From today, Skywaves members are able to access the new Skywaves Chat room on Skype. The new room will provide instantaneous DX alerts to all who use it, and that doesn't just include members of the Skywaves Yahoo forums. It's open to non-members worldwide too. There is much to be gained by all users to alert others of impending DX conditions.
Members of the Skywaves Yahoo Groups recently suggested that there should be a chat room, as used to exist several years ago.
There was also a suggestion to open a Skywaves page on Facebook, primarily with a view to providing instant messaging, but also to promote Skywaves and indeed the hobby in general to the DX community. A Facebook group would also provide a much simpler way to share audio and video than that which exists on the current Yahoo Groups. Facebook is not for everybody though. Some people refuse to get involved with Facebook. Personally, I am not a fan myself, in fact I detest the thing, but it does give us a great way to share information and keep in touch with friends. People can to choose who they want to communicate with and who they want to block, should that become necessary. As many people know though, Facebook has a habit of changing how it looks and even altering your personal settings, on quite a regular basis too, so there is a need to keep on top of that. It's the excellent promotional base which Facebook offers, so there is also a lot to be gained from using it. It's completely free to use too.
Skype is another excellent platform which offers instant messaging. Users can share instant DX alerts in several ways too! Either in individual groups or 'globally' to all room users. You can also stream live audio and video to individuals, several chosen users at the same time, or to the entire room, which makes it an even more versatile system. Skype is free to use though may take a little getting used to for some. It's really very easy to use!
The new Chat room has only been operational for 24 hours and we have already seen people from the USA, Turkey and from across the UK and Europe accessing the group. It is also possible to open smaller rooms for people to exchange information on a more localised basis, should a DX opening exist on a much smaller and more localised level which might be irrelevant to users who are along way from the action, but it's clear to see the benefits when we all converge in one global community to share our experiences and friendship.
Just install the latest version of Skype on your computer, mobile phone, etc. and search for "SkywavesDX".
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