Eastern Kiribati 3 times in a row - how to fund DXpeditions

 

After trying for some days in the last weeks I was getting really disappointed I could barely hear this station or work them at all. It seems propagation is not that good or this is some radio blackhole for me in the Pacific. Really.....I worked VK, ZL, KH6 with no problems at all but working T32, no way. Now I took 2 days off the job to do things around and in the house and of course have some time to try for T32 for the last time. Unfortunately I haven't got all the time of the world for just my hobby.

Then today I was up early. I decided to work some on 20m FT8. Within moments I worked 3D2AG Antoine from Fiji and some ZL an VK stations. This would be an excellent time for T32. And yes, I discovered their great signal this time on 14091. Within about 10 minutes of calling I was able to make the contact finally! An ATNO for me. Later on I did the trick again on 15m, calling just once I was in the log. And later in the morning a third contact was made on 10m longpath. Not a bad day today.

So, how does this Rebel DX group fund their DXpeditions? They tell everyone they pay everything from their own pockets. Are they multi millionaires? No, although their language is a bit rough they are just very smart. Everyone can do it. You only need to have the guts to do it and of course you need some money to start. These guys just charge €6,- for any of their DXpedition confirmations (LotW/QSL) , not per QSO but pay once get all. Not a bad price except if you only made 1 QSO it will be expensive. How many DXers will buy the confirmation? I believe the T32TT DXpedition already hits over 200K QSOs, that includes dupes of course, Many will try to work them on many bands. How many unique calls will be in the log? A wild guess estimated 200K/7=28K?? I really don't know and this will probably remain a mystery. But let's say half of these stations seriously want to have the confirmation. 14000 x 6 = 84000 euro. This looks like a large amount of money, but of course they need to live and need to buy expensive fuel for the next DXpedition. Don't forget you need all kind of permits, they are not free. You need to buy some new equipment as well once and a while. If you don't want to get rich but just want to do it as a lifestyle (job!) I think this can be managed, I might be wrong about the numbers though. Could be more or less,,,

Personally I'm strongly against buying a QSL or confirmation. This is just a hobby not a commercial business. But the Rebel DX group does not lie about this, they clearly communicate to everyone that if you want to have the confirmation you need to pay. When the money is in their own pockets.....they fund the DXpedition from their own pockets. That's not difficult to understand is it?

What do you think about this way to fund DXpeditions from rare DXCC?

Related posts: 

https://qslcodeofconduct.blogspot.com/2020/01/qsl-for-sale.html

https://www.n0un.net/the-big-ft8-money-grab/