If your tired of the forward march of successive releases of FT8 and the quest for station automation; the TRUE BLUE DXers may be the thing for you...
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TBDXC News - December 2018
Dear fellow TBDXC members,
At a much slower pace, the Club membership continues to grow. We are now officially beyond 860, but in reality, owing to duplicates and two resignations, the actual number is 841. Having started from nothing in the last month of May, we think this is really quite an achievement.
Following the announcement of the first award in our programme, we have received a good number of congratulation emails, a few suggestions (a QRP award, a homebuilders award) and a little criticism, as inevitable. A couple of people didn't like, for exactly opposite reasons, the honour/trust basis on which the Excellence award is based, one person said that the basic 200 level is too easy, another one complained that the award is "Eurocentric and difficult to work from the US Midwest". That shows, again, that it is impossible to please everybody, even in a relatively small group of people... Still, praise for the idea and the overall programme was overwhelming. In case you have missed the announcement, you can check out the TBDXC EXCELLENCE Award in the Awards section of our website www.tbdxc.net.
Meanwhile, Thomas DL3DUA has been doing a fantastic job on the members database management system. Mostly, this has made a tremendous difference for myself, having to deal with registration and administration. However, it has also produced an extraordinary tool for the whole membership: a cluster spot page where, automatically and in real time, TBDXC members appear when they are spotted either on the DX Cluster or on thee RBN network.
This is a great tool to facilitate QSOs among members, and will be key for the upcoming TBDXC Award, for which members and non-members are required to work other TBDXC members.
In practice, the idea is that you should place a few CQ calls (ideally, but not necessarily on one of the TBDXC frequencies.listed on the website). Shortly afterwards, your call will appear on the dedicate cluster spot page, so that other members can tune in and answer.
The Cluster Spot page is available at https://tbdxc.hamserver.de/
We look forward to seeing increased member-to-member activity thanks to this excellent tool, and we express much gratitude to Thomas for making it available. Remember to use your TBDXC number in the qso (if you forgot it, you can check the updated lists on G Dive at: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnAvOV1LsM4fjhHrpgaqTWYvcB-y )
Warmest wishes to all for the festive season, and my the New Year bring even more members to the Club and, especially, even more of the recently resurgent activity in CW and SSB on the ham bands.
Pete MM0TWX
TBDXC #1 - Founder and CEO
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