[IRCA] DX Tests Committee – Inaugural 2010 Report

[Chernos Saul <sauldx@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD TO APPROPRIATE PLACES...

 

 

DX Tests Committee – Inaugural 2010 Report

 

Welcome to what we hope will be a semi-regular feature.

 

We have undertaken to revive the DX tests Committee, a joint venture of IRCA and NRC, with a view to encouraging stations to run special tests or to let us know in advance when they will be working on their facilities.

 

It seems, lately, that DX tests have gone the way of the QSL. Tests used to be a relatively common, yet fewer and fewer stations are participating. We used to enjoy several one or two tests a month, at their peak. Now we’re lucky to get one or two a year.

 

We’d like to see more activity. Tests are an opportunity to log new stations – daytimers running at night, or a 24-hour station running daytime power and pattern during the witching hour.

 

More tests will also complement other efforts to revive and maintain interest in DX at a time when conventional radio’s days seem numbered. Witness all the effort to promote ultralight radios, $50 marvels that, even without modifications, have tremendous nulling capabilities and can pick up stations thousands of miles away.

 

Tests generally run between 0000 and 0600 local time, when broadcast regulators allow testing and other related activity to take place. We don’t recommend abusing this privilege – for example, running on day power and pattern on multiple, consecutive nights. Once a year, or whenever a station needs to tweak its technical facilities, is more than sufficient.

 

Content can vary, but tests intended for DX reception generally include morse code IDs, sound effects such as sweep tones, and an eclectic mix of music – say high-school marching bands or the wild sounds of the klezmer. In other words, material that helps the station stand out from others on the same frequency. Morse code and sweep tones are particularly effective at cutting through a crowded channel. Even graveyarders – local stations on frequencies such as 1230 and 1400 – have been heard at great distances.

 

Stations should run DX tests using their daytime transmitter pattern and power. Otherwise, they’re really doing nothing much out of the ordinary.

 

DX tests don’t magically appear. They happen through the concerted effort of volunteers like you who contact the stations and ask. If you know an engineer, program director or owner at a particular station, why not ask! Perhaps you are the engineer, PD or owner. If you receive a particularly friendly QSL, send a thank-you and a friendly, polite pitch for a test.

 

The worst that can happen is you’ll be turned down. Really, that’s no big deal – just move on and ask another station. Somebody, somewhere will eventually say Yes! if you persist in your efforts and make a conscious effort to be friendly and approachable.

 

When a station agrees to test, let us know so we can notify DXers around the world. Contact us at the address above. If you’re not sure how to make your query, or if your station contact isn’t familiar with running a DX test, we’re here to help. We can provide you with a generic sample letter, which you can adapt to suit your target station. We can even provide sound effects and ‘weird’ music.

 

We might add that if you hear in advance of a station planning to go off the air to do transmitter work, please let us know immediately. A station briefly vacating a channel also represents an opportunity to hear stations that would normally be obscured. Furthermore, consider asking the station to run some morse code, sweep tones, or other DX test material for a few minutes when they’re doing their work or returning to the air.

 

Please keep in mind that the more advance notice you can provide, the better able we are to pass the word along through DX club paper bulletins and over the DX Audio Service. Unfortunately, not every DXer has internet access (those of you who do not have computers might consider setting up a Hotmail or Yahoo account and using a computer at your local library – you’ll get lots of good DX tips by subscribing to the many alert and discussion lists out there).

 

Here’s a New Year’s challenge: If each of you reading this contacts one station – well, can you imagine? That would be a season to remember!

 

To help, this column will appear periodically in the paper bulletins of both clubs, and also online where appropriate (feel free to circulate).

 

You are welcome to e-mail any feedback and suggestions to the committee at dxtests@xxxxxxxx or to log onto dxtests.info@xxxxxxxxx to see what tests have been scheduled.

 

73s,

 

Saul Chernos

 

for the DX Tests Committee

 

E-mail: dxtests at bell.net

 
 		 	   		  
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