2023 was my best DX Marathon year ever. It was the conclusion of several years of trying to get better; better antenna, better techniques, better listening skills. 2024 is off to a better start! — Bill Salyers AJ8B
We are extremely fortunate to have such an amazing administrative staff as you and your volunteers. I am absolutely delighted with the direction you are taking it. I’m still working full-time as a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic but someday I hope to have more time. My friends, who have done it, spend the entire year, full-time working on it! — Scott Wright K0MD
This program is one thing that keeps me on the air even when there aren’t any DXpeditions out there to hunt. I’m at 275 entities of the 346 and am usually laser-focused on ATNOs. — Sheryl Harkleroad WW6G
The first Marathon—really enjoyed it! It really gives a renewed sense of purpose to working countries and zones. — Marlo Montanaro KA2IRQ
40W maximum to balcony mounted Buddipole vertical at 40 feet! Lovin it! — Thomas Schwabel N2WLG
I have threatened for several years to enter the Marathon but this is the first time I have and really found it a massive motivator to get on the bands. Thanks for all the fun!!! — Donovan Van Loggerenberg ZS2DL
From 2009 to 2023 I have always participated in this magnificent race. Thank you CQ DX Marathon. — Piero Giorgi IK5FKF
Nice to have a new submission tool this year. It was very easy to make the submission. Simple., thanks. — Watt Watanabe JA0DAI
I have a lousy attic antennas, but this program helps keep my interest and activity up. 73 — Al K9XR
Another year of amazing and unprecedented growth, establishing the DX Marathon Program as the “fastest growing DX program in our hobby today.” I want to thank each and every one of you personally for participating and for just having fun! I have listed only a very few of the hundreds of testimonial comments that participants have submitted and I really enjoyed reading them. It makes all the work that my staff and I have done, in giving back to our hobby, worthwhile.
The formative words to describe 2023 were “growth” and “new records set”. We grew year-over-year at a 50% pace, and there were 115 previous records shattered in the program. We have worked hard to spread the word to the many hams worldwide who have not heard about the DX Marathon program. Cycle 25 and the use of FT8 technology has made it possible for many hams with antenna restrictions, and/or financial restrictions, the opportunity to participate in the wonderful world of DX.
The participation in the DX Marathon continues to grow as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Number of logs submitted, 2016-2023. This year represented a 50% increase over 2022
Figure 2. Total unique callsigns submitted by our participants in the CQ DX Marathon, 2016-2023
Figure 3. Total number of QSOs reported by Marathon Participants 2016-2023
There are two more graphs that portray this phenomenon. Figure 4 shows the number of scores that exceeded 300 points, clearly a record in Marathon history. The second graph, Figure 5, shows the number of records broken this year, such as individual country scores, zones scores, and, amazingly enough, new milestones. The latter were achieved in the world highest mode category with all time high scores achieved in phone, digital, and CW scores. Jeber, PY4JW set the all time phone score with 275 points. Lada Prajsner, OK2PAY secured his 9th consecutive highest CW score with 309 points, and lastly, Steve, N3SL recorded an all time 320 in Digital. Great way to spend time during those cold Iowa winter days and nights!
The participation graph in Figure 2 shows the growth in 2023 with a total of 28,301 unique callsigns worked by our participants (a 31% increase over 2022). We believe this growth splurge is a combination of the popularity of the DX Marathon program. Of course Cycle 25 does not hurt, making it possible for more and more operators to have fun working DX. Figure 3 shows how many total QSOs occurred by all of our participants in 2023 (a 56% year-over-year increase). The beauty of the Marathon program is that participation has been consistent regardless of propagation. We are, of course, enjoying the amazing Cycle 25, and no one can deny that great propagation impacts scoring levels that can be achieved, new records set, and participation, particularly for hams who don’t have mega stations. It is indeed a beautiful thing to work the world again on 10 meters with 100 watts.
Figure 4. Number of scores submitted by participants in 2023 that achieved 300 points or more.
Figure 5. All time DX Marathon records set during program year 2023 (Total of 111 vs 51 in 2022)
During the scoring process, the DX Marathon staff carefully checks the accuracy of submissions. The DX Marathon does not require the validation of QSOs, but the program does require the accurate reporting of valid QSOs. Figure 6 shows a decrease in the error rate in 2023, which is indicative of participants checking logs more carefully. The spike in 2022 was, for the most part, due to the CQ Magazine’s policy on Russian QSOs. Even so, in 2023 we recorded slightly more than 300 logs that were completely error free!
Figure 6. Tracking of invalid QSOs due to errors 2019-2023.
The Mode graph shown in Figure 7 shows the mix of submitted QSO’s in 2023. For the first time in the past few years, the digital mode slightly fell in percentage of overall QSOs. The digital mode was used in 72.0% of the reported QSOs while CW was 14.4% and phone was at 13.7%.
Figure 7. Mode breakdown of DX Marathon QSOs. In 2023, the percentage of digital QSOs slightly declined.
The highest scores in the DX Marathon program have historically been dependent on 1) propagation and 2) the number of DXpedition activations. Both of these factors resulted this year in a top score in the Unlimited Class of 329 vs. last year’s 307. Surprisingly, the Limited class had a top score of 324. Combining all of the scores equal-to or greater-than 300 yielded 86 entrants in the Unlimited, 9 in the Limited, 3 in Formula 100 and 1 in Formula 5. In 2022, there were a total of 12 over 300 across all classes!
Figure 8. Scores in 2023 that were 300 or above—a new historical record for the DX Marathon Program.
As might be expected, with Cycle 25 advancing nicely, the percentage of QSOs submitted for the 10, 12, and 15 meter bands increased by 81%. These 3 bands represented 51% of all the QSO’s submitted. 2023 resulted in a record high total of 366,214 QSOs.
Figure 9. Band breakdown of DX Marathon QSOs, 2018-2023. 10-12-15 Meter bands represented 51% of all QSOs.
Some Interesting Metrics…
The average scores in the four classes of Unlimited, Limited, Formula 100, and Formula 5 all were higher in 2023 compared to 2022. For Unlimited, the average moved from 187 to 210, for Limited from 168 to 181, for Formula 100 from 159 to 160 and for Formula 5 from 107 to 144. The overall average moved from 178 in 2022 to 185 in 2023.
A wonderful aspect of our hobby is our amazing demographic profile. Participants include doctors, lawyers, fireman, policeman, and just about every profession that exists. We believe that the vast majority of those who are hams do not have “mega stations,” but instead run 100 watts and utilize wire or vertical antennas. We have been targeting this huge group of hams in many of our zoom presentations conducted during the course of the year.
As a result of FT8 and Cycle 25, many operators running 100 watts or less with wire or vertical antennas have had the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful world of DX. As verification of this assumption, one of the most powerful metrics in the program is the growth in Formula 100 participation. The year-to-year increase in this class between 2022 and 2023 nearly quadrupled (4x). In 2022 there were 157 submittals in the Formula 100 class that grew to 598 in 2023. The Unlimited class still represents 47% of the participation with Limited at 17%. QRP came in at 2% of the total submissions.
Many of our participants have chosen to participate in the single mode category. In 2023, only 3.6% of the entrants chose single mode CW while those selecting single mode phone were 7.6% of the total participants. Digital lead the way in single mode with 19.7%. As a percentage of the total, 31% chose the single mode entry.
Figure 10. Single mode entries represented 31% of the total participants.
A single band choice for participants may be one of the best opportunities to win an award plaque. Amazingly, the number who enter in single band are not as large as one might expect. Only 3.6% of all participants selected the single band option! In 2023, the 10 meter band was selected by only 24 entries and that band represented the largest number of entries in the single band category. The second largest band choice was the 40 meter band with only 11 participants! If you want to change it up in 2024, give consideration to entering the single band category. Many of our participants that have entered the single band category year after year like the Bob Locher, W9KNI on 40 meters, or Marvin Hlavac, VE3VEE on 20 meters but many others who historically have participated in all bands have made the switch just to add a little DX variety into their lives. Figure 11 shows a graph depicting this category choice in the program across each band.
Figure 11. Single band entrants by band in 2023—The best kept secret in the DX Marathon Program.
We are trying very hard to spread the mix of participants in many of the other continents outside of North America. For years, our program has split between roughly 33% North America participation and 67% international. In 2023, North America had the largest participation at 33.5%. Growth in the North American area over that of 2022 was 47.5%. South America was close behind with 28.1% of the total participation and grew from 2022 at 49.5%. The third largest continent in terms of participation was Oceania at 20.7%. Figure 12 below shows the distribution of continent participation.
Figure 12. Participation in the DX Marathon Program by Continents in 2023.
And the Winners Are…
Competition remains alive and well. The Unlimited Class had 86 scores at 300 points or higher, and the winner with the highest submitted score in the 2023 program, was veteran DX Marathoner Antonio D’Arpino, IK0OZD with a program high score of 329. Not surprising, in second place with a score of 325, was John Sweeney, K9EL. For 17 years while administering the DX Marathon Program, John never entered but participated in the background. After the conclusion of the 2022 program, John turned over the reigns to me and we are all very glad to have him now as a participant. Watch out in the future…he is a very solid DX’er.
Photo A. Antonio D’Arpino, IK0OZD this year’s winner of the Unlimited Class. Antonio was the winner Europe in this photo in 2022.
In the third position, in the Unlimited class was George Efremidis, DJ3AA with 324 points, just one point behind K9EL. George accomplished this score with a spider beam on 6m-20m, Yagi steppIR also on 6-20m, dipoles for 80m-160m and a vertical for 30m-40m. Well done George!. Closing out the top in Unlimited class was Barry Cohen, N2BJ with 323 points, and finally Bill Kendrick, N6RV also with 323 points. Great job fellows.
Photo B. Both 2022 and 2023 20 meter single band winner, Marvin Hlavac, VE3VEE.
Many participants in the program do it to better their personal best from year-to-year, or to see how they compare against like-equipped hams around the world. Some do it to engage in competition; for sure competition is keen in the Unlimited Class. Within the top 14 participants, there was a separation of only 9 points between #1 and #14! Whoo, that’s competition.
Photo C. Bob Locher, W9KNI is Mr. 40 meters! Winner of the single band plaque 40 meters in 2023.
Moving to the Limited class, Savas Pavlidis, SV2AEL the top scorer in this class in 2022 repeated and scored the highest in the Limited Class again in 2023 with a score of 324 points. He was followed by James Leahy, K2JL who took the top prize in this class in 2021 and was runner up in 2022. In third place was Carlo Bonomi with 315 points. Congrats to all of the Limited Class winners.
Moving to the Formula 100 Class, taking the top spot in 2023, was Karel Karmasin, OK2FD with 315 points followed by Bijoy Biswas, VU2FGQ with 312 points. Bijoy also was the winner of the Zone 22 certificate award. It’s great to see such strong performance coming from our friend in India. Congrats Bijoy. A familiar name to the DX Marathon program, Joe Subich, W4TV scored 311 in the Formula 100 Class. Joe also had the highest score in the entire 4 call area in the US and will be receiving a certificate.
The tough and relentless participants in the Formula 5 category, and do I ever appreciate what these folks accomplish each and every year, was veteran QRP’er, and maybe the most outstanding operator in the world on QRP, Dan Walker III, WG5G who achieved a historical high in the DX Marathon with his personal top score of 313. Dan was also one of the 300 entrants with a perfect score, i.e., no errors on his submission. On September 1, 2023, Dan also received a QRP endorsement from the ARRL for all DXCC awards which means they acknowledged that he earned the Mixed, CW, & Honor Roll awards while using QRP power of 5 watts! Some say adversity builds integrity. In June of 2022, Dan lost his quad and tower from a violent and severe thunderstorm destroying both. He has since rebuilt these and as we see he is back in business. Congrats Dan for your accomplishments and support in the participation the DX Marathon Program! Your plaque will soon be on the way. Close behind Dan in the number 2 slot was Roberto Correia, Jr, PU2RTO with a score of 293. The third position was achieved by Stefano Menon, IZ3NVR with 291 points. Finally, the fourth position was Sam Burgin, NN4Q with 279 points and the next position, with 276, is DX Marathon avid supporter and contributor, Anthony Luscre, K8ZT. Congratulations to all of you amazing QRP’ers.
Photo D. Dan Walker, WG5G winner of the 2022 and 2023 Formula– 5 Class, setting the all time high score in 2023 of 313. points.
All categories and all scores are posted in this article but it is worth mentioning a couple of significant accomplishments. We are trying to encourage club submittals through the many zoom meetings I have done. Club leadership has told me they are always looking for ways to engage members, and the DX Marathon participation fills that need. In 2022, there was a 23% increase in the number of club submittals over 2021. In 2023, we had over 150 club submittals. To further encourage club participation, in 2024 we created a “tranche” of clubs depending on size. There will be three plaques awarded: for clubs with 75 entries and over, clubs between 26 and 74 submittals, and clubs with 25 or less.
Once again, in 2023, the YB-Land DXing Passion IS Club of Indonesia took the honor with an amazing performance of 50,208, that bettered their last year’s top finish. It is truly amazing how this club has organized and motivated members to participate in the DX Marathon Club competition. We are hoping to see a large increase in 2024 club participation.
The runner-up club was the Rio DX Group, with 21,358 points, followed in third place by the Southeastern DX Club of the US with 13,438. The fourth place finisher was the Northern Illinois DX Association with a point total of 12,371. We hope that clubs start their planning now to put in a score at the end of 2024, to gain lots of notoriety within the club DX Marathon competition and we hope that you have lots of fun working DX as a club. By the way, club scores are calculated by simply adding the individual scores of all participants that name their club on the submission forms.
Photo E. Single band winner, 60m George Szabadkay, HA5WA in 2022.
Photo F. Valdeci Ros Porcel, PY2XU hold his 2022 plaque as the world top on the 17 meter band with a score of 278. Well he re- turned to be our 30 meter winner in 2023 with a score of 289. Those Brazilian operator are tenacious! Congrats Valdeci.
Single–Mode Winners
It is indeed fitting to recognize the single-mode accomplishments for 2023. Lada Prajsner, OK2PAY secured his 9th consecutive highest CW score with 309 points. Jeber Colares, PY4JW secured the world wide high phone score with 275 points. Jeber, thanks for keeping phone alive! An all time high ever score for digital goes to Steve Larson, N3SL with a whopping total of 320 points. Steve was #1 in NA in 2022. Great job fellow. There are your targets ladies and gentlemen for 2024!
Other Noteworthy Accomplishments
Turning to North America, John Sweeney, K9EL secured the top NA score, posting a 325. Congrats John in your first year as a participant!. The highest CW score in North America was Bob Gill, K5BG with a point score of 296. As for South America, the highest score was posted by Fred Souto Maior, PY7ZZ with a formidable 316 points. Steady performer, Jose Vasconcelos, CT3MD secured the high African score of 317 topping his 2022 score of 291 topping his 2021 score of 279. Continuous improvement is a wonderful thing! Congrats to all the plaque continent winners!
Photo G. Bob Gill, K5BG winner CW North America in 2022 with a total point count of 250 bested that in 2023,. He is back with the highest CW score in NA with a score of 296. Fantastic job!
In addition to the awards made on the Mode plaques, we award plaques to the top score on each continent plus the highest score on each of the 6 through 160 meter bands. All of these winners, along with the runners up, are shown on a chart labeled “Top Scores” within this article. Worthy of no- tation is W9KNI, Bob Locher who won the 40m band. Done all with phone and CW, no digital!
Youth Winner
Photo H. The DX Marathon first youth plaque winner in 2022 was Eduardo Almeida, PU5FJR of Brazil who scored 221 points.
Photo I. Pia Wurster, DL7PIA is the winner of the 2023 Youth Award with a score of 280 points. Watch out YL’s in 2024 as the new YL overlay will most certainly be in contention by Pia. German hams and others, you should be proud of this young lady!
Last year, the DX Marathon Program initiated a youth plaque overlay award. That plaque went to a 14-year old Eduardo Almeida, PU5FJR of Brazil. Eduardo is the son of PP5JR. His 2022 score resulted in the plaque award for 221. We all know how important it is to engage youth in our hobby….it is our future. We at DX Marathon are encouraging youth participation and have expanded the 2024 program by not only awarding a plaque for the highest score, but certificates will be issued to the highest scoring youth on each continent. In 2024, we have a YL in Germany that has secured the plaque. Her call is DL7PIA and her name is Pia Wurster and scored a record breaking 280 points. Pia secured her license at age 12. In 2022, she started learning and enjoys CW. Today she is 16 years old and loves DX’ing.
Worthy of mentioning, as well, are the runner up youths who participated this year. We had lots of participation. In number two position was Eduardo (see Photo above), PU5FJR with a total of 249 points. In the third position was Merzuke Gediktas, 9A/TA7YLY of Croatia, coming in at 236 points. In the fourth position was Angus Alexander, KJ7KOJ with 235 points. Finishing in the 5th position was William Sanders III, WT5A with 196 points. Great job, youth, and we hope we will see all of you back in 2024. Keep up the great work and good luck DX’ing. Each of the placements mentioned above will receive a beautiful certificate for their accomplishment in the 2023 youth overlay.
Photo J. Sergio Almeida, PP5JR is a serious competitor from Brazil. He is displaying his many plaques and in 2022, he was the 80 m band world winner with a score of 220. He repeated his top position on 80m in 2024 with a score of 238.
Photo K. Yes, and Dx’ing can be done on 6 m as well. Eric Trumeau, F5BZB in 2022 won the 6 m plaque, the first year that it was given instead of a certificate. Eric had an amazing score of 189. In 2023, he was bested by a French colleague, Cedric Morelle, F5UKW scoring 201. Bon travail, Cedric. Oh, did I mention he operates his station on solar power and batteries!
Certificate Winners
We, in the DX Marathon Program, believe that recognition for worthy and hard efforts deserve recognition. This year we will issue over 130 certificates to those who participated in the program. The details of the certificate awards are provided on the www.dxmarathon.com website. Certificates are awarded for the top continental score for each of the three modes, top score in each country, top score in each CQ Zone, top score in each Canadian call district, top score in each USA call area for each of the DX Marathon classes plus the top single mode score in the USA. Congratulations to all the certificate winners this year.
Photo L. Bill Gibbons, K2TQC is a true veteran and active participant in the DX Marathon Program. He was winner in 2022 of the 12 m plaque and in 2023, he earned highest score and will be awarded a plaque for the highest world 17m with 318. A real pro! Thank you also Bill for being a sponsor of the world high digital score plaque.
Some Operating Advice and Suggestions
Most of you have visited our website, which was redone last year, www.dxmarathon.com. Your operating staff spends lots of time keeping this website current and it is the primary conduit between my staff and all of our worldwide participants. Each section of this website holds lots of information that will help all of our participants. The website also includes the current year rules translated into 12 languages. If you don’t see your language on the Rules Tab, please let me know and we will ask you to translate it and it will be posted. We have past records on the website so as you are contemplating which category that you wish to enter, you can calculate your scores in advance and decide by looking at past results. There is no early declaration required in our program; you can decide at the time you submit. By far, one of the most important helpful tools available to you is listed under the Resources tab. Here you can look at many subcategories. The most valuable will be the Valid Calls & Notes, and Invalid Callsigns.
Photo M. Savas Pavlidis, SV2AEL won the Limited World Class plaque in 2022 with a score of 303. He repeated as the top Limited participant in 2023 with a score of 324. Thank you also Savas for doing the Greek translation of the Rules last year and this year.
Why are these so important? Please remember that each participant is responsible for the accuracy of their submission. If you make an error, you will incur a one point deduction for each mistake. As I earlier stated, we only had around 300 error free logs. I know from my own experience that my errors have decreased over time because of the time I spent verifying my submissions.
Many logging programs will give you the year-to-date score as you progress during the year. In 2023, we made our web-based tool available to you at www.marathon.ham2k.net. All you need to do is input a year-to-date adif file into the tool, and you will instantly get a progress report of country and zones worked. I encourage you to check this out.
When logging a QSO from a DX spot, listen carefully to the DX station to make sure the callsign is logged correctly. Nearly 40% of all point subtractions are due to busted or incorrect calls. It is truly amazing to see a station reported with the wrong call propagate through submittals. The database that we use to check calls for QRV’s includes start and stop dates so make sure you are properly logging the correct dates. Subtractions resulting in the reporting on submissions of pirate operations continues to represent a significant error as well. We try to post as many of these pirates as we can on the website, but we do not catch all of them. Please carefully check these yourself.
Photo N. Halil Ayyildiz, TA2LG secured the highest score in Asia in 2023 with a score of 319. This comes after he also won the same award in 2022 with a score of 302. Gotta love the Cycle 25 propagation!
Special Thanks to So Many
This has been a special year for the DX Marathon Program. There are many forces present that make this program what it is today. First of all, we would not exist without the generosity of our sponsors. These sponsors, that include both clubs and individuals, make it possible for the DX Marathon to exist. Without them, there would be no DX Marathon Program. We ask all the plaque winners each year to do two things….the first is to send us a photo of you in your shack holding the plaque, and, far more importantly, we ask each of you to send a personal email to the sponsor of the plaque thanking them for their generosity.
Secondly, I have a personal thank you to John Sweeney, K9EL who unselfishly managed this program for 17 consecutive years. That in itself is truly amazing. I have been involved in the program, managing the DX Marathon, for about 1 1/2 years and do it with the help of four people. John did it by himself for these 17 years. This was a herculean job and we all should be grateful for all the sweat equity he put into the program. Furthermore, John is still on our Board of Directors and he has given our team much advice and help based on his rich history and experiences in the program. Thank you so much John. I had the honor at the W9DXCC program to present John with a plaque recognizing his service to the DX Marathon Program. We also have created a Super DX Marathon Program award in 2024, in honor of John, that will be presented to the participant with the highest 5 year consecutive score.
Just as importantly, I would like to thank my loyal and hardworking staff. They have spent hundreds of hours this year in making this program what it is today. Larry Loen, WO7R upgraded and rewrote the entire scoring system that will allow us to score many times the participants that we had this year, and with a greater level of precision. Sebastian Delmont, KI2D redesigned our website, created a one-step submission tool that greatly simplifies submissions, made available a year to date tool so that participants can gauge their progress in Marathon throughout the year…and has provided assistance and training to me on how to manage and make changes to our website. John Samuels, K2CIB scans many DX publications daily and provides inputs to me on good calls, broken calls, pirates, dxpedition details, etc. He spends hundreds of hours a year keeping you, our participants, with updated information as soon as is possible. Doug McDuff, W4OX our compliance manager has assisted me in evaluating rules, etc. Finally, we are short a Data Manager but to bridge this absence, John Sweeney, K9EL has pitched in with his amazing spreadsheet skills and helped make it possible for me to present most of the data analysis that you are reading in this 2023 report. Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to our hobby making it fun and simple for our participants.
We also wish to thank our developers who have supported our program. I know it has not been easy as we transition to the new submission tool, but we do appreciate your continued support as we move the program forward. There will undoubtedly be further changes as we enhance and make the program more interesting to more people. Please hang in there with us and continue to support the Marathon, the fastest growing DX program in our hobby today. One added thank you goes to Jim Reisert, AD1C who every month provides us with busted DX spots. He also continues to update his ADIF to DX Marathon conversion program. Thank you so much Jim for your selfless contributions to the DX Marathon program.
We wish to thank all of our participants worldwide. As previously mentioned, we are an international program and our aim is to expand participation in a number of areas including unrepresented countries. We cannot do this by ourselves as we do have limited resources. We ask that you spread the good news to your fellow hams in your respective countries. I would thoroughly enjoy zooming to clubs in other parts of the world as I have done in NA and SA. I would be more than happy to do these meetings but I need your assistance.
I would like to thank those of you who have generously given donations to assist us in offsetting our costs. We do have costs throughout the year and to expand the program further, it is imperative that we build up our working capital. If you have $5 or $10 please consider donating through PayPal or by other means as described on our website. PayPal is international, works just fine and costs nothing, when you send it to a “friend”. Please consider.
WC3W Final Comments
It was an amazing year, this the first full year of my tenure as head of the DX Marathon Program. Frankly, my expectations were to get into the double digit percent growth in 2023 like 10-15%. I was shocked at the +50% growth but indeed very pleased and excited. As I do club presentations, I can now see how our program simply has not become visible among the many worldwide hams that enjoy DX. My aim for the future years is to keep grinding out and doing as quality a job as is possible through our volunteers to produce a quality product for you, our customers, while at the same time expanding participation. I am working on a possible new logo and the three words that may be used are “Global—-Simple—-Fun”. Most of our participants, through their many comments in the submission which I so enjoyed reading this year, clearly stated they loved the program and it was fun…no pressure…no complications. My desire is to keep it that way.
I know many of you have heard about the financial distress that CQ Magazine has undergone. We hope they resolve their problems. As is always the case in my business career, there always has to be a “Plan B”. If they do not we, organizationally and financially, are solidly placed to continue on our own.
When I was a working person, I learned early on in my career that the best ideas for any product or service do not come from the R & D departments but instead come from your customers. I believed in spending huge amount of time face-to-face with my customers and listening. There is a reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth! I encourage all of you, during the course of the year, to use our Group IO site or simply send me an email with any ideas you might have that would enhance our program. We may not implement your ideas, but I can promise you we will listen and consider each and every one of them…do not be bashful. Tell us the good and the bad. It is the only way we can keep this the most popular DX program in our hobby.
Please enjoy your participation in 2024. The following pages post the many results for 2023. Enjoy and “Gud DX’ing.
73, Mark Wohlschlegel, WC3W