• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

What year did you start MW & FM DX'ing?

musicman3355 said:
It seems you could get KFI throughout almost all of California. I'm pretty sure you can get KNX in the day as well.

I noticed in Las Vegas I could get a weak signal of KFI 640 and even KNX 1070, despite the local on 1060. I was also able to get other California stations in LV, such as KOGO 600, KAVL 610 and KFMB 760.

I've picked up KNBR, KCBS, and KGO in Laguna Beach at 1PM in February. This was on a hill near the ocean so I'm sure the saltwater path helped.
 
I think it was in 1991, when I was 10, that I got bit by the MWDX bug.

I had gotten a bicycle for my birthday, and it came with a free sports radio. (BTW I was, and still am, about a couple miles or so south of El Cajon, CA.) It wasn't all that hot in performance, and even then I could tell there was a lot to be desired. Sensitivity was poor - KNX and KFI were barely readable, for example... and to make matters worse, selectivity was no better, allowing 5kW signals on 910 (9mi) and 860 (in Tijuana) to bleed over each other.

In spite of its poor performance, I was listening under the covers one night, and noticed an extremely faint station sandwiched between 860 XEMO and 910 KECR. It was too faint to ID, but I could hear voices.
I noticed the next day that I couldn't so much as find a trace of it, so that evening I asked my dad (who's an RF engineer) about it, and he explained skip to me, how the ionosphere reflects signals at night but not in the daytime. (Of course I know now that skip can happen during the day, especially in winter - KFBK can often be heard at noon, for example.) We listened on a car radio (due to the poor sensitivity of the pocket freebie) and identified the station as 890 KDXU St. George, UT.
Within a few years after that I got a Zenith Royal 705 with a tuned RF front end, free from a friend. I still have it, but I think it needs alignment, as I have other smaller radios that beat it on selectivity. On my 13th birthday, I got a Panasonic RQ-SW10, which lasted several years (after replacing the first one within a couple weeks cause the AM section died), and I have since had a couple others of that model, as well as the '20, at least 2 of which I still have, one being currently operational.
I also had at least one, if not two Sony SRF-42 AM Stereo radios, and enjoyed listening to Radio Disney 1110 KDIS before they switched to IBOC. The Panasonics couldn't hear 1110, as 1130 KSDO was splattering loudly on 1110, and could even be heard on 1100.
Somewhere in there, a few years ago, I got a Select-A-Tenna, which helped quite a bit.
About a year ago I got a Tecsun PL-380, and have been using it quite a bit. I'm a bit disappointed that it is quite prone to desense?blocking, though. Although it has the best IF selectivity of any radio I've had, the front end leaves a lot to be desired. My Panasonic, with its wide filter, does a much better job hearing DX 100+ kHz off a strong local than the Tecsun.
Sometime in September, IIRC, I heard my first ever trans-pacific station on the PL-380, aided by the SAT. It was 774 JOUB Akita, Japan, and the SAT did a good job of keeping the blocking/desense from 50kW-@-7-mi 760 KFMB to a minimum. I have since tagged 3 more - 657 Pyongyang on the same day, and later 594 JOAK (dug this out from between 600 KOGO 8 miles west and its IBOC) and 972 HLCA.
I also got a Sony SRF-59 a couple months ago, and it actually does quite well for its size and price. It gets the best signal on 1110 KDIS (yes, I'm a Radio Disney fan), even though it was only about $20.
I recently ordered a Tecsun Pl-606, and I hope I get it before the holidays so I can check it out. :)
 
Around 1993. My Grampa used to work at the V-A hospital on the west side of town (he'd been there since he got out of the Army in the mid-70s) and acquired a Realistic DX-360 and a pocket cassette recorder from a patient who had (at the time) recently died there. Gramps gave the radio and tape recorder to me for my birthday that year.

That was my first real shortwave receiver, and I used it up until it croaked about eight years ago, when I replaced it with my current Yacht Boy 400PE.

And now recently I've been finding myself over on Universal Radio eyeballing a certain sexy little number calling herself "Icom RX7". Mrrawwwrrr... ;o)
 
As soon as I was old enough to be allowed to turn the dials, so maybe 1965 at age 4.
I immediately liked the sound of distant but strong signals and was hooked as soon as I learned they were hundreds of miles away. Got my first 6 transistor radio at Christmas 1965, and wore it out by 1968 when I got a 12 transistor Ross AM/FM.
I enjoyed the local FMs but never tried dxing until the mid 70's on a JC Penney AM/FM console that was really amazing on FM.
My first shortwave was also a Ross, 16 transistor with 150-400, .520 -1.6, two shortwave bands up to 24 mhz or so, and FM.
Worked but no SSB, not too dang selective, either. It was Ok for international SW broadcast.
The cheapie Hallicrafters or Radio Shack "starter" models would have been better, but at least this was portable.
It was the poor man's 1970 version of the Zenith Transoceanic.
 
In 1963 I noticed my trusty Admiral 5 tube table radio could pull in all kinds DX from Buffalo I could hear WABC, WBZ, WBT, WSM, CKLW and others. Later we moved to Florida and when I was homesick I used to listen to WKBW at night while cursing WCKY and WLAC which are on each side of 1520.

Shortwave radios were too expensive for me at the time so it took me awhile before I got one of my own. I still have my first Sony portable and it works fine. Around the time I bought it I was doing a lot of traveling for work. It fit great in my briefcase.

The old car radios were good when it came to DXing too.
 
It was in the mid-1950's when I started to see what stations I could pick up. One that I recall vividly during the day was KYW (now WTAM) at 1100 k.c. from Cleveland. There was some static, but you could hear it. Another in what would have been in the very late afternoon or early evening was KWKH iin Shreveport, La. I also recall listening to the Ezzard Charles-Rocky Marciana heavyweight title fight in June, 1954 with my father from a station in Toronto, Canada (it may have been CFRB - 1010 k.c.). This is somewhat interesting because Charles was from Cincinnati and I'm sure the fight was available on a local station via a network feed, I assume we just dialed around until we picked it up.

These "catches" basically came on a small table model AM Silvertone radio made by Sears & Roebuck that my parents bought it in the early 195o's. I still recall when I was about six years old or so dialing it down around 1600 and questioning my father why there weren't any stations that could be heard there at that end of the AM band. he quickly explained there were't any around here at that frequency. Now that I think about it, I may have also gotten the Cleveland station during the day as well on an AM GE clock radio that I got for Christmas in 1955.

In terms of FM, I got my first in January, 1961. It was a Silvertone table model made by Sears. With FM being new to me, the first stations I heard were local ones. I just connected a short wire to the terminal in the back for an antenna. Later, I connected an old TV rabbit ears to it which proved to be much better. The first "long distance" pick up that I had was getting the audio of channel six (then WTVN-TV) from Columbus, Ohio. That came in right at 88 m.c. Later on, I connected copper wire to the antenna, ran that wire up into the attic and received WKEE from Huntington, West Virginia. This was at 100.5 m.c. on FM although the station promotions referred to it as being at 800 k.c. on AM. I quickly understood this was just a simualcast using both the AM & FM outlets although leaning heavily on the AM identity.
 
musicman3355 said:
It seems you could get KFI throughout almost all of California. I'm pretty sure you can get KNX in the day as well.

I noticed in Las Vegas I could get a weak signal of KFI 640 and even KNX 1070, despite the local on 1060. I was also able to get other California stations in LV, such as KOGO 600, KAVL 610 and KFMB 760.

KMJ is really the one that hits most of California all day, It booms all the way to Santa Rosa here in the Bay Area
 
The first inklings started with me and my dad, as we listened to SW broadcasts (from RNWO) on the family Panasonic. I bought my first SW, a Sony (still have manual somewhere), while posted in Egypt during UN peacekeeping duties, in 1978. My first scribbles of SW, MW & FM catches were made on that radio, during my 2 tours there. I regularly tuned into to FM stations from Egypt, Israel & Cyprus (from my location in Ismailia http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=30.589...30.589141,32.252984&spn=0.009771,0.01384&z=16 ) BFBS Cyprus & BBC WS quickly became favourites.

SW remained a favourite, until the end of the Cold War, when many broadcasters dropped their overseas services. Catching the domestic SW services were a bonus, such as tuning in and snagging morning traffic reports from South Africa. For FM & MW DX I used my Pioneer amp, with which I made semi-regular catches of Windsor ON's 89X, at a distance of 700km (about 450 miles). When my old Sony died, in about '89, I invested into my current Realistic DX-440. The 440 I used mainly for SW and though I brought it with me when I moved to Europe, it saw limited service there, due to technical glitches.

Today, with the available resources on the internet, DXing is at its most enjoyable for me. This forum I've found to be very helpful and it's great to have a place where one can actually share with others, the excitement of our small (and to many, unusual) hobby. Conditions have been good, I'm happy with my DX-440 (which is finally being allowed to do its thing!) and I've made some excellent catches...all the while working at my computer or drawing desk.

Happy hunting!

~BG
 
I know there are several under 30 and even teen posters on here, and the options available for your "off" time are much greater than when I was (much) younger.

What got you interested? Why do you continue?
 
my story is similiar to many here: PHILCO portable...Summer 1960...(age 7)
screened back porch in Louisville. first catch was WLAC Nashville...quickly discovered
all the Chicago clears (WLS/WBBM/WMAQ/WCFL/WGN)...back then the clears boomed
in like locals...KMOX/WHO/WWL/WHAM/WLW/KDKA/WCAU/WOWO/WSB/WCBS/WABC...lots more.

didn't start with FM until 1965...Magnavox console stereo with a pair of rabbit ears pulled in
some of the Indy and Cincinnati 50kw's.
 
My DX experience started around 2004 or 2005. Some of the first stations I got were 1510 KGA Spokane, 1520 KZNY Portland (now KGDD, Mexican), 1530 KFBK Sacramento, 1560 KNZR Bakersfield, CA and 1580 KGAL Lebanon, OR. Didn't really know why I liked these channels, lol! 2007 became my turning point for both AM and FM. AM: I got 1500 KSTP Minneapolis, MN one night, and it was my farthest at 1400 miles. FM: On July 29, 2007 (you must remember that E-skip opening) I got a country countdown show on 102.1, fighting with a weak signal of Aberdeen, WA. I thought, what the heck? I later IDed it as KTRA Farmington, NM, my first Es catch. Now, my farthest on FM is 1367 miles (Es), some 250 mi for Tropo, and for AM my farthest is two Tokyo NHK trans-pacific stations art 4780 miles.

-crainbebo
 
I started my journey into AM, from Richmond, VA, in 1976 when I tuned into TWR 800 KHz using a Pioneer stereo receiver, I had been DX'ing SW prior to that. Now MW has taken a back seat as the band is loaded w/ syndicated pgms and all Spanish- all the time here in central-west FL. I now devote my time to FM, since 2003 ... and most FM DX occurs during the day/early evening so no need for those late night DX excursions!
I have veried a little over 1000 stations on the AM band, about 300 SW stations, 200+ SW pirates and am currently at 597 FM veries. I also got my ham ticket in 2009.

Greg Myers
Holiday, FL
 
A quick FM skip story. On the road about 130 miles east of St. Louis I decided to turn on the FM radio to see if I could pick up any St Louis stations. Not a one, but I did hear a bunch of stations from Dallas, Texas! Gotta love FM skip!
 
1974, when I discovered that the Pittsburgh Steelers Helmet-shaped novelty AM radio
I had been given for Christmas would pick up Kentucky Colonels Basketball on WHAS
after sundown.
 
I never had a good radio but in Central Conn, I enjoyed the music stations like 77 ABC, 89 WLS, 1520 WKBW amongst others and later out of market baseball and BB games At 12, i visited my aunt and uncle in Naugatuck Ct. My uncle liked the St. Louis Cards baseball team and showed me his radio. He got a clear 1120 St. L from 1000 mi away despite a semi local on 1130 NYC. But he was simply a baseball fan.
This was in the early 60's. A friend, who subsequently died in the Vietnam War, dx's KFI 640, aDallas-Ft Worth on 820 and WOAI 1200 from Central Conn. at age 13. He said that the challenge was the long distance 5 and 1 kw stations. He was really into it.
I still ike to play with the radio doing bandscans but never bought an expensive radio for Dx ing Most of my good catches have been on a Bose Wave with reception of 2000 mi + on 3-4 occassions. I got KFI from the IN-OH line several years ago on a 1 try basis so the old Bose ain't that bad!
Started with FM with a combo AM FM 8 track in my VW bus in the early 70's. Too much sexing and not enough dxing although I enjoyed listing to out of market album rock stations when parked with a cutie on a hilltop. I remember being out in the midwest-Kansas-Nebraska and was surprised how far the FM's and particularly the AM's travel out there. Never understood why until I started on the boards.
So it's been a fun pastiime..
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. vibe
 
For me, it would have to start in the summer of 1999. I was seven years old, and I had been interested in radio for a few years before that. I was given a Sony Walkman (one of those old-style ones with the big earpieces and the antenna), and I didn't know what to do with it.

I listened to the local stations, but I soon realized that there were other stations beside them. The first DX catch I remember was picking up WKQL 96.9 from Jacksonville playing their morning show over the local WSUY. I soon realized that I could listen to out of town baseball games, and the first voices I remember hearing were Harry Kalas and Jack Buck.

For Christmas in 2000, I got a Radio Shack DX-399, with the Passport of World Band Radio, and soon, my DXing hobby grew. I had that radio for 5 years before it conked out. Then, I got a Grundig S-350 in '05, and that lasted until a month or so ago, when I accidentally dropped it, so I then got a Grundig S350DL.
 
For me, Summer of 1961. Junior High School. I discovered my grandparents' 1937-vintage Zenith 4-band console.

http://www.oldradiozone.com/Z_12U159.html

I took a 25' length of antenna wire and hooked it up to a large piece of metal window screen material and hooked it up to the antenna terminal. I was off and running....AM/SW and ham bands.
 
Just happened across this thread, not being on the computer much these days. Radioman148, I started in 1951 or '52 with a 4-tube table model Arvin radio, which a hometown radio/TV repairman had fixed for earphones; those were a pair of aviation type, donated by my pilot nextdoor neighbor. Had some decent catches/QSLs with that, but after a chance hook-up with National Radio Club member C. C. Smith from Jacksonville FL I took his advice, collected and sold a bleep-load of pop bottles, and bought myself a Zenith Trans-Oceanic. Between highschool load and a fulltime airshift at my hometown station, had to give up the DXing in 1955, by which time I had over 850 verifications. Now live in a rural, lakeside area and occasionally flip my car radio to the AM band, just to see what it would be like to be a DXer these days.
 
FM: I was 9 or 10 years old. I remember messing with the then new-fangled DIGITAL stereo in my parents car. It was always country on 98.5 (you could see their tower from my childhood house) or pop and rock on 103.3. I knew there had to be other stations out there, so I tuned around on the radio and made it down to 97.3 which turned out being WMEE from Fort Wayne, IN. At that age, I thought Fort Wayne was a thousand miles away. I now know the real distance (not even 60 miles) and that hearing them is no big deal here.

Later that year, my parents happened upon an old Zenith AM/FM radio at a yard sale and bought it for my brother and I. We shared a second story bedroom with a window approximately 20-25 feet up. We would tune around for more stations and quickly shattered our distance record by hearing WHYT (96.3) from Detroit, about 100 miles away. As we went through radios and learned more about DX'ing, the distances kept getting greater and the stations kept mounting up!

I revisited FM DX through the years. My next brush with the hobby was when I was 16-17 years old. I DX'ed ONLY on car stereo and never logged anything. These are to date my two biggest regrets with my DX hobby. I wish I had taken it more seriously, spent $$$ on equipment and logged my catches back in the 90's. In 2002, I finally decided to start logging my FM catches and also started scrapping around for equipment. 8 years later, i've logged almost 1,600 stations. My best log being HIGM (88.1) from Santiago, DR via double-hop Es @ approx 1,765 miles.

AM: Started this around 15. Never logged anything but heard KOA and WOAI then quickly lost interest when I didn't think I could top San Antonio. Gained interest again at 23 and started logging AM in 2005. I've logged 811 stations including KFI and KNX just in the last year. (Note to Midwesterners: It can still be done!!) KNX is my distance record on AM right now at 1,890 miles. I don't have the sophisticated equipment needed to log TA's though.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom