n6pse

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DXpedition ethics

Posted: 31 Jul 2016 08:46 PM PDT
https://n6pse.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/2409/




There are a number of ethical issues involved in leading and organizing
DXpeditions. As the DXpedition collects donations and intends to fill a
need, certain “expectations� are made to the DXpedition group.

Some of these are quite normal and to be expected. Almost every DXpedition
team intends to do a good job and to fill the need for contacts.

Some DXpedition teams build in various levels of redundancy in their plans
to further bolster their pursuit of success. On rare occasions, some
DXpedition teams will activate a certain entity mostly paying attention to
their “home country� and then they go home barely addressing the needs of
others. If such a group has accepted global donations, this kind of
practice is highly unethical and should be shunned.

My first ethical quandary came in 2009 when I was fund-raising for our 2010
YI9PSE DXpedition. One of the amateur radio associations offered us a
donation with the usual expectations for us to do a good job for their
members.

As part of their offer, they asked that we provide them with an electronic
copy of our logs and several thousand of our blank QSL cards. They would
then provide QSL service to their members. This would create the ability to
add or change contacts in the log. Potentially, contacts that were never
made could be created and provided to their members. We would have no
control or visibility into that.

This request didn’t seem proper and ethical to me and I declined their
offer. It seemed so obviously wrong to me almost like it was a “test� of my
own ethics.

Communications between the active DXpedition team and their “audience� is
best done via HF radio, in the pileups with the intention of making a
legitimate contact. We have recently seen a DXpedition where the 160 meter
operators were on ON4KST low-band “chat�. The 160 meter operators were
communicating in real time with the DXpeditioner and communicating their
transmit and receive frequencies to each other. “Good Contact� was often
declared over ON4KST chat. While it is not clear if proper contacts were
made, prudent DXpeditioners will take steps to avoid the perception of
improper or unethical behavior and real time “chat� with the DXpedition
operator should not be encouraged.

DXpedition donors have certain expectations of the DXpedition team. There
is heightened interest on 160 meters and six meters. If the DXpedition
provides details of their plans, these two areas often bring additional
support.

“Up front� donations before the DXpedition are very important. This helps
the DXpedition organizer budget and know what they can spend before the
DXpedition takes place. Many up front donors give freely and generously
hoping the DXpedition has good luck and achieves success. Other up front
donors have expectations of almost certainty getting into the log.

Then there is the “divine intervention� pleas that we receive. In every
single DXpedition that I have organized, I have received various pleas for
a contact, when the person pleading to us had no radio or antenna and no
hope of making a contact on their own.

Several times, I have received email from a person pleading for our help in
placing them in our logs. Â*They claim that a hurricane took down their
antenna or that they are living in a senior center without any radio. They
plead that they only need one more contact to achieve some award, usually
“Honor Roll�.

We always ignore the “divine intervention pleas that we receive. After the
VP8STI/VP8SGI DXpeditions, I received an email from a prominent amateur. He
said that he was unable to make a contact with us and he offered to make a
donation of $1000 if I would insert some contacts into our logs for him. Of
course, this request was rejected.

Adjustments to the DXpedition log are a sensitive subject with certain
ethical concerns. Typically, the DXpedition considers the master copy of
their log as “sacred� and only the QSL Manager is empowered to investigate
and resolve log issues and errors. These “busted call� and logging error
investigations are typically done after the DXpedition has concluded.

Recently, we have seen on a major DXpedition where the “back office� team
was making daily log changes and corrections in almost real time while the
DXpedition was still taking place. This opens up a literal “Pandora’s box�
of ethical concerns.

There is some debate currently about the ethics of various teams QSL
policies. Some “old school� proponents feel that all DXpeditions must
provide some free means of obtaining a QSL card, such as the “bureau card�
approach.

As DXpedition leaders try to address ever increasing costs to carry out
DXpeditions, they are looking at non typical ways to cover DXpedition
costs. Some groups wish to charge a fee for the convenience of OQRS (online
QSL Request System) or a OQRS bureau card. Some funding organizations are
balking at changes in this area. I feel that it is appropriately ethical to
announce your need to recover your costs by asking for a $1.00 for a bureau
card or other such convenience.

We have recently seen some DXpeditions use ploys or schemes to raise money
for their DXpedition. When DXpeditions use schemes, gimmicks and ploys to
bolster their success, I feel that extra scrutiny by the major funding
organizations is needed.

Organizing major DXpeditions is fraught with risk. DXpedition organizers
need to find new and better ways to obtain funding. Ethics should always be
considered when trying various approaches. The DXpedition leader needs to
be empowered to do what is needed within ethical boundaries to achieve
success. The DX community also needs to examine the various methods used
and make note of who follows proper ethical considerations and who does not.

What do you think?