WA6AUD published the WCDXB for 11 years, every week, without missing one. This is just one of the
stories that Hugh published in the WCDXB
DX is a State of Mind
We had a confused QRPer up the hill last week, this one burdened by a problem. "You know how the
DX Club changed the rules so you now can join with just twenty-five countries, don't you?" We had to
admit that we were aware of the change. "Well," the QRPer continued, I'm on the Committee to check
applications and last week we came across one applicant who has never worked a JA. He has twenty-
five countries but never worked a JA. Think of that! We could feel the foundations of DXing trembling
and we had to nudge the QRPer onwards.
"How can a W6 be a DXer and never work a JA?", the QRPer demanded. "Not only has he never
worked one, he does not even recall having heard one. He wanted to know when JAs are on the air. The
Committee is not sure if they should approve his application for membership."
These are times when one hears things that are hard to believe and we finally hauled the QRPer up the
hill to the Old Timer. There we had to listen to the whole exposition again, complete with arm waving,
table thumping and various expressions of incredulity and indecision. Then it was quiet. After awhile, the
old Timer spoke, but rather than giving an answer, he asked a question. "What really makes a DXer?"
he asked. "Is it the working of a JA?" We both had to admit it would take more than that. But we could
not come up with a satisfactory answer. Then the Old Timer spoke again, perhaps a bit wearily this time.
"DXing is a state of mind," he said. "Judge a DXer by what they are and what they think, not what they
have worked." And that was all he would say.
We had to think this over for a bit for long we had clung to the cherished belief of most DXers that the
more countries you work, the better DXer you are. But we were now coming up with all sorts of wobbly
angles when we were looking for the four-square word. "I guess maybe we'd better let the fellow in," the
QRPer said, "but it is sure hard to think a fellow is a DXer when he has never worked a JA."
We had to bail out at this point for these high-level dissertations and the intimation that DX may be a
thinking man's game were beginning to worry us. If DX is a state of mind, why are so many DXers
longing for a big and high antenna and all the power they can ram into it? These are times that test
men's belief's. Meanwhile . . . are you a thinker? Or a DXer?
A man should keep his friendship in constant repair (Samuel Johnson (1755).
Stories, by Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD