--- Begin Message ---
- Subject: Re: PHOOLS IN THE PHIELD
- From: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2016 12:40:06 -0400
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My DXpedition experience goes back to the '60s on family trips to Cape Cod (I was living in Arlington, MA near Boston then). Things were very simple at that time: Lafayette HA-63A table-top receiver with speaker, 100 ft. roll of bell wire to string in the pine trees at the rental cottage, and Realistic TRF portable. Radio Shack was nearby so if I forgot or broke something, it was no big deal.
One of the first DXpeditions requiring a good deal more planning was during the summer of 1974 when I took a road trip that included stops near Atlantic City, NJ and Montauk, LI, NY. The nearly 100 lb. R-390A went along on that one and a Worcester Space Magnet SM-2 ferrite loop was the main antenna. A Panasonic portable cassette recorder and a Realistic portable radio rounded out the equipment complement along with usual accessories such as a logbook (composition notebook), patch cords, blank cassettes, batteries, and a roll of wire just in case there were any outdoor antenna possibilities.
My parents retired and moved to West Yarmouth on the Cape in 1974 and I set up a "house-based DXpedition" set up there that also contained material for operating out of the car at nearby beach sites.
One way I improved the mobile DX environment in the late '70s was by inserting a battery powered homebrew FET regenerative preselector between the car whip antenna and car radio. Sometimes I would have the preselector tweaked up just below oscillation to provide tremendous improvements in sensitivity and selectivity so I could comfortably listen to various TA's squeezed between the domestics. I often enjoyed entertainment grade reception of European and African stations around sunset on homeward commutes from the Boston waterfront (I was working at Teradyne near Boston's South Station).
A memorable DXpedition in 1979 was to a cottage in Narragansett, RI with ace DXer Neil Kazaross. The receiver complement included an R-390A and HQ-180A, the two big-gun radios of the era. Antennas included a large box loop and phased Beverages. Latin Americans were received in abundance.
Portable radios and car radios were about all we had for DXing in the field (non-house settings) until about the early '80s when a number of high-grade communications receivers that could operate on 12 volts DC became available. I got some use out of a Kenwood R600 for a while before graduating to a Drake R8, then an R8A in the '90s. Meanwhile portables were getting better too, with digital readout becoming common. Sony's ICF-6500 and ICF-2010 became part of my DXpedition kit. As the '80s rolled along, I often took mini-DXpedition trips from my home in Billerica, MA (about 15 miles / 25 km inland) out to Granite Pier in Rockport, MA: a one hour drive that made a world of difference in the DX to be heard. Brazilians and deep Africans that were rare at the house were often "inboomingly" loud at the pier DXpedition site. For many years through the '90s the de rigueur set-up was the Drake R8A and a car roof top antenna arrangement with an active whip phased against a broadband loop to produce a cardioid. Once in a great while "Murphy's law" cropped up: something turned out to be missing or broken so the trip turned out to be largely a waste of time and gasoline. Maybe a bit of listening was done on the car radio to salvage the outing, sort-of. Fortunately this kind of thing was exceedingly rare.
November 1991 was my first DXpedition to Cappahayden, Newfoundland. Since this involved air travel and considerable expense, a whole different level of care needed to be exercised. A desire for gear and accessories redundancy was counterbalanced by a need for luggage not to be excessive. Since this also involved travel outside the US, concerns about dealing with customs also got into the act. Fortunately this was pre-9/11 so airports weren't nearly as crazy as they became later.
As the internet era grew in the '90s, a lot of good information from others' DXpedition experiences came to light. After awhile I think that you had fewer cases of missing / broken stuff going out to DX sites or people using the wrong radios and antennas for the intended task.
In the past 10 or so years, DXpeditioning has been thoroughly transformed by ultralights (often in tandem with FSL antennas) and Software Defined Receivers providing spectrum storage for after-the-fact analysis. Terminated loop antennas have often been found to be acceptable substitutes for the space-hungry Beverages of the old days. More science is available on what makes a good site: salt water and/or high altitude, blockage towards "pest" directions, etc. The increasing hostile RF noise environment of home locations has driven more of us outdoors to do our DXing. This ranges from a little listening on the car radio from the wide open middle of a nearby store parking area all the way up to expensive and lengthy journeys involving air and/or ship transportation. In the extreme, hams go off to places such as Heard Island loaded down with transmitters, receivers, and literally tons of antenna and ancillary gear. Absolutely no room for screw ups on something like that.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Shafer <mikegjco@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Nick Hall-Patch <nhp@xxxxxxxx>; Guy Atkins <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Mark4 <Mark4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; irca <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; charlesh3 <charlesh3@xxxxxxx>; bportzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>; neilkaz58 <neilkaz58@xxxxxxxxx>; bw <bw@xxxxxxx>; gregp <gregp@xxxxxxxxx>; contiba <contiba@xxxxxxxxx>; FredB <FredB@xxxxxxxxxx>; MDXC <MDXC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; am <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Mar 25, 2016 1:15 am
Subject: Re: PHOOLS IN THE PHIELD
Sounds like Mark C. has either experienced some of our trials & tribs first hand or is reading our mail. Speaks volumes about the hobby though that we can't wait to get back to the site the next season with visions of unfamiliar call letters in our heads and a new list in hand of theories to prove. Or that we are still just two happy Phools in the Phield having a hell of a good time.
Mike
On Mar 24, 2016 7:20 PM, "Mark Connelly" <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Looks like an ambitious effort Mark.
It will be very worthwhile to see what is learned about the various antennas. Some are bound to work better than some of the others. After the outing it would not surprise me if you whittle down the number of antenna choices for subsequent DXpeditions.
I presume that you will have redundancy built in: two receivers and two laptops minimum. You would not want the whole trip to be blown because the *one* SDR or *one* laptop goes belly-up. Also don't skimp on multiples of other stuff, even humble items such as BNC / PL-259 adaptors and such. But you guys are experienced DXpeditioners so I'm sure you've covered such bases. Every time DXers go out to the shore, mountains, desert, or wherever, new manifestations of "Murphy's Law" can crop up. That inevitably expands the to-do and to-take lists for the next time around. That can be anything from knowing that more set-up / tear-down time is needed or that you can never have enough wire, batteries, clip leads, bug spray, etc.
Sometime you'll have to take this road show to the East Coast. Chances are that the logs from UT will bear little resemblance to anything I get here. Since my antennas tend to null that way, the stuff I hear has more in common with what DXers in Europe, Africa, or the Caribbean would be reporting. Still waiting for someone to tackle DXpeditions to places such as Bermuda, Barbados, Greenland, and Azores. Those would be must-have Perseus files for me no matter how many hard drives I'd have to buy.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Durenberger <Mark4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Neil Kazaross <neilkaz58@xxxxxxxxx>; Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>; DX @NRC <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>; DX-IRCA <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; MNDXC <MDXC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Shafer Mike <mikegjco@xxxxxxxxx>; Baumgartner Fred <FredB@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: contiba <contiba@xxxxxxxxx>; nhp <nhp@xxxxxxxx>; Bruce Portzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>; Charles Hutton <charlesh3@xxxxxxx>; Bill Whitacre <bw@xxxxxxx>; Guy Atkins <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Putrich Greg <gregp@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Mar 24, 2016 12:05 pm
Subject: PHOOLS IN THE PHIELD
Hereâs the not-awaited pre-report of our thinking about a 2016 Utah desert DXPedition.
http://www.durenberger.com/documents/PRESBT2016.pdf
Sass back as appropriate.
Cheers!
Mark Durenberger
There's SO much I don't want to know!
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