteen meters, above 21.300, with a good signal here in the land of personal trainers and multi-level marketing. While his government is pushing for a settlement in the Lockerbie PanAm crash, he admonishes us to send our QSL’s registered mail. International Reply Coupons are no good in Libya. Hmmm, what’s Abubaker going to do with all them dollar bills?
The greatest tourists of all, the Germans, are out there, DL7DF is in Honduras, petting the parrots, and handing out "Q’s" with great efficiency, sort of the Mercedes-Benz of Dx-Peditions. For some reason, Honduras has been a bit rare and it’s an easy one to log on the WARC bands. Siegfried has been concentrating on Europe, so we have to slip in by cunning or guile. ("Oh, whoops, sorry Ziggy, thought you were calling North America. Did you say five-nine?")
Peter, ON5NT has been down in Uganda, handing out dry socks and Baby Ruths. It’s a wonder he has the energy to put 5X1T on the air, but with that inbred Walloon stubbornness, he’s there on fifteen, ten and twelve meters. Twelve meters is an egalitarian band. There are no caste-barriers. Be you Advanced, General or Extra, all of twelve meters is your dance floor, polished and creaking just for you.
How about an African Feast on Fifteen? Your simple G5RV or vertical can smoke out a veldt of stations on a Saturday morning. Just once, eschew the breakfast or the cartoons and spin the dial around 21.3: 7Q7DX in Malawi, 9X0A holding forth from the camps and swamps of Rwanda, EA6/DL1KBQ – What? A German operating from the Balearic Islands? How can he read the dial through those sunglasses and the smell of coconut oil suntan lotion? 5N37CPR – Nigeria celebrating ten years of investment schemes. 9Q5HX sets a sedate and dignified tone from Zaire.
Beneath the static growl and the distant murmur of secret subversive spread-spectrum, the groundswell of DX grows, the sun’s belly is bloating with distortions in the flux and storms rife with leaping fires. It is the renaissance of the puny pistol, the little guy/gal is going to get a chance – Be There!
Wow! Did I write that?
…Harvey W8DX