When Were You First Aware of Distant Stations?

[jon]

Can you remember the first radio station you heard where you were out of the station's intended listening audience? I hesitate to call it DX.

For example, listening to CHWK Chilliwack in Vancouver would qualify, but listening to CKWX in Chilliwack would not, since WX still thinks Chilliwack is part of its coverage area, despite a Spanish now Russian station near Portland heard at sunrise and sunset......

[Tape Splicer]

For radio I think it was the early 60"s and Seattle stations were the ones I tried for on the AM band. On occasion I'd hear stations from farther east Alberta and the mountain states. We had a Phillips three band table radio (AM, and two short wave bands). Voice of America, BBC, Cuba etc were the first stations on SW that I heard.
Trying for US TV stations with "rabbit ears" when we lived in Victoria was fun. When we lived on the south slope of Burnaby it was almost as good for picking up TV with "ears".
Now with streaming audio it's too easy.

[Dan Sys]

It would have to be KJR 950 Seattle in the early-mid 60's. KOL 1300 to a lesser degree, but slop from CHQM 1320 made the listening pleasure less than desirable living right in Vancouver.

[CubbyCam]

In the mid to late fifties... as a kid in Calgary, I listened regularly to KMON in Great Falls, Montana. I can still hear the jocks..."This is KMON Color Radio!" And of course at that time, no Calgary stations were playing rock n roll. I heard new songs by the Everly Brothers, Elvis, and even Buddy Knox... first on KMON. Oddly enough, I can't remember their frequency. I guess losing your frequency is one of the first signs of old age.

[crs]

I remember listening to my parents playing WSM Nashville on their clock radio as I drifted off to sleep. I then got into the act and started listening to the Big 89 WLS Chicago and WCBS out of New York. DXing was GREAT in Northwestern Ontario!

[PicturesForYourEars]

1972!
I would sit in my Pontiac on top of Signal Hill in St. John's Newfoundland - THE exact location Marconi used in 1901 to recieve the first Trans-Atlantic signal!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was very common to hear Scotti Lomax playing songs 'for the all night gas jockey in Bells Corners' booming in all the way from OTTAWA , and listening to CHER Sydney (Nova Scotia) and Halifax was like listening to a far distant beckoning Canada calling "Get Off The Island"!

Best of all, it was quite common to hear RADIO LUXUMBOURG from Europe!

I still have a DX card that I recieved from a listener when I worked at CJON who picked me up in Iceland!

[pieinthesky]

560 AM is still the dial spot for KMON.

I believe the first time for me was 1510 KGA in the late 80s. When I listened to it - was still country. Faded in and out like a shortwave station.

[jon]

I'm a bit confused about my first listening to a distant station. Because I can't place a date on one early incident.

I began listening to CFUN in early 1962. When our extended family visited the Seattle Worlds Fair in November of the same year, my parents wanted me to buy me a small transistor radio. To demonstrate it to this 10 year old, the salesman set it to KJR. When I got home to Burnaby, I was able to listen to KJR-950 on my parents radio quite a bit, but the little transistor did not do a good enough job of getting rid of CKNW-980 slop.

The one incident that I cannot positively date as being after this, though it undoubtedly was, is tuning across the dial on my parents' radio and hearing Stan Freburg's weekly show, one of the last stand-alone (no TV simulcast) network radio shows. It was near the bottom of the dial, so I now suspect it was on KVI-570 Seattle.

I'm a little fuzzy on how my DX expanded, in distance, from California into the U.S. mid-West, until I got WWL-870 in New Orleans. Although my DXing was initially done on my parents Philips mid-1950s transistor radio, I actually got WWL on the little transistor radio once. WWL was 50,000 watts, but they had a directional pattern to avoid wasting their signal on the Gulf of Mexico, and pushed the equivalent of 75-100KW in my direction.

Then one evening just after 8pm when my parents had guests and I was banished to my bedroom, I heard WNBC-660, WABC-770 and WCBS-880, all from New York City, all coming in very well. They did not remain my most distant "catches" for long, as I then heard WBZ-1030 in Boston, which instantly became my favourite Top 40 listening. When I could hear them, of course. Mainly because they were playing the hits first, before any other station I could hear.

WBZ remained "most distant" for quite a while, until I started getting Cuban stations. It would be about 1967 before I could afford a communications receiver -- the same model shown in my avatar -- and I had built a 4 foot box loop antenna to go with it. That opened an entire new world. South America, the South Pacific, and even the Pacific Coast of Asia. All on 540-1600KHz. Yet, at the time, I still considered my best "catch" to be the CBC repeater in Banff. Doesn't sound like far away, but with 40 watts, I thought it rated the designation. I still have the QSL card and the audio recording.

I quit DX'ing completely in 1971, just months before a Seattle DX friend heard England and Africa. I've really only "dabbled" since.

[Mike Cleaver]

CFUN and KJR, both at the same time, in 1961.
Most nights, they came into Kelowna, BC as if they were local.
For a young guy just beginning his radio career, they and their personalities were great role models for aspiring disc jockeys.

[Muzik]

For me in the early 70's in Saskatoon it was 1140 CKXL Calgary,Of Course CFUN,CKLG. In those days with less frequency's you could pick up stations from all across Western Canada and Western America. If there was a signal out there, chances are depending on the night pattern you could pick up all the way down into Mexico.Then after about a year I was DXing more than attending school so it seemed. How about some of these...KJR,64 KFI,KOMA Oklahoma,WSM Nashville,WLS,CKDA, I could go on and on.I always thought that KFI and CFUN were larger than life and I have some poor quality reception airchecks to prove it.I think it was the challenge of picking up a station that was so cool about DXing even if it faded in and out.Those were good times in radio.

[ithom]

1961, in Edmonton, I picked up KSL, Salt Lake City, the Night Cappers show with Herb Jepko. I used a small Marconi transistor radio. Later I managed to received signals from KGA and KOMO on a Stromberg Carlson tube radio. Also managed to pick up BBC andVoice of America on the SW band.

[Dan Sys]

I'm going to reverse the scenario a bit here. Back in September 1977 I did a road trip all over the Southwestern U.S. with my ex-wife and a couple of friends. While sitting around the campfire near El Paso, Texas I pulled out my trusty old Realistic TRF and went across the dial. To my amazement I pulled in a fairly strong CKLG 730. I'll never forget the looks of astonishment on the faces of my fellow travellers when they realized what I was listening to.

Also seemed unusual because there was no sign of the Mexican powerhouse XEX 730 which I believe operated with 1/2 a million watts back then.

[skyvalleyradio]

1964 was the year for me - My GE table radio in my bedroom had a short wire antenna protruding from the rear of the cabinet. Being a curious kid, I found about 100' of wire in the basement and connected it to the GE antenna one afternoon. I noticed the improved gain immediately and began tuning the dial where I first discovered rock stations KJR and KTW 1250. I removed the 100' of wire and sure enough the signals diminished, so I re-attached it. That night I discovered KGO, KFI, and WWL New Orleans!!! I was hooked!! A year later I got my first communications receiver: a WWII vintage Stromberg-Carlson 500kHz-30mHz receiver designed for an aircraft. It had a 'bandspread' tuner to compliment the main tuning dial. Our Kerrisdale home soon sprouted a long-wire antenna strung from my bedroom to the clothes-line pole at the rear of our property. I outgrew the Stromberg-Carlson quickly and got a REAL radio - a Hallicrafters SR-20 with single-sideband/CW and tuning right up to 60 mHz. Needless to say, life has never been the same since!!! DX forever baby!

[Recordman]

Hi All
I started listing to distant stations in the late 70`s while in Junior high school,usually WABC,WNBC,WHDH Boston,although in the 1980`s I was able to listen to Radio Luxembourg,in fact I wrote to them,they also sent me info on the station which I still have 1440am/208medium wave.
I still do it when I`m in the car although,not much to listen to these days,but when I do usually I listen to CKDO 1580.
One thing I don`t like about this time of the year is listening to the same crappy Christmas tunes year after year,I couldn`t imagine working at an all Christmas station without fitting myself for noose the same as those crappy Christmas movies.
Really enjoy reading this board although I`m not in radio,kind of wish I was but,these is no money in it these days and probably not much future unless radio changes.
Would love to listen to a station that doesn`t play all the well known songs,there is nothing like putting on a station and hearing a great song and trying to find out who recorded it.

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Everyone, Just thought I would post a quick response to this most interesting topic. Having been a dxer for many years on the AM and FM Band this topic is most interesting to me. Also a very good christmas season to everyone with all the christmas rush happening!!!! Anyway have really enjoyed all the comments by everyone about what stations they heard first from a distance. JIM VE7ROX you should add your two cents worth here too!!! He keeps telling me he is going to post something again but I*m still waiting ...... JIm is an avid dxer on the AM and FM Bands still just like me.

Well even though I have 4 wi-fi radios and have taped a lot of stations with local quality from them since Dec. 2008 I still like hearing distant stations over-the-air (dxing) on AM and FM bands. I do a little shortwave dxing as well but AM and FM are my main dxing interests.

First started listening on a small AM only Holiday 8 Transistor radio about Jan. 1966. I think I got it for Christmas. Later I got a more sensitive and better Hitachi Radio which I still have the small instruction manual for. Anyway both radios were AM only and sensitive for their size. The Hitachi was slightly better. I got interested in listening for distant stations for hearing commecials for department stores and other retail stores that might have catalogs particularly around Christmas. Back a few years earlier in Grade 5 or 6 social studies class we had several projects involving writing for information. One was for Maps and Tourist/History info. from States and Provinces. The other was writing to stores in distant cities or states etc. for catalogs etc.. We had to do reports after getting the info. for social studies projects and of course were graded for what we did. Anyhow when I started listening for distant stations I thought that might be a way to find out about stores in commecials I didn't know about and then writing to them for a catalog (or christmas catalog). I remember hearing KRLC 1350 and KIDO 630 from Idaho and hearing store commecials and catalog promotions. First station I heard and got verified was KSL 1160 Salt Lake City, Utah followed by KFBK 1530 Sacramento, Callifornia, also KRLC 1350 Lewiston, Idaho. I started writing for QSL Cards and letters after reading about it in several radio magazines like Radio-TV experimenter, electronics illustrated and popular electronics. From almost the start the technical or electronics of radio interested me so I wanted to know how it all functioned!!!!! So thats when I started buying or getting radio magazines. My grandmother in Sapperton(New Westminster) and Uncle started saving old radio magazines for me that they found at the Barber or various other local businesses. So I ended up getting quite a few old back issues in addition to current 1966 and later 1967 issues. What I liked about Radio-TV experimenter magazine was Whites Radio Log at the end with all the stations in the USA listed. It later became Communications World magazine and last issue was published about 1981. Anyway I used that info to try to hear stations and send reports to them. Also about Jan. 1967 I became more seriously interested in dxing and joined a radio club in the USA called IRCA (International Radio Club of AMerica) that specialized in it for the AM band. Still exists today as well!!!!

My grandmother had an old Marconi Floor Radio (all tubes of course) which had shortwave and AM bands. It needed a tune-up to make it more sensitive for AM or Mediumwave dxing but didn't work too badly. Shortwave seemed better on it but I was more interested in hearing distant AM stations so whenever we visiting her (usually once a week) I would try the radio out which was much bigger than my small transistor radios back in 1966. It was amazing to me that her neighborhood on Garret Street in Sapperton did not have that much static or interference across the AM Band on the radio. Most of the time the AM Band was quiet except during the summer when thunderstorms caused all havoc on the band!!!! I got KSL, KFBK and various other stations quite well on that old Marconi. Also KOL and KJR came in quite well. Quite a few old station call letters were marked on the radio. At the time in 1966 some of them had long since changed or gone off the air but it was interesting just the same. I liked the KSL 1160 Salt Lake City QSL Card with the photo of the station on it. Also KRLC sent a large Card with an INDIANHEAD on it, nice design. Back in those days KRLC 1350 was top 40 Rock but they played quite a few songs you couldn't hear on CKLG or CFUN, sort of like KPUG 1170 Bellingham did and to some degree KOL 1300 Seattle. I sort of liked that because it was interested hearing hit songs or novelty songs from those areas.

Also used to tune in Country QT KOQT 1550 Bellingham with their real local down home country format on the transistor portables. Could barely hear them as they were only 1000 watts daytime only. Well better get this posted, so take care everyone. Best of dxing to you all!!!!