Re: [IRCA] 30 years of skywave DXing
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Re: [IRCA] 30 years of skywave DXing



Nice stories about how some folks began DXing!  Thanks!

I did a fair bit of it in the early 60's. Got a number of QSLs. But my first DX was around 1955. As a kid I used to tune my grandmother's 5-tube radio to find programs like Fibber McGee & Molly or Amos & Andy. One night I heard a station say "And it's 7pm.." Our clock said 8pm. I thought he made a mistake but he continued and said "...in Chicago". Chicago?? Well, I knew where the grocery store was, and maybe the next town, but Chicago? I asked later and they said it was many miles away. At that point radio seemed like magic and I continued to tune around with a different attitude.

In the later 50's I used a radio in my room, another 5-tube GE type. Didn't realize that the loop antenna on the back was directional. The local 1110 daytimer had Top-40 music I liked, but WBT in North Carolina would come in a while before sunset and block it. Didn't realize all I had to do was turn the radio a bit and stop nulling the local station...

And somewhat later I pulled a Stewart Warner radio out of a 1953 Studebaker and figured out how to run it off a 6.3v filament transformer. Got all sorts of things on that. Running antenna wires in the room used to drive my mother mildly insane. I also used some thin stainless steel wire for a long wire outside antenna that didn't work at all. If I only had realized stainless steel was quite lossy.

Imagine if Doc Brown in "Back To The Future" had brought me a Drake R8B and loop antenna in 1955. Or brought ME back to 1955. Imagine the DX with today's experience!

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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