Usually the DX’peditions, expecially those managed by Americans, use brand new transceivers, amplifiers, cables and antennas, took on loan or bought at favourable price from sponsors in occasion of the activity. When the expedition is over, the materials on loan are back to the sponsors or, what has been bought, sold on the second-hand market.
Unlike the most part of the DX’peditions before described, the stuff for 3C2MD (Transceiver, antennas, filters, cables, computers…) is property of MDXC, has been bought with Association’s money and used in all the past expeditionary activities.
Of course sometimes items have to be replaced, so older things are sold to help MDXC in buying new.
With described strategy there are “pros and cons”: we don’t need to search yearly expensive support from “big” sponsors, we know the items that we have and how to set-up them BUT, on the other hand, we have capital immobilisation, obsolescence of the items at MDXC’s charge, necessity of maintenance and necessity to keep stored a big quantity of materials.
From this latter “cons” (necessity to store somewhere all the stuff) coming the picture that open the note you are reading: how we pass from the “full-of-mess container” on the left to the “ready-to-be-checked in” bags on the right?
All is on the hands of Marco, IZ2GNQ, MDXC’s logistic manager. After each expedition, on the morning of the coming back, all the items are placed on that small container you may see in the picture. During the following weeks, Marco try to recover what was broken, cleans connectors, wraps the cables, clean transceivers and amplifiers, reset the laptops. Each year he brings Power Amplifiers and Transceivers to be checked by Orazio, IZ2KTE, MDXC’s chief technician.
Several months before the departure Marco start to visit the container and select what it will be bring at the new destination and what will stay at home and, step by step, he decides what will be inside each bag, taking in consideration the weight limits imposed by the airline.
It is a long road between the container on the left to the bags “ready to be checked-in” on the right: thank you Marco to be with us!