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Do You Remember Your First Ever DX Catch?
I was all of about maybe 5 or 6 and had only listened to CHUM or CKOC on my sister's radio. I had no idea, outside of CFRB that my dad listened to, there was anything else.
And then one day, I was listening later in the evening and turned the dial when I ran into a station playing, I think it was The Beatles. What was this? I'd never heard of another place playing songs I liked. So I waited for the song to finish and hoped for an I.D. Turns out it was WOWO 1190 in Ft. Wayne, the 50,000 watt powerhouse from Indiana. Wow! What else was out there?
That started a lifelong love affair with the hobby, which eventually graduated to TV, as well. (I think WICU Channel 12 in Erie was my first "get.")
I'm not sure anyone else will remember "their first time," but mine was a legendary radio station I can barely even get here anymore. But it was a real thrill at the time and I'll never forget it.
- BowmanvilleBob
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When I was a kid growing up in the Niagara Region, I could faintly hear WHAM in Rochester most evenings while flipping up and down the dial. However, one summer morning when I had awakened at 5:00 am because my dad and I were going fishing, I was able to get a booming signal from WRVA in Richmond, Virginia. It's a 50,000 watt clear channel station and it came in clear as a bell at that time on the morning on my tiny clock radio. I was over the moon.
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The weird thing about my WOWO catch came nearly 30 years or so later, when I was working in a TV newsroom. The main anchor brought in a friend from out of town, and was showing him around the complex. When he got to where I was sitting, he introduced me to the guy, who said he was from Ft. Wayne, Indiana
I turned to say hello to him and by sheer coincidence, I was wearing my one and only WOWO T-shirt that day. (That's it below, a bit faded, but still around.)
The guy almost lost his mind. He thought no one had ever heard of Ft. Wayne in Toronto, let alone its most famous radio station.
What were the odds?
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Thread Starter- turkeytop
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When I was about 10, I got a crystal radio kit for Christmas. The first station I ever got on it was WOWO, pounding in like a local.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
- Forward Power
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On AM, my first was New York's WCBS, which often came in very well at night at our place in the Peterborough area in the early '90s. First FM DX catch was Sudbury's CJRQ 92.7; this was before Peterborough's Trent Radio (CFFF) moved to that frequency from 96.3.
- MJ Vancouver
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I once got WPBT/2 from Miami in London, in colour one of the few times I tried DXing. I was also able to faintly pick up CKVR on 3.
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I can't remember my first FM catch, but one does stick out in my mind. It was one of those rare, hot and sticky feels-like-it's-going-to-pour-rain type of early summer-like days. I was a young teenager, just home from school and I had a feeling that the FM band was going to be active. So I started tuning around.
It turned out to be one of my busiest DX days ever, with nearly a hundred stations coming in from all over.
But one stands out. I was tuning around just as my father passed by my bedroom. He heard a station I.D. clear as a bell over the speaker. "This is WABB-FM Mobile, Alabama," came the top of the hour identifier. He walked over and asked me what in the world I was listening to. "How are you getting Alabama?" he wanted to know.
My dad wasn't a dummy about these things. He was the one who once explained to me years earlier about what he called "the heavy-side layer," and how that affected radio waves. But I don't think even he was aware it could bring in stations from that far away.
I lost my dad in 2006 and miss him to this day. But that's one memory that for some reason still sticks in my mind even now, a brief bonding moment about my first love, radio. And one of his, which I guess in hindsight, was me.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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MJ Vancouver wrote:
I once got WPBT/2 from Miami in London, in colour one of the few times I tried DXing. I was also able to faintly pick up CKVR on 3.
TV DXing was great if you had a good antenna. Fortunately, we did - a rotor on a tower in the Bathurst & Lawrence area of North York.
I think the farthest away I ever got were four memorable and confirmed IDs - KTWO in Casper, Wyoming, KWGN & KOA in Denver and bizarrely, CKCK from Regina, Saskatchewan.
Those were the analogue days of skip and while I enjoy what HD has to offer, we'll never have that kind of reception again. 
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Thread Starter- Saul
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Had a clock radio at age 13 and found I could listen to hockey and baseball games on the likes of KMOX 1120 St. Louis. I decided to keep a list of stations I could hear, and that if I could get places like New Orleans (WWL 870) and Winnipeg (990) then I could perhaps get even farther. Eventually I IDed 850 KOA Denver, then KFI 630 Los Angeles and with these I was hooked. I went to the Toronto reference library, looking for a station list of some kind, and landed on the World radio TV Handbook. Somehow I decided to set my sights on XEX Mexico City on 730, with its listed slogan being "La X de Mexico", and I nailed this soon thereafter.
In 1977, I was 16 and at the family cottage in the Kawarthas where I still DX, I had begun keeping track of FM stations, and at that point Toronto, Erie and Buffalo were DX. I hadn't even yet heard Ottawa, Cleveland and Detroit. One night in early summer, I was stunned to get three IDs for very loud stations with K-call letters. I made rudimentary notes of what I could pull in terms of content, and went to the same library, and found a directory of some kind that pinpointed Joplin MO 90.7, St. Paul MN 91.1, and Oklahoma City 104.1. All from the same opening. To this day, I only know the year, that it was early summer (June, I think school was still on), and that there was a glorious sunset at the time. I also had no inkling whatsoever about propagation. I have since passed the 5,000 station mark on FM, with my best FM e-skip catches being in Colombia.
As for TV, I am surprised to find my earliest computerized logs starting in 1986. I hope my handwritten logs at my DX site have the earliest years of my monitoring TV and aren't lost. I reported fairly regularly to the WTFDA club, so that might be a backup. I recall early logs including the likes of WPBT Miami 2, WWL 4 New Orleans, and RadioActive's aforementioned CKCK 2 in Regina. TV has always been a lesser priority than FM, but I've had interesting events, like hearing New York City 2 on e-skip for an unusually short-hop catch. I have also watched 2 and 4 from Cuba. I have had a few digital stations via Es, but don't have a tower and so I have missed the fun some people have had with good equipment. With the demise of analog powerhouses in the US and Canada, one DXer in Grimsby has had analogs from the like of Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala analog.
- mace
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My first AM catch was WBT Charlotte. A school friend was into DXing and told me about a top 40 station in Boston at 1030. I said that's not possible. CFRB and CHUM are too close. He replied not at night. I checked it out. Wow! He was correct. Bruce Bradley was the jock. Signal was as clear as CHUM. I soon discovered KDKA and WHO. The other 50K blow torches would soon follow. Most memorable AM catch was in 1977. I heard KNBR San Francisco behind WPTF Raleigh. CFTR had been off the air that night for transmitter maintenance. My first e-skip tv catch happened in early summer 1965. I was watching Saturday morning cartoons. Why was I getting Underdog on ch 2 AND ch 3. Turns out the ch 3 was KARD [now KSNW] Wichita,Ks. In later years, I began taping my e-skip, putting it on pause and photographing the station ID, most of which I still have today. As for FM, locally the first two I remember were 98.9 in Rochester and 103.7 in Erie around 1969. WCCK was my introduction to top 40 on FM. After that, CHUM, CKOC and CKFH never sounded quite as good.
- Dial Twister
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The weird thing about my WOWO catch came nearly 30 years or so later, when I was working in a TV newsroom. The main anchor brought in a friend from out of town, and was showing him around the complex. When he got to where I was sitting, he introduced me to the guy, who said he was from Ft. Wayne, Indiana
I turned to say hello to him and by sheer coincidence, I was wearing my one and only WOWO T-shirt that day. (That's it below, a bit faded, but still around.)
The guy almost lost his mind. He thought no one had ever heard of Ft. Wayne in Toronto, let alone its most famous radio station.
What were the odds?
Quoting for posterity. That, right there, is a buy-some-lottery-tickets story, RA.
- alangee
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I was 10 in 1963 and an avid listener of CHUM. I had a GE portable tube radio on my night table. I can't remember which the first DX station was I picked up in north Willowdale, but there were a bunch all within proximity of CHUM. 1030 WBZ in Boston, 1090 WBAL in Baltimore, 1120 KMOX St. Louis, 1190 WHAM Rochester and good old 1190 WOWO in Fort Wayne. Thanks to them I spent a lot of time at night NOT listening to CHUM! I was fascinated that I could listen to all those distant stations and that was my introduction to the "magic" of radio!
Many years later in the early 80's, I modified my ssb CB radio to get frequencies just above the CB band and notched my first DX contact with a station in Norway.
As for the coming solar eclipse, I will be listening to the radio during that time to see if there will be any night-time like DX.
- Marc1178
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On AM I remember how clear 880 WCBS New York was coming in one night on the stereo one night in 1991. The stereo receiver was new at the time. This turned out to be a regular catch at night. I am about 750 km away.
In 1993 I tuned to 99.1 FM in a rural area near Brantford, and Z Rock (KDZR) from Texas was coming in. This was before CBC Radio One in Toronto switched to FM. It is now KFZO.
On over the air TV before the U.S. digital switchover in 2009, WEDU-TV from Florida came in on channel 3 many times.
- turkeytop
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In the 1970s I was living up in the Owen Sound area. In those days I was more active in the hobby than I am today. My best verified reception reports were for KFI in LA and KSL in Salt Lake City.
Back then it was common to receive Trans World Radio from the Antilles, crowding out CKLW on 800 KHZ in the early morning. But I never bothered to submit a reception report.
In 2010 we were in Cancun for a week. At night, AM reception from the US, along the Gulf Coast was available.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
- canam2021
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About 1965 My parents got an AM radio for Christmas shaped like a world globe. One night my Dad put it up on the mantle above the fireplace and turned it on. I couldn't believe my ears what came out of the radio. 'This is WWL New Orleans" in Niagara Falls! After that night I kept trying to receive it again. I picked up other distant stations along the way. ( This was before digital readout on radios.) I caught the DX bug. My father eventually got me Whites Radio Log in Communications World and I was able to log it again and found other DXing opportunities.
Last edited by canam2021 (April 6, 2024 12:35 am)
- mace
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When I first started to DX, I actually wrote to the FCC and asked if they had a book listing all the U.S. radio stations with their broadcasting power. They actually replied explaining that because of constant changes in call letters each year, any publication would be inaccurate very quickly. However, they recommended that White's Radio Log would be useful in my DX hobby and it was. Years later I would discover the Gold Standard of AM station lists. The annual National Radio Club publication is incredibly detailed.
- canam2021
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. However, they recommended that White's Radio Log would be useful in my DX hobby and it was. Years later I would discover the Gold Standard of AM station lists. The annual National Radio Club publication is incredibly detailed.
An excellent online database of US AM stations:
- turkeytop
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
- turkeytop
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WBBM is strong tonight, here in the Tampa Bay area. Also WCBS and WLW.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.