We Lost It!
The flux had been down for a few months and we were not in the best of spirits when Sunspot Louie gave us a call. He told us the Flat Days of DXing were likely to continue well into the fall. And all the high Ap activity he'd been reporting the last few weeks hadn't done a lot to improve our temper, either. To top it all off, the Leader of the Palos Verdes Sundancers was still trying to get the new ragtime routine choreographed. We had asked him to bring back Big DX, the Bass Bongo that brought on the sunspots the last two cycles to no avail. We'd recalled that Big DX created such sonic booms that the Sundancers had to get permission from the tower at LAX before bringing it out. But, it had worked, and the flux had gone up two cycles in a row. The Leader of the Palos Verdes Sundancers was just not listening to us. When the numbers SF=73, A=27, K=5 flashed across the cluster screen, we began to feel a fierce anger beating at us.
About this time, one of the Local QRPers came puffing up the hill, walking his dog and seeking enlightenment. We were clearly not in the mood for the QRPer and should have done a quick duck out the back door. However, we decided to see what the QRPer had on his mind. "You know," the QRPer said, sitting down in our favourite chair, "I've been thinking about the way you guys treated that new guy at the DX club last month. The way you kicked him out, refunded his dues and cancelled his membership. What did he do?" We were already at boiling temperature and the recollection of that event wasn't what we needed just now! "What did he do?", we retorted, "what did he do? He uttered DX heresy, that's what he did! He had the gall to say that since he couldn't master the concept of 'DX IS!', he was sure that 'DX Isn't!"
"Is that all he did?", the QRPer said, patting his dog and looking at us quizzically. "Why, maybe he's right. There hasn't been any good DX on for months. Maybe 'DX IS!' is wrong and it should be 'DX Isn't!' He could be right, you know." This was not a good day for this particular QRPer! "Listen Buster," we roared, "can you imagine a true Believer uttering something like that, and wondering why he isn't one of the Deserving?" Our eyes glazed over with months of pent up frustration. "No true-blue DXer ever thinks anything else but that 'DX IS!', understand?" And, adding action to our words, we swiftly kicked out the chair from under the QRPer. The dog took one terrified look at us and raced out the door and down the hill! "All you wannbe DXers are alike," we bellowed, as the QRPer inched back on his elbows toward the door. "You want to be one of the Deserving, you want to understand the Eternal Enigmas and the Mysteries of the Ages! But you are not Believers! You'll never become one of the Deserving if you are not a Believer. You have to believe that DX IS! Can't you understand that", we bellowed. But the QRPer didn't hear us. He was off down the hill, looking for his dog and the ducking for cover at the same time.
Son of a Gun! We'd lost it and the unlucky QRPer was in the line of fire. But we were unrepentant, for as Ito was oft to say, "Be careful what you ask for . . . you might get it." We picked up the chair, dusted off the seat and felt a bit better. Giving a QRPer a piece of our mind might not bring on the Great Days of DXing, but we had to admit, we were starting to feel a bit better. Not good enough to start tuning 15-metres for the polar path, but good enough to bring a slight smile to our face. DX IS!
This story is in the public domain and may be reproduced in any format. - VE1DX
Last updated 14 December 2020