E D X P

INTERNET DXING By Anker Petersen, Chairman, Danish Shortwave Club International, December 2000 Lecture given at the European DX Council conference, Barcelona, Spain, October 2000 Originally published in the Electronic DX Press, et al

Referring to my article "The Influence of the Internet on DX Clubs" of August 2000 on this subject we took up the discussion at the European DX Council (EDXC) Conference at Castelldefels in Barcelona, Spain on October 14, 2000. Here is a short summary:

As a response to my lecture to about 70 young, enthusiastic Mexican DXers at Oaxaca in August 2000, they requested "The international DX Community" to create new Standards for DXing and getting QSL's, and raised the following very relevant questions:

1. Listening on radio can be called DXing, but is listening to Real Audio via the Internet DXing?

2. Can it be accepted to send reception reports as electronic mail?

3. Can verifications received as electronic mail be regarded as proper QSL's?

Since the EDXC is a major component of "The international DX Community" representing most of the DX-Clubs in Europe, the results of our discussion should be of interest.

Answer 1. The EDXC regards DXing as related to radio and does NOT consider listening to Real Audio as DXing.

Answer 2. Electronic mail is another way of sending letters and should be regarded as just as good as letters sent by the postal authorities in former days. Thus you can send reception reports, but you cannot send IRC's or Dollars via the Internet and therefore you may expect a QSL by e-mail, since you have not paid for the mailing expenses of the Radio Station reported. It is noted that the reply percentage nowadays is higher for e-mail QSL's than for QSL's sent by ordinary mail.

Answer 3. The EDXC regards verifications received as electronic mail as proper QSL's, if they contain the details required. However, most DXers prefer the printed, colourful QSL-cards for their collections and hope these will be maintained as long as possible. Bob Padula mentioned that the Electronic DX Press has a tailored reception report formula at

https://members.tripod.com/~bpadula/edxp.html

Before the Internet was invented, the EDXC had published a Reporting Guide with samples of reception reports in various languages and that is still available for sale. With this new development, however, it has to be updated by the EDXC during the coming years.