CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF WORLDWIDE DXPEDITION SUPPORT
A Warm Welcome From NCDXF's President !
Happy birthday NCDXF. That's right, this year marks the 40th birthday of the Northern California DX Foundation. We've come a long way since that night back in 1972 when NCDXF's founders gathered in San Francisco's Chinatown to explore ways in which the average DXer could help make DX happen. Back then, most DXpeditions were pretty small. Mostly just a couple of DXers going to some place not particularly costly or dangerous to get to. It was the era of Danny VP2VB and the Yasme expeditions, of Gus W4BPD, of Dick W0MLY, and the Colvins W6KG and W6QL. Most DXpeditions were self-funded by the operators, but if you enclosed a buck or two with your QSL that was always appreciated.
How things have changed in forty years! Many entities which were rare back then, like China, Albania and Thailand, aren't so tough today. The hard ones now are hard because of two reasons: their political structures are not welcoming to amateur radio, or their geographical locations are such that they are enormously expensive and/or dangerous to get to.
There is not much NCDXF can do to alter political structures, but by aggregating many relatively small contributions and investing our own funds, NCDXF can help support expeditions to entities which are too expensive for a small group of DXpeditioners to finance on their own. Activating some of these rare-because-they're-so-expensive entities is among the priorities NCDXF's Directors have set for this year. It's sort of like a fortieth birthday gift for the entire DX community. We'll need your financial support, though, to make it happen. I hope you will please take a minute right now to click on the "Join or Renew" tab on the left hand side of this web page and make a generous contribution. With us all working together, hopefully we'll be able to give you a shot at getting in your log one or more of those really rare ones you still need.
I cannot let this opportunity go by without publically recognizing, and thanking, Bruce Butler W6OSP for his years of service to NCDXF. As of the first of this year, Bruce retired after serving nearly a quarter century variously as an NCDXF Director, Treasurer and President. We are deeply grateful to Bruce for his tireless efforts on behalf of the Foundation, and are pleased that he has agreed to become an NCDXF Advisor so that we still will have access to his wealth of knowledge to help guide us in the future.
As always, please feel free to contact me directly with any ideas or suggestions you have as to how we can make NCDXF better serve the DX Community. My personal e-mail address is w6oat@sbcglobal.net and I look forward to hearing from you.
73,
Rusty Epps, W6OAT
President, NCDXF
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