Same memories here, except I wasn't smart enough to remember to go to bed early so that I could get up early. Monday's were not good days at school, as the desktops made the forehead cold when trying to sleep. Most stations went off the air at midnight or so, and I would set my alarm for 10 minutes before TOH so I could me and the radio woken up for some DXing. Then you pray for SSB on clears or good regionals. I was browsing around and found a picture of my old Philco. I tried putting it in as an attachment, but it bounced back at me. So instead, here's a link. This particular one is not mine, but the condition is identical. The picture is courtesy of Lyndell Scott, and appeared on:
Thinking of the good old days of DXing made me a bit nostalgic, so I thought I would look for a picture of my radio instead of looking at an old paystub, or driver's license picture when I had hair!
Mike Hawkins
Bob Foxworth <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pat,
>
> You remind me of my (much) younger days as a teen in Iowa in the early
50s. I'd get out of bed and go down to my dx den in the basement.
> good pipeline into the southeast from Virginia down thru northern
Florida. Not as much to the northeast. Good ole days, they were
indeed.
>
> don k.
Similar for me, in my high school days, end of the 50's, a lot
of daytimers could sign on at 4 AM local time, and from NJ
I remember
lots of GA-AL and similar, Sunday mornings were
good as there were less stations who would come on that
early on a Sunday and the interference was less. I used to
frequently hear WDEC 1290 in Americus GA, WERH 970
Hamilton AL.etc. I used to stay up all night on weekend
mornings, but fortunately had a heated attic bedroom.
DXing with a big floor model 1939 Philco that had a 4-band slide
rule dial, a big glass window for the dial, maybe 4 x 10 inches,
and rotary knobs for vol-tone-bandswitch etc. I had a short LW
antenna, headphones and tapped off the grid cap of what I
think was a tall-envelope 6SQ7 to get audio for the Webcor
tape recorder my dad had bought for "the family" (ha) and
was big as a suitcase, and cost a fortune, I think it was $250
and that was some piece of change then, when a brand
new Buick car was about $2,000. The dial on the Philco
was marked every 10 kc/s, I think it was reasonably accurate
too.
I used to
try and get to bed by 10p Sunday night and DX on
Mondays from 0130 to maybe 0400 or later. I also used
to sometimes work sunset skip on 1570 and 1580 for 2
hours a night, on a good night I could hear out to Colorado
(KPIK) and NM (KHAM Albuquerque). It's a wonder that
I made it out of high school.
Yes they were the good days, compared to now.
- Bob
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