How many Radio DX'ers on this board?

[kenglish]

How many DX'ers are there on this board?
You know... people who listen for distant stations, and maybe even send them Reception Reports.

[CAwasinNJ]

I do, in a limited way. I don't use any special equipment.

[Terry]

I have listened for distant stations for decades, not very actively, just occasionally. I used to check shortwave stations too, but lost interest because of the increase in noise.

Decades ago I was fascinated hearing WBZ, KORL, XEX, CBC stations, etc. Now I’m lucky to hear anything east of Denver.

Internet streaming stations are kind of interesting now.

[David]

AM BCB DX'ing, shortwave radio, and VHF/UHF scanning have been my primary hobbies on and off for at least 50 years now. My first exposure to radio DX'ing occurred when I was just 6 or 7 years old, when my maternal grandmother gifted me a pink General Electric 6 transistor radio. I was fascinated that I could hear AM stations hundreds or even thousands of miles away at night, and I'm still fascinated by "skip" and the sometimes freakish nature of radio propagation to this day. IMO, there's something nostalgic about drifting off to sleep at night while listening to a distant AM station fade in and out with the changes in propagation, and the static and crackle of the MW band. If I'm in the mood for an AM DX'ing challenge, I'll tune to one of the six AM "graveyard" frequencies (1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490) to listen for station ID's when a distant AM station rises above the unintelligible jumble of 1 kW stations just long enough for me to get a positive ID. My primary AM DX receivers are a Sangean PR-D4W and Sangean PR-D5, which IMO are the modern equivalent of the old GE Superradios. In addition to being an outstanding AM DX radio, my Sangean PR-D4W has phenomenally long battery life. I estimate that a set of 4 D cell alkaline batteries lasts for anywhere from 4-6 weeks with 4-8 hours of daily use of the PR-D4W.

AM DX'ing took a back seat to VHF/UHF scanning and CB radio for me in the 1980's and 1990's. During the 1980's I was living in a duplex, and later on an apartment complex where putting up outdoor antennas was verboten. In the early 1990's I was too busy working on getting a college degree at Weber State to have much time for my radio hobby, but after I graduated in 1994 I started getting back into CB and ham radio again, and I put up a couple of outdoor antennas for VHF/UHF scanning because I finally had my own home with no restrictions on outdoor antennas. 🙂 I got my ham "ticket" about 25 years ago during the Y2K scare and was active on 2 meters and 10 meters for awhile, but that came to an end when a very powerful Ogden Canyon wind storm knocked over my base antennas for 2 and 10 meters.☹ I can no longer climb on ladders and steep roofs because I'm physically disabled now, so these days I'm mostly into MW DX'ing and a limited amount of shortwave listening. I've never bothered to request QSL cards, and at almost age 60 I have no desire to start building a collection. Besides, no one but radio geeks like myself and hams even know what a QSL card is these days! 😉