Can YOU smell it?

If there ever was a band on fire, then that was 30m this sunrise. Juicy DX everywhere! Yemen, Suriname, Namibia, Brunei, half a dozen Middle Eastern stations, the JTAlert was flashing yellow like there is no tomorrow. Overwhelming – even for a seasoned chaser. An eye-candy festival of opportunities to snatch a new one or a two.

Ham radio at its best.

Roman Levichev is a famous antenna installer who travels the world climbing towers and putting up monster yagis. There are not many people in the world that can juggle a 4 element 40m monster on top of a 140m tower. And Roman is amongst the best. Fearless, experienced, an asset to contesting and the DXing community.

He is currently in Suriname installing a number of antennas at PZ5RA. And here is a short note:

“A neighbour was burning grass and the fire spread over the fence. Antennas for 160m and 80m, cables, phasing lines burned down… But we will restore them and prepare for the CQWWCW competition”.

Contesting is the very cutting edge of ham radio. A competitive setup starts with acres of land carefully chosen after years of searching for that perfect location. Followed by building a house, erecting multiple towers, dozens of yagis, and kilometres of cables. And this is still just the outdoor work. Setting up a shack and investing in transceivers, amplifiers, filtering and networking could take years. Any improvement is painfully incremental, every decibel costs money and sweat. We are talking millions. It would be easier to win the Sydney to Hobart than to win first place in the world Multi Multi op category from Australia.

There are less than five Australian contest stations which would even be considered semi-competitive by global standards.

To them, and their owners, hats off for even trying.

“I can get that IC-7300 for $10 less from someone else. Unless you match their price, I am not buying” said the caller, in a firm, demanding voice.

“Sure, I said. It would be my pleasure. I am here to serve you.”

Yet the payment for that ICOM transceiver, the most basic of all, is yet to arrive. And I can’t blame the buyer. For decades, he was conditioned to think small, to think not just cheap, but ‘as cheap as possible’. It’s not his fault; this state of mind is simply the result of a mantra perpetuated for decades that ‘ham radio is a cheap, boring, dying hobby with no excitement and no future’ perpetuated by dealers racing their prices to the bottom.

As I type this, I can smell the burning grass, the scorched farm land on the other side of the world. With my eyes closed, I can see Roman climbing the tower, juggling aluminium like a walker on trapeze, on a hot humid South American day, determined to win, at any cost, at any price. The contrast between those who care, and those who don’t is painfully obvious, both paralysing and heart breaking.

And every loss of a sale makes me even more determined to push on – because that priceless view from the top, the horizon which opens in all direction, the wind, a sense of freedom, makes it all worth it.

Thank you Roman for your inspiration, we’ll see you in the contest.