Greetings, all.

I know it's not considered politically correct to flame a DXpedition.
I'm certainly not singling out the current XF4IH operation for this
criticism, but in the last year or so I've noticed a number of
somewhat high-profile DXpeditions have been mounted that were sorely
lacking in the basic on-air skills needed when operating from a
most-wanted entity. I'm not referring to small-scale operations by a
group of people on vacation, but rather some of the large
multi-station operations that have graced the airwaves of late.

These are DXpeditions that have started with wonderful intentions,
have had good funding and with many people who have happily given
their time and energy needed to mount them. While they are absolutely
to be thanked for their efforts, to be sure, many also rightfully
deserve some sharp criticism for the following transgressions:

* No enough power/ERP to be heard in their target areas
* No firm understanding of propagation
* Trying to work a killer pileup simplex
* Trying to work a killer pileup only up 5 (SSB), not over a range
* Inexperienced operators (or downright LIDS in one case last year)
* Not working by continents or "by the numbers" when things are bad
* Or, if they do, taking calls from stations calling "out of turn"
* Frequently not QSX on 40M SSB for the USA.
* Not QSX in the US General portion of the bands once in a while.
* Poor planning or logistics.

If it's the goal of the DXpedition to give a "new one" to as many hams
as possible (as most of the "Most Wanted" entity operations should
be), then they should be operating with good yagis and high-power on
20/15 around the clock, CW and SSB. K1B knew this. AH3D knew it. TI9M
knew it. PW0T knew it. XR0X knew it. Ever since these operations,
however, few of the Most Wanted operations seem to grasp this simple
concept.

I can understand if one of the stated goals is to give the entity to
as many as possible on the WARC bands or Low bands or on digital
modes--fine--that's how they're billing themselves and I have no
complaint when that's the case. But when a team goes into an operation
with the goal of giving the entity to as many as possible and their
operating style or procedures go contrary to that stated mission, then
frankly I feel gyped as one who's invested substantial time and effort
to work them.

Martti Laine, in his book "Where do we go Next?" compares DXpeditions
to live theatrical performances, and I think this is a very valid
comparison, at least to a point. It takes a grand sum of money to
mount a performance like this, the performers are likely skilled in
their craft before taking the stage and the audience is expecting a
good performance. If the actors and stage crew put on a good show, the
audience goes home happy. If the DXpeditioners are seasoned operators
who understand how to "play the game," the Deserving will happily work
their "new one" on many different bands and be happy.

But when you have inexperienced players on this international stage
who, not through any malice (we would hope) but just by not being
savvy enough to work through piles of 60,000 callsigns efficiently,
they can cause more ill-will than goodwill...except, perhaps, amongst
those who are lucky enough to get through from their mountaintop
locations with stacked yagis and kiloWatts.

For those who would angrily reply "if you don't like it, mount a
dxpedition yourself" I would simply ask that if you didn't like the
recent production of Richard III or My Fair Lady, would you feel
equally compelled to rent a theatre and take acting and stage
production lessons yourself? No, you would feel unsatisfied, and
perhaps angry for seeing your favourite play mangled by a poor cast or
with bad staging, etc, and then hope the next revival of it will be
done better.

So it is here. I look with longing and great hope to 3B9C (though I
don't need them for a new one), the hoped-for YV0, next month's
Clipperton Island excursion, Banaba and others in the hopes that they
may have top-notch operating skills and reasonable signals for the
current somewhat-poor propagation conditions.

73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net