Dahsboard DX

[317C50KW]

Some decent dashboard DX last evening around 6:20 PM CST on the east side of Dallas....CKLW-800 managing to stay above the Spanish language jumble for a good 15 minutes. Hearing English on 800 got my attention. The weather with temperatures in Celsius was even better, then a tag on a promo, AM 800, CKLW. I heard it on the radio in my Ford Escape.

I've never heard them here, even 25 years ago when I was a very active DXer.

FWIW my best Canadian here was CKWX-1130 probably about a decade ago.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Did some of my best dashboard DX in Central Florida, which is a rich field for FM DX. After ocean front storm events - late in the evening, the state comes alive with FM DX. You can literally hear something on every single frequency on a good night. AM in Central Florida is amazing at night, all the big East Coast stuff comes in. Of course, it is the perfect location for TA DX from Africa and Europe.

I did some DX one day after driving the Pike's Peak road. Rather disappointing after much better DX in the Rocky Mountains, where I easily got 300 and 400 mile stuff a year earlier. From the top of Pikes Peak about the best I could do was Casper.

I did some DX from California - locations in LA and SF. Pretty amazing what you can get from there, a lot of familiar stations from Texas, Colorado, Salt Lake - surprising other catches from the Midwest with a bit of nulling on a portable. But that is not dashboard. You get way out in the boonies on the way out to California, you soon find some really quiet areas with almost nothing on AM or FM. Even low grade skip brings stuff from hundreds of miles in those quiet environments - like the HD sidebands of Chicago stations on a really ordinary Delco. Or Lubbock, TX FM all the way into Albuquerque.

 

[nocomradio]

Along the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia there can be some excellent dashboard DX'ing as well. Sitting at those overlooks, some as high as 2000'-3000' above sea level gives a nice unobstructed path for a long ways to the horizon. Its best on the Eastern side because much of the Western side faces the Shenandoah Valley. I've picked up the Eastern Shore of VA there which is probably 300 miles or better way and that on an average night. I can't imagine what a really good opening might bring.

 

[boombox]

This talk of "dashboard DX" reminds me of one of my more memorable AM listening experiences. I was on a vacation with a now ex-GF, and we spent the night at Grand Isle, Louisiana.

I had my trusty GE boombox on the dash, and was hearing Cuban stations (Reloj and a few others), stations from all over the Eastern U.S., and R. Vision Cristiana from Turks and Caicos on 520 (?). It probably wouldn't have been terrific DX to a local from that area, but it was amazing to hear for someone visiting from the PNW US.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a logbook with me. The combination of sea paths, and the superior ground conductivity in that part of the U.S. makes AM DX pretty remarkable.

 

[crainbebo]

RVC was 530 khz. It's now off now.

530 there would likely be Radio Enciclopedia in Cuba, now. A Radio Rebelde xmitter has also signed on, sometimes causing interference to Enciclopedia.

-crainbebo

 

[jd]

A Radio Rebelde xmitter has also signed on, sometimes causing interference to .

Here in East Texas Rebelde has been overriding Enciclopedia, sometimes wiping it out completely.