The Kiwi DX un-group
In the same way that some IT cliques have un-cons instead of conferences.
The premise is that you have more of the social and less of the conference with a strong focus on community and learning.
The Kiwi DX group was for the most part just a mailing list run by a few different folks over the years. When I first became a ham it was run by Bill, ZL3NB who is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
The Kiwi DX mailing list bounced it’s last email some time in 2016 and although another mailing list is giving ZL DXers somewhere to blow off steam, it’s just not the same.
I miss the un-group-ness of the old list and the eclectic mix of folks who posted regularly even though the occasional flame war threatened to undo the very fabric of time itself.
While the group was essentially a random mob of hams rather than an organised club the mailing list did spawn some great collaborative efforts. The special even station ZM90DX that ran for a full year and crowd funding donations for some DXpeditions in the few short years I was an un-member come to mind.
This is obviously a bit of reminiscing on my part. I found some old emails that jogged my memory but that’s not my only intention, it’s also a bit of a sneaky shot at preserving a tiny little bit of amateur radio history.
The Kiwi DX group, being the un-group it is, has never had a website of it’s own. That hasn’t stopped a fair number of ZL Dxers using links to Lee, ZL2AL’s website that hosts the one ‘official’ mention of the group which is here: http://www.zl2al.com/kiw-dx-group/
Lee was another most excellent gentleman who sadly became Silent Key mid 2015. Lee created the KiwiDX logo at the top of this post and adorns quite a few ZL QSL cards.
Lee’s son is keeping the lights on over at http://www.zl2al.com but just in case it does fall into the cracks I’ve taken a copy of the little sliver of DX history and included the page contents below which is the sum total of the Kiwi DX Group web presence.
“The Kiwi DX Group is a group of avid DXers that formed in the late 1990s. The logo originated from the magazine NZDXR edited by ZL2AL. Although the magazine ceased publication after nearly 5 years, the bond was formed and Kiwi DXers became a formidable group in the pileups. ZLs are quick to support DXpeditions and a recent “pass the hat” exercise saw the ZLs raise a considerable amount of money to become a sponsor and support the upcoming FT5ZM Amsterdam Island DXpedition 2014”
In the spirit of the Kiwi DX un-group I’d encourage any ZL ham who’s fond of a bit of late night DX to use the Kiwi DX logo created by Lee on their QSL card or drop it on their qrz.com page.
We’ll see if we can have have the Kiwi DX group survive another 20 years even without the mailing list.
73, Chris ZL3LF