> 4. Operating Practices and Procedures: This section is a
> synthesis of the techniques and practices that most would agree
> good DXpeditioners and successful, considerate DXers follow.
This is a good idea. Since control of the bands is mostly in the
hands of the DXpeditioners, they are the ones who need to be educated.
Educating the people calling in the pileups is important, but secondary.
To wit, the 3Y5X operation was pretty much a joke, save for when F2CW
was at the key. As long as the DXpedition is making QSOs, it is a
success, no matter how much boorish behaviour the callers are able to
muster.
> When working by call areas, the recommendation to the
> DXpedition operator is to ignore portable designation and
> recognize only call sign prefix numbers. For example, if KC1AG
> were in San Diego he would call with the [W1s] not with [W6s] or
> BOTH the W1s and W6s. The report states this particular
> recommendation is likely to be controversial. However, they
> point out the rampant abuse of the portable designation as the
> rationale for their suggestion. (Any comments?)
Rampant abuse? I suppose the only possible way to really abuse the
portible designation would be for me to sign WN4KKN when they are
taking 4's, WN4KKN/5 when they are taking 5's, WN4KKN/6 when they
are taking 6's, etc. If this is the type of abuse that people are
concerned about, the DXpedition people need to find a better hash
than "call area."
Going by call areas is a poor operating practice in general, and
asking K4TKM/6 to whip all the W4's to contact Egypt is absurd. A
much better practice is to hash things geographically, such as
"QRZ North America" or "QRZ Europe." Once again, this is really only
an issue for bad ops who travel. These are the ones wasting everyone's
time taking the callers to task rather than simply getting the job
(of making QSOs) done. The good DXpedition op doesn't waste his time
arbitrating; he just works guys.
> 6. Enforcement and Education: As the report states, ...malicious
> interference can to some extent be reduced by increased peer
> pressure against such undesirable behavior and by more refined
> enforcement techniques.
Blah blah blah. It's the ops who go on the DXpeditions who are the
root of most of the problems. What is the League going to do, have
sanctions against lids who go on DXpeditions? As I heard George
Fremin (WB5VZL) once say: "*Anyone* can go on a DXpedition." And
he's right.
--Trey, WN4KKN/6
trey@tgv.com
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