1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Online! 
Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
That title is, admittedly, a bit misleading, so let me explain. This goes back to when I was a kid and my parents used to drive down to Miami every Christmas when we got off school.
I remember taking a radio with me in the car so I could listen to whatever I wanted, and as we passed through or near various cities on the highway, I would scan the dial (AM in those days) and see what radio stations there were, getting an I.D. and noting the formats. I was always pleased when I hit the local Top 40 stations in each place and for some reason, WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee stands out in my memory.
I called it a sort of “local DX-ing” because these were stations I couldn’t normally get and as we sped past these places, like a DX scan, they would fade away, to be replaced by something else.
I wonder if anyone else here has ever had a similar experience. It sure made those thousands of miles a lot easier to take. And it was a lot of fun.
- paterson1
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
If I am travelling over a long distance by car, I still try to listen to local radio. Enjoy listening to stations in various communities along the 401 going east or west. Always tune in Ottawa and Montreal radio, Kingston and cottage country stations when I am in the area. Impressed with the radio I heard in Alberta last summer. Even some small town stations sounded major market with great music, awesome jingles and better than average on air talent. They tended to sound more small town when the commercials ran and you had ads for local restaurants, independent retailers, and a lot of farm and car dealers. You get the same here with small market stations like Listowel or Wingham.
- Saul
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
Always interesting going along the 401 or such to see when stations gradually get weaker and fade and are gradually replaced with new ones. I'm driving, so I keep an MP3 recorder handy to verbally note down anything I might want to remember, such as an oddity on a station or a format change or what have you. Mostly, I find a station I like and listen. I've stumbled upon the very occasional pirate.
In a couple of cases I had surprise e-skip. Once at the US border going to Ottawa from NY State, I had New Brunswick and Gaspé QC stations on FM, and when I crossed the border it largely shifted to Missouri. That seemed surreal. Another time, in early January, I was driving from Toronto to Peterborough on Hwy 115 well after midnight when St John's Nfld stations started coming in, interrupting the music I was otherwise listening to on a station that was weak enough to get upended.
- RadioAaron
- Member
Online!
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
Doing it on an airplane is always a treat.
- Saul
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
RadioAaron wrote:
Doing it on an airplane is always a treat.
Indeed, especially with RDS readouts!
- MJ Vancouver
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
I did this a little bit once in Muskoka, trying to get London stations, which normally did not reach all that far north of the city. Managed to faintly get CJBK up there but not the other ones.
- turkeytop
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
That title is, admittedly, a bit misleading, so let me explain. This goes back to when I was a kid and my parents used to drive down to Miami every Christmas when we got off school.
I remember taking a radio with me in the car so I could listen to whatever I wanted, and as we passed through or near various cities on the highway, I would scan the dial (AM in those days) and see what radio stations there were, getting an I.D. and noting the formats. I was always pleased when I hit the local Top 40 stations in each place and for some reason, WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee stands out in my memory.
I called it a sort of “local DX-ing” because these were stations I couldn’t normally get and as we sped past these places, like a DX scan, they would fade away, to be replaced by something else.
I wonder if anyone else here has ever had a similar experience. It sure made those thousands of miles a lot easier to take. And it was a lot of fun.
WNOX. I have a QSL verification for reception right here in Ontario.
Going anywhere in the car, I drive my wife crazy, always fiddling with the radio.
After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
- Easily Amused
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
Agreed with others that the 401 drive can be a wealth of stations. Amherst Island's CJAI FM 101.3 is a unique gem. North Country Public Radio from NY State also has thoughtful programming, but lord knows how it will be impacted by recent developments.
- canam2021
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
I used to have a TV set back in the analogue days that was the size of a small transistor radio and I used to "Local DX" TV when travelling.
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Online!
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
I used to have a TV set back in the analogue days that was the size of a small transistor radio and I used to "Local DX" TV when travelling.
Me too. One year on our annual Miami trip, my father bought a small rechargeable battery operated portable black and white set to keep us all quiet. This would have been in the mid-60s. I'd never seen anything like it. It was about a 7" screen or more.
We'd extend a built in antenna, tune in stations as the car drove and watch as much as we could until the signal faded away and try and pick up the show on the same network in another place as we came closer to it, tuning the VHF dial to try and find it.
I have no idea why, but I remember a CBS station on channel 13 somewhere down south. Still recall it because it was the only CBS affiliate on that part of the dial I'd ever seen.
This was also the first TV set I ever saw that had UHF. And back then in the States, some stations were on there, too, long before that band ever became available in Canada. It was a ton of fun for otherwise bored kids and I've never forgotten it.
- •
Thread Starter- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
- Member
Offline
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
I have.
I did the same thing sometimes when we went up to my grandpa's cottige in haliberton.
There was a lot of deadzones on both AM and FM
At his cottige, we could only get 93.5 moose fm or 100.9 canoo fm.
Surprisingly, we could'nt get any cbc station to my 7 year old knolage at the time.
- mace
- Member
Online!
Re: Have You Ever Tried “Local DX-ing?”
I always remember the tiny hamlet of Madoc, Ontario. Why? When I was a kid on a family vacation heading out of the GTA, Madoc is where the daytime signals of CFRB and CHUM ceased to exist. There was one summer we were headed for a visit to Quebec City and we stopped for the night in Cornwall. I was shocked to find top 40 music on 1050. Couldn't possibly CHUM in daylight hours It turned out to be WYBG in Massena, NY, which went dark in July 2015.