Shortwave and Broadcast Band Dx'ing


Back in the late '60's and early '70's, during the height of the Cold War, I did alot of shortwave listening on a Knight Star Roamer kit I assembled, and later on a Hallicrafters SX62. Besides pulling in hundreds of AM stations from most of the US, I picked up quite a few foreign counties on shortwave. A few I sent reception reports to and in response, I received the colorful and collectable QSL cards listed below.

Click here to hear how to broadcast band DX!  

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Stats from 1972, Receiving Location - Upstate NY:
COUNTRIES RECEIVED - 62
AM BROCADCAST BAND - STATES = 28, CITIES = 133, STATIONS = 220

Stats as of 3/2011, Receiving Location - Downstate NY:
COUNTRIES RECEIVED - 29
AM BROCADCAST BAND - STATES = 31, CITIES = 242, STATIONS = 353, CANADIAN = 36

 

earth
starroamer.jpg (10859 bytes) starroamer2.jpg (21479 bytes)
My original Knight kit Star Roamer. I think it cost about $39 in 1968. Took a lot of hours to build but was one of the most enjoyable things I have every done. I picked up more stations on this little radio than I did on my expensive, commercial built Hallicrafters. They don't built them like this anymore! This was before the printed circuit came out. All point to point wiring. Each wire, each resistor, each capacitor had to be cut to a certain length. Now you know why it took days to build. Today all this comes on one IC.
starroamer3.jpg (20002 bytes) hlsx062.jpg (13159 bytes)
Close up view of the detector section. After finishing, remarkably, I had only one or two errors. Next I bought this used Hallicrafters. SX-62 in the 70's for $160. It weighed a ton, had alot of tubes and I used it for a few years. Sold to a ham after that.
icr71a.jpg (13346 bytes) R8Bweb.jpg (9037 bytes)
Next in the early 90's I bought this used ICOM R71A. Kept for a couple of years and then sold. The Drake R8B. Bought new for about $1200. Kept for 2 years and sold to someone in Texas for $900. When it was shipped, UPS destroyed it. I had it insured for $1100 so I made $200 on the deal!
icomr75.jpg (11776 bytes) icom745.jpg (35771 bytes)
Then I had this Icom R75 bought new. I connected to the computer and used it to receive weather faxes, RTTY and CW. Then II sold to buy the used radio to the right. My old Icom 745 HF transceiver, had for 2 years and then sold it on Ebay.
icom746pro.jpg (15203 bytes)
My new Icom 746Pro Transceiver does everything from 30 khz to 170 mhz! My Drake R8.

 

My QSL Collection

hcjb.jpg (20050 bytes)

My first QSL card. It was from HCJB, Quitto, Ecuador. An easy card to get, 11/68.

southafrica.jpg (29870 bytes) radiomoscow.jpg (19854 bytes)
Radio South Africa, 11/15/68. Radio Moscow, 3/5/69.
switzerland.jpg (24438 bytes) japan.jpg (13675 bytes)
Radio Switzerland, 12/25/69. Radio Japan, 12/27/70.
sweden.jpg (20503 bytes) germany.jpg (16098 bytes)
Radio Sweden, 2/8/72. Radio Germany (West), 2/23/72.
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