Been watching this thread but with the rush at the end of Tax season
this is the first chance I've had to sit down at home longer than it
takes to inhale my breakfast. At 51 there aren't too many online groups
that make me feel like a young pup....
The DX bug bit me when I was about 9.
My father had gotten me a Zenith portable for my birthday, he was a
Zenith factory rep at the time. I used it to listen to the local top 40
station mostly but one night I was turning the dial I heard a weak
signal and listened to it for a while. I was quite surprised that the
station was in far off and exotic Omaha. The very same WOW if I recall.
Ford dealership commercial/jingle is all I remember clearly. My bedroom
was in the basement but when I took the radio into the back yard I found
stations in San Francisco and Denver the same night.
I was hooked.
The CE of one of the local TV/radio stations was a neighbor at the time
and when I told him about it he told me it was probably E layer skip and
that shortwave stations could be heard from around the world and loaned
me a Transoceanic that opened up a new world for me. Not only could I
hear Moscow, London and Cuba easily but the MW reception brought in more
stations than I knew existed. Never occurred to me to keep a log.
My main focus for DX over the next 42 years has been HF with MW mixed in
and I'm getting back into it seriously again. I've used everything from
crude crystal rigs to to Lab-grade WJ and Racal receivers in places as
varied as dense urban to out in the Sonoran desert 30 miles from the
nearest power-line or other humans.
I'll never forget the first DX with that Pepto-Bismol pink radio with
the Zenith badge.
Tim Hills
Sioux Falls, SD
On 4/13/2011 7:24, Rick Dau wrote:
April 13, 1981. 4:30 a.m.
In my 2nd-story bedroom in my parents' farmhouse in the middle of Pottawattamie
County, Iowa, I'm already up, as usual, listening to the conclusion of WOW-590's
nightly broadcast of the Larry King Show. And, as usual, WOW heads right into
its mix of Top 40 and AdCon music immediately afterwards. The first song is one
that I don't particularly care for, so I tune up the dial until I find a station
that is playing a song that I really like at the time, Roseanne Cash's "Seven
Year Ache". At the end of the song, the DJ (whom, I would find out years later,
was the legendary Bill Mack) comes on and mentions during his chatter that I'm
listening to WBAP. I give no second thought to this, although I'm curious as to
where this station is, since I've never heard it before and it sounds like it's
coming from Omaha. Then I hear an advertisement that mentions...FORT WORTH.
I'm floored by this, as I had no idea my GE clock radio could pick up anything
that distant. Over the course of the next few mornings, I hear places like Los
Angeles, Nashville, New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati, Toronto, Detroit,
Louisville, Denver, New Orleans, Winnipeg, Dallas, Little Rock, Richmond, San
Antonio, and others. And at the age of 16, I'm hooked.
And THAT is how it all began. :) And "Seven Year Ache" still has a special
place in my heart.
73,
Rick Dau
Suth Omaha, Nebraska
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