Part 12 of our Documentary Series on Social Misfits
in Contemporary Society - The DXer
August 2005
by Craig
Edwards
Image a man, a strange man, he
is a DXpeditioner (Twilight Zone music) doo doo
- doo doo - doo doo - doo doo. This man is Craig
Edwards - he is a natural born DXer.
Normally DXers are shy creatures
who confine themselves to their burrows only to
venture out on odd occasions wearing their best
pair of tracksuit pants to visit small shopping
centres in the late morning of any working day.
But Craig is a dangerous strain of DXer who practices
his disturbing behaviours out in public - he is
a DXpeditioner.
![Sunset](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_01.jpg)
The creature in his local habitat at sunset
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Because of this adventurous spirit,
Craig has remarkably managed to evolve as a DXer
and exhibit chameleon like qualities to blend into
regular society. He has a wife, non-DX related friends,
holds down a solid career, has never been institutionalised,
can look at school girls without gnashing his teeth,
can sit still without rocking back and forth, can
speak without dribbling, doesn't bark at young women
and no longer lives at home with his mother. All
in all, he doesn't display any of the behaviours
of a typical DXer. But these normal attributes are
all superfluous to his real self. The documentary
team secretly followed Craig on a DXpedition to
observe him in his natural environment.
It's Friday afternoon, Craig
has spent the day behaving normally at work. The
only clue to odd behaviour is he has driven to work
in his father's borrowed minivan laden with equipment
instead of his regular car. Furthermore he has spent
his lunchtime visiting websites about the activity
of the sun. Could this be linked to past pagan worshipping
of the almighty orb? After sneaking out of work
early his gait changed from a normal walking style
to that of a shrek like wobble and he began to groan
and dribble with excitement - the transformation
had begun.
![Sunset](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_02.jpg)
The creature remains in
his local habitat until after sunrise |
After a 70km journey towards
the Coorong he detoured for last supper at the Meningie
Hotel and later walked out with ice and a box of
Coopers Pale Ale, obviously later sacrifices to
the DX Gods. By late afternoon he had arrived at
a secluded location which he welcomed with a sacred
respect. Shrines were carefully built of two 3m
high poles connected by suspended wire. These ionospheric
sacred cows
.errr
ewes would remain erect
for his entire stay and would later be the subject
of perverse affection.
As dusk beckoned the sun fell
beneath the sand dunes into the Southern Ocean.
A fire was lit to symbolise the fiery sun and this
launched the sacrificing of pale ales. Craig remained
hidden in seclusion in the van at nightfall, hunched
over a small orange glow. This would be common practice
until long after the sun appeared in the morning.
Who knows what unsavoury indulgences occurred in
the confines of his overnight metal and glass womb,
only he knows.
![EWE](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_03.jpg)
The creature eyes off his prized EWE |
By midday Craig was awake and
active again. He appeared very happy while reading
an apparent journal of the previous evening's happenings.
With a smug demeanour he prepared a celebratory
feast of fine delicacies washed down with Coopers
Pale Ale. Some hours later the merry DXpeditioner
consulted his journal again and was in fine cheer,
talking to himself, laughing and pumping the air
with his fist.
His demeanour became disturbing
as he looked at his EWE, his expression was a mixture
of satisfied admirer and perverse predator. His
actions that followed reminded us of an unsophisticated
mating ritual to demonstrate his affection for his
EWE - particularly after it was responsible for
some new African catches. To continue the commentary
on his following actions would require password
protection on this website...
![EWE](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_04.jpg)
The creature loves his
EWE |
Suffice to say other families
witnessing this lunchtime activity quickly left
the campsite.
An afternoon snooze in a pile
of empty pale ale bottles, the creature soon repeated
his night time manoeuvres only to depart home to
continue the charade of regular life. The team followed
him some weeks later only to discover similar disturbing
anti-social behaviour. Why do they do it? What fuels
their sickness?
TRAIL
![EWE](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_05.jpg)
The creature loves his EWE too much... |
Craig Edwards DXing at Parnka
Point, Coorong, South Australia.
DXing with Icom R75 off 12V, pre-amp and EWE to
Africa
612 1728 AIR Babgladore, India.
Extremely surprised to come across English news
from AIR mixing with the Aussies noted // SW. Aug
5 (CE)
621 1755 Voice of the Arabs,
Batrah, Egypt. Upbeat Arabic music program then
interval signal on hour. Aug 11 (CE)
711 2110 Radio Sana'a, Ta'izz,
Yemen. Poor signal compared to 760 here with non-stop
talks in Arabic. Aug 5 (CE)
760 2050 Radio Sana'a, Alshahr,
Yemen. Nice signal from this regular Middle Eastern
split frequency, wish there were more of them. Aug
5 (CE)
819 1747 Batrah, Egypt. Good
Arabic music programming. Aug 6 (CE)
![Farewell](../photos/aus_coorong_2005_08_06.jpg)
The creature farewells
fellow campers |
839.4 1831 Radiodiffusion Nationale
Tchadiènne, N'djamena, Chad. Assume the one
here, poor after only a het the previous morning.
Noted with Arabic like talk and exotic North African
tunes a bit like the selection easily heard on Djibouti
Radio. Aug 5,6 (CE)
854.1 1703 Rivers State Broadcasting
Corp., Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Poor after only a
strong het during the long July trip, great hi-life
music mainly but at times noted on the hour with
male talks in Nigerian dialect. Aug 5,6 (CE)
909 1845 Voice of America, Botswana.
Good in English // 4930. Aug 6 (CE)
990 1855 Radio Sawa, Cape Greco,
Cyprus. Good mixing in with the Aussies with usual
Arabic pop songs noted // 1260 & 1170. Aug 11
(CE)
1169 1650 IRIB Sarasary, Iran.
Massive mess caused by this on 1170, strong all
weekend with male talks in Farsi. Aug 5 (CE)
1242 1640 Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam.
Good over 5AU and 3TR with General overseas English
service. Aug 6 (CE)
1260 2040 Radio Sawa, Rhodes,
Dodecanese Islands. Sensational Arabic pop songs
and noted // 990. July 20 (CE)
1296 2022 SNBC Reba, Sudan. Noted
with usual North African music and male talks in
Arabic. Aug 11 (CE)
1323 1951 BBC Zyyi, Cyprus. Fair
with BBC WS in English, rare catch in the Coorong
due to cochannel 5DN. Aug 11 (CE)
1386 1602 KBC Maralal, Kenya.
Noted this fading in around this time with English
news items and program on water sanitation, then
into their usual tragic 80's pop music selection.
Aug 5 (CE)
1539 1545 Radiodiffusion Vision
Djibouti, Djibouti. First of the Africans as usual
// 4780. Aug 6 (CE)
1557 2140 Radio Asia, Ras Al
Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Poor in presumed
Malayalam Middle Eastern language with male talks
and upbeat music show. Aug 11 (CE)
1575 1830 Radio Farda, Al-Dhabbaya,
United Arab Emirates. Good mixing with popular music
with Farsi vocals and plenty of IDs. Aug 5 (CE)
Published on October
4, 2005
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