[Dx-qsl] Peter One

Thu Jun 1 22:52:15 EDT 2006

One could make the same argument about rigs back then compared to rigs 
now days. A transmitter back then for a Novice might only have cost 
60 to 70 dollars ... but THAT was a lot of money back then. It's not 
considered a lot of money now days to pay that for a boat anchor of that 
vintage .... I remember leafing through QST and 73 and CQ and 
dreaming of being able to afford a Heathkit DX 60 or a Globe Scout 
transmitter ... or even a Knight Kit T-60 ... all of which were under 
the 100 dollar range. But to afford that I would have had to deliver 
papers or mow lawns for several summers before getting close to being 
able to buy one. Now, no one blinks at putting out 100 bucks for one 
of those type of vintage rigs ... Why? Because the cost of living 
and inflation and other things have made those costs seem low.
So ... the analogy of increased costs for todays dxpedition as compared 
to one back then doesnt hold water. All things considered and 
compared to the economy of the times then and now .... it's about the same.
Peter W2IRT wrote:
> At 04:41 PM 06/01/2006, rayfri wrote:
>>> This "expectation" of "payment" of some sort seems to be all part of 
>> today's societal philosophy of "what's in it for ME?"....
>>>> If I were to decide to go someplace and conduct a DXpedition, I 
>> wouldnt ask anyone for "contributions" and wouldnt expect to get 
>> "paid" in some manner for a QSL card in return. After all, it's a 
>> HOBBY not a profession.
>>> Costs have risen a lot since back then. For example, how many 
> DXpeditions to remote QTHs in the 60s and 70s had a full-time 
> helicopter onboard their exclusive-use ship for 2 or 3 weeks? Things 
> Cost Money today, and a lot of things that were taken for granted back 
> then are expensive now. I'm curious -- did operations to Peter1, 
> Bouvet, etc back "in the day" carry yagis, 2 kW+ amps and 
> state-of-the-art stations for 8 or 10 operating positions and make 
> 80,000 QSOs or more back then? How many cards did the pioneering 
> DXpeditions send out, and how much was postage back then?
>> Peter 1 supposedly cost well north of *half* *a* *million* *dollars*. 
> They did it for us, yes, but should they be expected to fund that all 
> on their own? If Peter 1 had been a low-cost "seat-of-the-pants" 
> DXpedition instead of the Major Operation it became, how many of us, 
> "The Deserving," would have cleaned them out on 8 or 9 bands and three 
> modes? If you want first-class operations with top-notch operators, it 
> will continue to cost some serious coin in the future. If we don't 
> support these operations through donations, memorabilia, etc, we won't 
> have many more opportunities like that to put ultra-rare top-ten 
> desolate places in our logs on 20+ band-modes.
>> While I'm indeed thankful that I got my card already, I couldn't care 
> less if it was the last one they got around to sending -- even with my 
> donation cheque and now my purchase of their DVD.
>>>> Cheers,
>> Peter,
> W2IRT
>>>