Hello All, Back in December of 2007, in order to express thanks to Colin Newell (of DXer.Ca) for publishing my quirky SRF-59 review, I came up with a strange idea to send out a few free SRF-59 samples to any Canadians that wanted one. The idea was to spread the interest in Ultralight radio DXing north of the border, since it already seemed to have quite a foothold in western Washington state. At the time seven Canadian DXers responded with a request, and seven of the basic analog Ultralights headed north, into the cold Canadian winter.
The seven SRF-59 Ultralights ended up in various locations from Victoria, B.C. to London, Ontario, but by far the most successful one was the radio received by Rob Ross, who practically ran it into the ground by receiving over 300 stations with it before the month of January 2008 was over (less than 30 days of usage). At the time ULR DXers were regarded as somewhat fanatical kooks, using tiny pocket radios with no real hope of any serious, long-range DXing success. Rob single-handedly changed that impression by receiving serious DX with his barefoot, $18 SRF-59... including several stations in South America. He was a one-man DXing tornado, stunning both the ULR and table-receiving communities with his accomplishments. Within 30 days he managed to change our reputation from a group of kooks into the hottest new phenomena in AM-DXing, with repercussions that continue to this day. Because of Rob's success, Canada became a hotbed of ULR DXing activity-- and I was delighted to repeat the free-sample offer to Canadians a few months later with the Sony SRF-39FP prison radios-- one of which wound up with another phenomenal Canadian DXer, Allen Willie of Newfoundland. The Canadian connection with ULR DXing has been unique from the very beginning-- and if not for guys like Colin, Rob and Allen, we never would have gotten off of the ground. Rob has been at the forefront of ULR DXing success not only in AM results, but also in Longwave, both in International Broadcast and NDB-DXing. I recently had the pleasure (?) of competing with Rob in chasing Longwave beacons throughout the cold winter (losing, of course, but having a blast in the process!). Anyway, Rob, you have been a Master Ultralight DXer for the past 4 years, and a great inspiration to us all. Congratulations on tracking down station #1000 (an awesome one, at that), and thanks again for your outstanding contributions to our Ultralight Radio community! 73, Gary DeBock, N7EKX Puyallup, WA, USA Ultralight Radio Group Co-Founder _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
