Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] 30 years of skywave DXing

[GEORGE SANTULLI <gsantull@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay..looks like we all stumbled into AM dxing..here is mine!
 
It is March in suburban New Jersey and this 8 year old kid is home sick with the flu or some such thing. Mom went out to get some meds and I am home alone...it was a long time ago when kids could be home for a bit...unsupervised!
 
My trusty RCA 6 transistor radio batteries are shot, so I go downstairs to snatch the kitchen radio, an antique Emerson, tan bakelite finish...AM only of course, long spindly wire hanging out of the rear.
 
On the way upstairs...I must have bumped the dial, because when I plugged it in, WABC 77 from New York was not there...where was it? What did I do? I had no idea ( I was 8!!) about channels or frequency etc. All I knew is we turned the big brown dial on and the radio glowed to life in a minute or so and WABC's Herb Oscar Anderson, the Morning Mayor came on...ah the smell of warming bakelite in the morning...!
 
Anyway, I twisted the dial all over the place but could not find WABC, the plastic face of the dial was broken, so even if I knew what 770kc was, I could not see it. There was a hole where about 600-1200kc was. I did not find WABC, but I did find a station in Philly, Boston, Hartford etc.....very odd...I thought I broke it!
 
Dad comes home and checks on sonny boy...and I relate the story of the radio...and his response was something that changed my life forever...something like, "yes son, the radio would get other cities if their stations were strong enough". This "B" average student figured if you lived near NYC, that you only get NYC stations...wrong-a-mundo!! That was only the starting point!! The world was waiting!
 
Hootchie mama...if that was used in those pre-Seinfeld days is what I would have said!!
 
I re-batteried my RCA Transistor baby and took off searching the dials...and heard new strange call letters, not only did I learn NYC had other stations, like WCBS, WABC, WHN and WINS...but out of towners, like WBZ, WTIC, KYW...and....and..WKBW from Buffalo, New York!!! That was it for this 8 year old...I had discovered something no one else knew about...my magic radio was now really a magic carpet that allowed me to listen to ball games from far off KMOX in St. Louis, WBAL in Baltimore, and when the wind was right, from Chicago!! I also discovered that if I held that spindly wire coming out of the back of the radio...the weak signal got stronger! And if I attached sister's Slinky to it...wow...good thing I was not electrocuted!
 
Imagine my displeasure of sorts, when I found in the Sunday Newark Star Ledger, a column devoted to "DXing", which I learned was what I was doing. Others were in on my secret, but I also learned what I was... I was a "DXer"! At 8, you have no titles, or caste system nicknames...so DXer was special... The Newark News article spoke of the NNRC, the Newark News Radio Club...I write to them and in a matter of days...comes my sample copy of one of the recent publications...OMG...there are others like me out there...and these guys really pull in stations!
 
Talking about this to my friends went nowhere...they did not understand what I was telling them..."hey guys...we can hear Harrisburg, PA on our transistor radios"!! ZZZZZZZZ was probably the retort, or why would we want to??...only my cousin who lived nearby found it interesting too!
 
Needlesss to say, that cold, windy March day in the NJ suburbs changed my life! All future vacations, no matter where the family went, I was dropped off at WXXX in some far away place...in those golden days, CE's at the stations loved the inane questions an 8, 9, 10 year old could fashion...and they let me read weather reports, commercials and even introduce songs!!!
 
It crafted my future career in broadcasting, and later TV, which is where I am today. And it all started from that 20 foot climb up those steps in my house dragging the aged Emerson radio with me!

George Santulli
Lovettsville, VA 
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:01:32 -0700
> From: stephen_ponder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: am@xxxxxxxxxxx; irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; abdx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] 30 years of skywave DXing
> 
> Rick,
> 
> Thanks for bringing back those great memories of the "glory days" of DX'ing the 
> AM band!
> 
> I had a similar experience with a clock radio picking up "exotic" DX. It was 
> mid-October in 1975 and I was in my first full semester of seminary in Fort 
> Worth, TX. Having moved there from Shreveport, LA, I wasn't yet familiar with 
> all of the radio stations in that part of Texas. I thought I had my Zenith 
> clock radio set so that when I woke up from my nap, I could listen to WFAA-570.
> 
> Well, when the alarm sounded and the radio came on, it wasn't WFAA. I listened 
> on and heard the "KFI 640" station ID. Talk about surprised! I was listening 
> to KFI Los Angeles on my little Zenith clock radio - and the signal was as clear 
> as a bell!!
> 
> I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil, wrote down some log details, and sent a 
> reception report. I received a KFI QSL card about a month later, signed by 
> Bernie Koval, the Chief Engineer. I still have the QSL card in my files.
> 
> That reception would probably never happen today ... sigh!
> 
> Thanks & 73,
> 
> 
> Stephen H. Ponder, N5WBI
> Houston, Texas, USA - EL29kn
> E-Mail: stephen_ponder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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