DXing is a thing of the past for me

This morning, I got up at 5:30, an hour before sunrise. As I always do,  prepared breakfast and a cup of coffee, I went into the shack. Even though it is the Coldest Day throughout a year ,called as Taikan in Japanese, today according to our traditional calendar, it was not too chilly this morning.

The higher bands were still quiet. Looking around 40m, I found a couple of DX getting some pile ups. Though I have left DXing long time ago, I have had nothing to do on the band open only to the Eastern Eu and the Middle East. I would just play with those DX for a while. One was JY5HX, a station in Jordan, who was handling the pile up on the same frequency as he transmitted. A few JAs were calling him but could  not get through the pile up from Europe. I believe those frustrated callers from JA might be using a wire antenna or a vertical. When I used to use a vertical, it was really tough for me to get any Middle East. QRM from the Europe must be so intense. After a few calls, I could get him successfully. I wished him to realize he had been called by JAs.

The other was EP6T, seemingly certain isaland in Iran. He was dealing with a bit more callers in split operation. It seemed he was going up and down at regular increment/decrement of frequencies. I tried to call him on the expected spot. But no success. Though he announced only JA and up, there were a lot of callers acting against him mainly from Europe. It took me some 15 minutes to get his coming back. As time went on, I got more and more frustrated. I have remembered that feeling, which drove me for further DXing 2 or 3 decades ago. If one of my neighbors got the call earlier, I would be most frustrated at it, if I was not aware of that or not. Even when I got back the call, I only felt the frustration was calmed but nothing pleasant. Joining in pile ups is just making frustration for myself. When I learned this fact, I remembered, I lost interests in DXing soon.

I still understand it is a big challenge for DXers to chase and get new entities. I won't comment on their way of enjoyment. It was, however, obvious that it was not the area I stayed on any longer. I again realized that and quit the mess of pile ups.

One more thing on DX. If a DX operates in split, there could be police on the DX frequency who tirelessly go on announcing "Up". They must intend to give notice to those calling on the DX frequency. A quite common scene in DXing. But I wonder if their good intention could rewarded. If that caller on the frequency is doing it without being aware of that, he or she won't realize of own mistake even listening the police"s announcement. If it should be an intentional jamming with calling on the same frequency, the jammer won't care for any notice. If you would let the caller on the frequency know of his/her mistake, you should give the particular call of the caller before giving the  notice. Such careless caller may not understand that he/she is given that caution. If your police action won't work once, don't repeat it any longer. Just leave it go on. Or your announcement would cause further mess on the frequency.

Anyway, it was a morning when I realized again DXing is a thing of the past for me.