[IRCA] IN THE BEGINNING...

[Pete Taylor <ptdx@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't remember which came first - my coming across a White's Radio Log at age 7 or hearing those "distant" NYC stations from CT. I do remember wondering why WMCA with only 570 of something was louder than WWRL which had 1600 of something!

My first DX "machine" was a heavy Motorola portable, the model number of which escapes me. This was when we lived in Miami. I strung a 250' antenna across the vacant lot next door. I have no idea what direction it favored but do know California and Arizona came in. The next radio was a Hallicrafters; I had this at prep school in Chattanooga and remember getting two Hawaiians on the same morning. I was missing stations in ID, MT and WY so wrote a dozen of them asking when their next frequency check was. KOOK-970 told me and also referred me to the NRC, providing me with my first indication that there were "others out there" with the same hobby. At Duke, a friend of mine who was an engineer had a Hammarlund and let me borrow it. My more agile roommate strung up some wires among the spires at Duke and this gave me my first taste of foreign DX (2WL-1430, NZ, and many Europeans). After graduation, I enjoyed the absolute best of both worlds: I was the all night rock jock on WQAM-5!
 60 six nights a week and had Monday mornings off to DX at a time when other stations still signed off and had frequency checks. Heaven on earth! (WQAM never went off but it would have been fun to tap the tower). 

Surely the highlight of all this had to be the little round-the-world trip my wife, Sony ICF 6700W, loop antenna and I took in 1979. In Cape Town, there was one local, and I had no idea what to expect. When VOA-1260 Rhodes came in at semilocal level with Chuck Mangione and then an ID, it blew me away - and set the tone for an evening of DX from Brazil, US, Canada, England, and as much else as I could inhale - but nothing from the NE or E. Interesting; must have been blocked by Table Mountain. I almost lost the Sony to customs people in Cairo, whereas in China, they just asked me to take out the batteries. No one cared about the loop back then...

Some day when property size allows for beverages, when I don't have 1240-1600 pretty well wiped out due to locals and when the noise level drops to a tolerable level, I hope to get a Perseus or something of that ilk and get back at it a little more actively. Meanwhile, I still have some pretty good equipment (below) and do fire it up from time to time. Thanks everybody for keeping the DX lists alive and well.

Pete Taylor
Tacoma, WA
12225w 4719n
HQ180 & ICF2010
Kiwa aircore & Palomar loops
DX398, SRF-59 & M37V
Eton E100 + Tecsun PL-300/380






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