DX'ing Revisited

Once again, I'm trying to get readers interested in DX'ing--trying to receive radio stations over long distances.

Equipment

At its base, DX'ing requires a radio of some sort. I tend to focus on AM radio, as do many others. In the United States, southern Canada, and across Europe, the nighttime dial comes alive with stations near and distant, and DX opportunities abound.

Your receiver should make it fairly easy to determine the frequency to which you are tuned. As such, digital receivers are best; but at night, it's usually possible to keep track from a reference station, as virtually every frequency has a station at night. Good-quality audio, and especially bass and treble  controls, as important.

The radio should be fairly directional, and have good adjacent-channel rejection. I.e.: tune away from a strong local station, and the noise associated with it should quickly disappear.

Other controls, such as sideband, BFO, or VFO tend to be of limited use in the AM band.

It helps to have a logbook or logsheets handy, so you can record your catches. You'll probably want to record the date and time; the frequency and callsign of the station; and any notes about its reception, the type of programming, network affiliation, etc.

When starting a DX session, either go to a strong local station first, to get your bearings, or just tune in to a frequency. If you hear a signal, try rotating your radio for strongest reception. Oftentimes you will hear more than one station, and often you can vary the rotation of the radio to favour one over the other.

Patience is a good watchword, here. Stations tend to fade in and out, and often exhibit fluttering of the signal.

Identifying a station can take some time. You'll find that, frustratingly, signals tend to fade out just when they're identifying. It happens enough that my partner has noticed it, also. Many stations air network programming and identify just once per hour--or even less.

The golden time for DX'ers is at the top of the hour, when stations tend to pause their programming, air some commercials and news bulletins, and often identify.

Every station is assigned a callsign, consisting of from three to five letters. What you'll hear depends upon your location:

Canada: CBxx, CFxx-CKxx
USA (West of the Mississippi): Kxxx
USA (East of the Mississippi): Wxxx
Mexico: XExxx
Cuba: CMxx

It helps to get into the habit of listening for four letters in a jumble of noise. Beware that what you hear may not be what has been uttered; check your station lists carefully.

There are other ways in which you can identify a station. Local advertisements often mention business names that can be Googled; or localities. Phone numbers are a great one.

The type of programming can be a help, too. Most radio resources carry notes about the type of programming. Sports, for example; or News/Talk. If you're hearing a sports event, network talk or religious programming, or music, chances are that you won't get an identification apart from at the top of the hour. Put a pin in that one, and come back to it.

The language can be an important indicator. If it's french, for example, then the station is probably in Quebec. Other languages can often help to narrow it down, with the assistance of your references.

As for resources, they are numerous. I know that the National Radio Club, in the United States, publishes an annual guide to stations in North America. I find myself, these days, turning more and more to MWList, a fantastic worldwide resource. It can be found at https://www.mwlist.org/ul_login.php.

From time to time, you'll want to mine the graveyard frequencies (1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 in North America). They usually are just a jumble of hundreds of stations, churning furiously; but every now and then, one station will pop through just long enough to identify. Often you'll catch new stations in bunches.

If you do get into DX'ing, tracking your finds can become important. I have used a spreadsheet for the past twenty years. I'm now hard at work developing a program to automate it all; it's coming along and should be available for release near the end of this year.

The nice thing about DX'ing is that whether you've got five minutes, or two hours, you can just do it.

Happy DX'ing!

-Bill