Old Age and DX

 

The average age of DXers is steadily increasing, so it is worth contemplating this time of life. DXers should be aware that there are signs that indicate you are approaching old age, or whether it is too late.
The warning signs are when :
1) You still refer to kc/s instead of kHz.
2) You keep an extra pair of glasses to find the spare ones – and lose them both.
3) You start saying “I remember the days you could hear 250 Watt Yanks on 1490 kc/s”.
4) You can’t see the numbers on the dial of the receiver too well.
5) Sitting in front of your radio is your daily exercise.
6) You now get the grandson to climb the tree to hang the antenna wire.
7) You log the station but never get around to writing the reception report.
8) You can remember first hearing of Kennedy’s assassination over the VOA.
9) You blame the earphones when you can’t hear the station ID properly.

 

You’re already there when:
1) You don’t need on alarm clock to get up to DX – you’re awake all night.
2) Your wife finds you sitting in front of the receiver – without the set turned on.
3) Your wife finds you in front of the receiver with your head on the table – asleep!
4) You don’t know any of this months “Top 40s”, but can remember those of the 1940s.
5) You can remember the first Empire Broadcast over the BBC.
6) The alarm wakes you up at 3 in the morning ~ and you spend the rest of the morning wondering why you set the alarm.
7) Your hearing aid costs more than your communication receiver.
8) You know all the answers to DXing in the 30s, but there’s no one left to ask the questions.
9) A collection of vintage radios is younger than you are.
10) You can’t remember whether you have heard the station before, even though you logged it yesterday.

 

This article was supplied for the DX Times in January 1991 by Barry Williams

 

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