) writes:

Beats the hell out of standing up for sloppy thought. DX is
an explicit reference to reception of distant stations and has been
ubnderstood that way for decades. If they're nearby, it's not DX. If
you don't like it, think up a different acronym and pervert it to
whatever your taste is at the moment.

But DX can't be an absolute.

Think of VHF, where distant communication is rare or dependent on fancy
techniques. So you normally only hear or talk to local stations. Then
along comes good radio conditions, and you can suddenly hear that station
which isn't particularly far away, but beyond normal reception. Suddenly,
that 300 or whatever mile away station is DX, because it's further than
local.

Or "What's your best DX?". For the beginner, it may not be very far,
because they've not gotten to the distant stations. But since it is
something he's not heard before, it is DX.

Michael