[Dx-qsl] 2007 DX Yearbook

Sun Sep 28 13:01:54 EDT 2008

At 11:31 AM 9/28/2008, Wes Quinn wrote:
>It only has 8 pages of articles, because Bill (NC1L) mentioned that 
>(per comments he has received) to add the DXCC Annual List again. 
>That list takes up 39 pages! I think that is such a waste, since 
>any member can get it off the web for free and it doesn't cost the 
>ARRL much to do that. I would rather see more articles in the 
>yearbook than a listing of DXCC callsigns which is already outdated, 
>since the info changes so often these days.

I have a very different take on this (as I wrote to the League last year).
I am positively ecstatic that the full DXCC list is back in the 
Yearbook, and here's why. It's a snapshot in time. The online stats 
are great for seeing where you are now, but in 20 years, it's 
something to look back and see where you (and your friends) were in 
2007. A nice reminder of how far you've come. As these numbers are 
published every year, you can plot how well you've grown stat-wise. 
Not just that, but there are a lot of hams who simply don't have Web 
access or don't want to or know how to find this information on the 
'Net. Not everyone is Web-savvy.
As to articles, I agree it's nice to see stories of the biggest 
operations of the previous year, but at the same time, with the 
number of printed magazines and online DX reflectors available, do we 
really need yet another re-telling of 3Y0X or VP6DX some 18 months 
after their signals left the ether? I could see the need for this 
before the Internet revolution, but now that the stories are easily 
accessed by DXers who prefer either paper or electrons, I think the 
value of the Yearbook's feature articles is a little bit dimished.
Regards,
Peter,
W2IRT 