Re: [IRCA] 30 years of skywave DXing

[John Sampson <jnsampson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fascinating thread and I have to add my 2¢ worth.  My DXing started while at summer camp in Minoqua, Wisconsin, in 1951.  We lived in Des Moines at that time, I was quite a baseball fan and our local minor league club was a farm team of the Chicago Cubs.  I had a Silvertone portable at camp and one of my cabin mates was from Chicago and also a Cubs fan.  He suggested we try to get the Cubs broadcasts over WIND.  We were quite successful at night.  There wasn't much to hear there during the day, all I remember is WLIN, Merrill, WLBL, Auberndale and WOBT, Rhinelander.

 When I returned to Des Moines, I decided to see what I could hear and found that I could hear stations from all over the midwest and south.  The Silvertone radio had an interesting IF (for instance, one of my early loggings was WIRE, 1430, Indianapolis, which I heard on 520 kcs., also, local KSO dominated 550 kcs on that receiver) so I was finally able to graduate to a Stewart-Warner table model, which was an excellent DX radio.  In 1953, just before moving to Omaha, I was given a Hallicrafters S-53A for Christmas.  I can still remember hearing KULA from Honolulu on it one morning about 7 AM before going to school.  I heard some 1200 stations from Des Moines and also started verifying about the time we moved (have a grand total of eight from Des Moines).  

After moving to Omaha in early 1954 the DXing continued.  One of my first veries there was from KCNI, Broken Bow; the signer was one of officers in the NNRC and he suggested I join them, which I did.  Around 1955, Marv Robbins moved to Omaha, contacted me and I now had a good DXing buddy.  Marv also introduced me to the NRC, which, after seeing his bulletins, I immediately joined and been in the club ever since.  (When the IRCA formed in the mid-1960s, I also joined it.  I've also been a member since that time except, perhaps, for a brief hiatus when I forgot to renew membership).  The Omaha DXing was, of course, curtailed in the winters by College but I still managed to verify over 900 stations while living there.  

After graduation from College in 1960 we moved around the country for the next twenty years, so I was able to DX from both coasts, the southeast and, finally, again, the mid-west.  One of my favorite memories was taking the early morning feeding time for our children when they were babies in the '60s and then staying up for a while after they went back to sleep to enjoy DXing.

I did make it to Ernie Cooper's for one of his Thanksgiving get-togethers, I think it was while I was in school in Cambridge, Mass, in the late 50s.  I also hosted a couple of get-togethers while living in Freehold in the early '60s and had a great time entertaining a number of well known DXers.  

The primary DX spot is now Grand Rapids in Northern Minnesota, we're generally there from May thru November.  The rest of the year, we're in the Phoenix metro area, unfortunately, during the prime DX season, as this is probably the worst DX location I've had .  I still verify occasionally and have some 3600 to date.  Enough for now. - John S.





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