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.

The creature in his local habitat at sunset

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.

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.

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...

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

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)

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