DX World Logo
Introduction:
Several months ago I did a review of “The Daily DX“, and now it is time to do a review of “DX World“. One is for pay, and one, (DX World), is free. Yes, free, “DX World” is totally free to the user. I did not want to do a review without having actually used DX World for a bit, so I started using DX World on a daily basis the day I did the review of Daily DX.
One service does not supplant the other service, (there is some overlap), in fact having both gives the DXer a more full view of what is happening DX wise in his or her world. I was a bit worried that DX World would just be a rehash of old postings, etc. It is not, it contains the latest news on DXpeditions, and QSL information. If you are looking for a way to compare DX World, and Daily DX, there is no real way, each is different, and each is unique. So I won’t try and compare them, so on to the review of DX World.
DX World:
“DX World” feels like it is your friend, you want to have it over for dinner and a drink. DX World comes with photos of the locations you talk, (or try), too, and sometimes interviews with the operators, sometimes not. Mostly DX World has a lot of good information. “DX World” feels friendly because I suspect the author is friendly, and it reflects his personality a bit, as I said, you will want it over for dinner. That said, DX World contains a wealth of information for the avid or casual DXer. It appears that “DX World” started in what looks like 2009, with the first post available to the general public, at least that is what the web site has as the first issue. Overall “DX World” come across as a well thought out, very friendly, almost live, and very useful DX magazine.
“DX World” is broken into sections, and is sort of a running blog on the DX community itself as well. Sometimes , and what is current. Sometimes DX World will even give you history, which is fascinating. The first section in “DX World”, is the “DX World Weekly Bulletin”.
DX World Weekly Bulletin:
The Bulletin starts off with “DX This Week”, and is a recap of what DX was active in the past week. It provides general information on many, many DX stations. An example is below:
3X, GUINEA Michael, PA5M is operating as 3XY5M active during his spare time until May 31. He is working there for the World Food Program. Active on HF and maybe on 6 meter. QSL via PA7FM. http://www.3xy5m.pa7fm.nl/
The above is a direct cut from this weeks, (May 3rd, 2015), DX Bulletin. I saw something like twenty five entries like this one for the past week alone, and this happens every week… Each entry represents a lot of information regarding the operations DX stations, and there were something like twenty five entries for this week. Each week is different, and it is clear that a lot of work goes into gathering this information into one place. If you heard a station, here is the place to make sure you have the call right, or to get QSL information, or just see who is on…
The next section of the Weekly is a “Coming Soon” list of DXpeditions. Here is a sample of one of those entries:
3B8, MAURITIUS Jose, EA5IDQ will be active as 3B8/call between May 10 and May 18. Active from 40 to 10 meter using SSB and RTTY. QSL via homecall, direct or bureau.
The above section covers all the new DX that will be coming up shortly in text form. As can be seen, a lot of information is available to the DXer.
Other Sections of “DX World Weekly Bulletin”:
Following the “Coming Soon” section is the IOTA section, which covers all of the same information above, only for IOTA stations. If you do IOTA, then this is very handy for getting the latest operations information.
After the IOTA section comes the Images section, which has images of the various DXpeditions in it. This always brings home the fact you are talking to real people, not just someone with a call sign, who you send 599 too. It lets you get a feel for the operator you talk to, see a bit of his or her station, and maybe even see some of the place this person lives.
Daily DX Timeline
Following the Images section, is my favorite, the “Daily DX Timeline”. The DX Timeline shows each station graphically as a block in a timeline chart, see the example to the left. You left click the colored block representing the DX entity you are interested in to get specifics on that stations operation. Time is across the horizontal axis, and the different DX stations are running vertically. This is a very nice way to represent upcoming activities, and makes it easy to see who to work next, and to collect QSL info, etc. I particularly like this method of displaying the upcoming events, as it lets me just pick an operation and then see what is happening with that operation quickly. This sort of information is invaluable in finding a DX station, and being able to work him or her.
Following the DX Timeline, is a section on upcoming QSL Cards, where the author has collected images of upcoming QSL cards. This is a fun section, as you get a bit of a preview of your incoming QSL cards. Again, many photos of new QSL cards from far away places… Following the QSL section is the “Announced DX” section, with entries like:
VK9C, COCOS KEELING The Dipper DXers Lars KB2TB, Rune LA6YIA, Bjorn LB1GB and Morten LA9DFA are planning a DXpedition between March 14 and March 26, 2016. VK9CK will operate from 160 to 10 meter using CW, SSB, RTTY with a focus on 80 and 160. QSL via LA6OP, direct or bureau. OQRS Clublog and LoTW. http://dipperdx.com/cocos2016/
The links are active in the Bulletin, meaning you can click them and go to the web page of the operation in question. This section is used for planning your next weeks operations and how to best get contact with a DX station. Once you have contact, QSL info is also included for most entries.
Three more sections remain:
- Contests
- Announced IOTA
- Special Calls
As you would expect the “Contest” section contains information and links to current contests, while the “Announced IOTA”, contains information on upcoming, and active IOTA operations. Finally the “Special Calls” section contains information on any special calls out there…
The Weekly DX Bulletin clearly is a labor of love for the publisher, he must spend vast amounts of time collecting and collating most of this information into this format. All of the above is just the weekly bulletin published, within the Web Site itself. The DX Bulletin is not small, this weeks was eleven pages long, so that will give you a bit of an idea just how much information is really there!
Now back to the Web Site Itself:
As if an eleven page weekly bulletin was not enough, the web site contains information which is too new to go into the Weekly Bulletin! It appears to be a WordPress blog site, in which newest information is placed on top of old information. So when you go to the site, you always have the most recent info on top. Information such as:
- New Operation Announcements
- Current DXpedition updates
- Photos from current DXpeditions
- and more…
On the left side of the main page is the site navigation section, some ads, a link to the graphical DX chart discussed above, and a link to a propagation chart. The navigation section consists of various headers, all linked to the various parts of the site. This provides an easy way to navigate around. Here is the current list of links:
- DX – General News
- DX Africa
- DX Arctic/Antarctic
- DX Asia
- DX Europe
- DX North America
- DX Oceania
- DX South America
- DXCC/IOTA Clips
- DXpedition Movies
- IOTA News
- QSL Corner
- LoTW Credits
Each section is a subsection of the data placed in the entire blog, so this is an easy way to get just the information you are looking for and avoid the work of reading through literally hundreds of info snippets..
Conclusion:
I like the site very much, and use it weekly if not daily. About the only thing I can find to gripe about is the site, (and I am reaching here), is that is does not allow me to get the “Weekly DX Bulletin”, in my email automatically. I did not look at the site for years because of this. I probably should have, and it was my loss, but it really bothers me that it can’t be delivered via email, or if it can be delivered, the process is so difficult to locate I can’t find how.
As per ON9CFG, all funding received from companies, or individuals goes to sponsoring DXpedition and IOTA activities. All in all this is an amazing resource for DXing, and it is free to us, something you don’t find much now days, something free and useful, and it helps put more DXpeditions on the air as well! I encourage you to visit the site... You won’t be disappointed.
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