Desecheo and DXer's Disease

Desecheo IslandThere is a story in today’s ARRL Letter about the Feds granting approval for a DXpedition to Desecheo Island, a tiny scrap of terrafirma located a whopping 14 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico that, for some strange reason, qualifies as a “radio country.”

The Fed’s prior unwillingness to allow hams to risk blowing themselves up—the island was previously used for target practice—explains why it’s so important that the island be put on-the-air. Heck, it’s #7 on DX Magazine’s most-wanted list.

As if.

The only reason Desecheo matters—and this applies to lots of other specks of land out in the ocean—is so DXers can entertain themselves. It’s not enough to talk to all the real countries in the world—that is places with governments and inhabitants—hams need more countries to make the feat of talking to “all counties” more difficult. All the better if these pseudo-countries are difficult to put on-the-air, enabling DXers to one-up each other by making the trip.

Creating counties just so we can contact them is, in a way, completely idiotic. Still, it’s been part of the radio hobby forever. But, the amount of work that has gone into this DXpedition is truly over-the-top. This includes a related attempt to hold a DXpedition on the Farallon Islands, off San Francisco, that was beaten back by environmentalists concerned about encroachment into a breeding area for endangered species.

I was opposed to the Farallons plan, which died when the Congressman who represents the area came out in opposition. I don’t think Amateur Radio benefited from the controversy, which pitted ARRL members against Audubon, among other groups.

Rather than go blasting around the planet into places we really have no reason to be, save a DXCC designation, perhaps we’d be better served by a provision in the DX Century Club rules allowing any “country” that has been off-the-air for a period of time or is “too difficult” to operate from to be placed on suspension and removed from everyone’s DXCC totals.

I don’t have anything against DXpeditions, mind you, I just read the story and thought “these people must be nuts.” I also wonder about creating countries just to give people more countries to talk to. But, if the game isn’t difficult enough, I guess you have to do something. Like creating a whole new country from a place where nobody lives and nobody—save hams—wants or needs to go. Like Desecheo Island.