How addictive is DXing?

I watched a movie yesterday on Danish television: The Big Year from 2011 starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. Two bird enthusiasts try to defeat the cocky world record holder in a year-long bird-spotting competition. Bird-spotting is about seeing (or hearing) a specific bird species, and writing down the day, time, and location in a log.

The Big Year.

The reason for watching this fine movie was the analogy between the behavior of bird-spotting enthusiasts and ham radio operators, especially DXers. It is a well-known fact in our circles, that DXing can be an obsession to people, and it has the potential of becoming "the meaning of life" - at least for a long time.

A Year of DX.

The Big Year competition for bird-spotters runs from January 1st to December 31th. It is similar to the DX Marathon. The idea of comparing bird-spotters with DXers is not mine. I read it in A Year of DX by Bob Locher, W9KNI.

Regards from OZ1BXM Lars Petersen

Homepage: oz1bxm.dk