Best/Strangest DX catches
 

From another thread:

"Originally Posted by Sandy G
So.... In other words, DON'T go looking to snare Radio Nibi-Nibi at high noon in N. America.. That's somethin' we oughta start here- A list of your weirdest, most unusual DX catches over the years. MW, FM, SW, whatever, & what you picked it up on.. And TRY not to "Lie" too much about it."

Ok, I will open with radio Farda on 1575 kHz Dec 12, 2009 7 pm and later from the US west coast. I did not hear a clear id that I could understand, just a man singing in an unfamiliar language in a very strange musical scale, but several other west coast dxers made a positive id.
Icom 8500/100 ft "longwire" antenna.

Any other LW SW MW FM catches?

jr

A couple of times back in last winter, I had my 2 pre-war Arvin tube out, & picked up WLAC in Nashville w/it.. L'il feller TRIES harder..

Has there been any LW broadcasts recievable in the USA in the last 15 years?....All I can ever recall tuning on that band is atmospheric noise.

In Ill. I had some old tube SW radios (mostly AA5 and euro HiFi) and heard some stuff, but I was too young to remember what....Aside from getting a Texas station regularly, late at night waiting for local AM 780 to play it's midnight old time radio programs.

In Florida I got my first quality SW rig (ICF-SW7600GR) and I logged a whole bunch of shortwave stations CRI, Japan's english service, the BBC, enough Spanish speaking stations to get an idea what it must be like to use a radio well south of the border :D, an odd ball station out of Maine (the Planet IIRC), radio cuba (that is far from DX there), and a number of other stations. I was glued to that little set over most meals at restaurants, at home and sometimes on my bike....I used to go out late, away from homes for less noise, and come home to clip it to my long wire to get weak stations. Before the Sony There was one US station that played old time radio late at night that I would tune on a red Hallicrafters trans-Oceanic clone on it's original caps...I set it up with a cassette recorder on a timer to record it. I've eavesdropped a good number of Ham conversations too. Some of them were as far off as Ill. On AM I was able to get Ny. and Tn. I also was able to tune AM 780 out of Chicago at night once (comes in better up around Ga.). TV wise there was one great time, I had bought this white space age looking Sears SS table set...It was a hot DX set and conditions were good I got Tx., Tn. and some others UHF only had 1-2 blanks at most between channels with signal, and VHF was fairly packed too....I'll never forget that.

Those are the more interesting ones.

"Has there been any LW broadcasts recievable in the USA in the last 15 years?....All I can ever recall tuning on that band is atmospheric noise."

Yes! Winter of 2009 (from the west coast) was also hot for long wave reception from Russia. Many nights that winter, using the same radio and antenna, Radio Rossii was clearly heard on 279, 180 and 153 kHz! Some evenings 279 was strong enough to be heard on a Sony 2010, using just the built-in antenna. RR 279 transmits from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsko with 500 kw!

jr

sad edit add... looks as if Jan. 2014 was about the end of Russian LW broadcasting:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-f...where-25683656

.

Years ago I had a Kenwood R-5000, & one night I was listening in the ham bands, & it MUST have been "Idiot Night", because there were all manner of silly stuff on there. One guy was playing over & over, "Phone Phreaking is a Federal Offense".. A Federal Offense.. a Federal offense, & they were all belching & pharting, carrying on like kids' One time, on Christmas night, they called an FCC "Monitoring station" & wished them a Merry Christmas.. I think they were on 3868, or 3898.

G'day all, for me two incidents. One was hearing a Russian/CIS station for a few minutes on the LW band from here in Northern Australia over a couple of evenings some years ago, and secondly some 'S' bursts from the Planet Jupiter at around 22 MHz. Regards, Felix vk4fuq.

Not radio, but a TV station. Many years ago, long before the digital switchover, I had the fortune to pull in WOIO Channel 19 from Cleveland.

I'm near Detroit.

So on that one day, WOIO managed to make it all the way across lake Erie, through part of Canada, and to my rooftop antenna in Detroit where the picture was fuzzy, but strong enough for color. IIRC the WOIO logo was yellow at the time.

The other night, while working on my old Panasonic RF-2200, I stumbled across a pile up of idiots on 75 meters (3840, IIRC). Now the 2200 is not the best radio for tuning ssb, but I thought that it was seriously broken, as I could barely tune in anything out of what was confirmed by my Icom 8500 as pile of hams jamming, belching, farting, swearing, playing music using several different modes of modulation...what a mess! Same stuff was still going on the following evening, so I'm guessing that it is a more or less permanent *feature* of the band. :screwy:

jr

Years ago I was listening to AM on my Sony portable late night in bed and picked up a station in Montana. I listened to them for several hours.

Just the other day I picked up WNMU 90.1 FM from Marquette, Michigan, in the Detroit area for a solid five or six minutes before it faded away. It was surprisingly clear; there must have been some crazy tropo-ducting...

Nice long haul tropo...with perhaps a little lake assistance.:thmbsp:

https://bit.ly/28VvAZ2

High power and good antenna height helps a bit also:

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/f...2=&EW=W&size=9

This west coast nerd was a bit surprised to see that that northern location was a part of Michigan. May I ask what radio/tuner you used?

jr

I once had a contact with a Wichita, KS FM station from Omaha, NE.

A Scott Metropolitan 16A with roof mounted FM antenna of my own design (essentially a narrow bandwidth Gray Hoverman, optimized with 4NEC2).
A lot of folks seem to forget that the Great Lakes state consists of two penninsulas, myself included on occasion.

Years ago when I had a police scanner...our police department and one up in Michigan were clearly getting each others station and patrol car calls!
It lasted for nearly a week and then went away as suddenly as it had started... :saywhat:

KMOX from St Louis. The Rockies were playing the Cardinals, and I wanted to see if I could listen to the cardinals radio broadcast. Sure enough I was able to pull it in.

KNX from Los Angeles. I remember they did a traffic update which I thought was pretty funny: "The 405 is a mess, and stay off 101 at all costs." That was it. Being an LA traffic reporter must be one of the most depressing jobs in America.

Receiving these stations is probably not that surprising since their both clear channel stations. But both stations were heard with a crappy 2002 "Lennox Sound" am/fm/cd/cassette boom box with just whatever internal antenna it has.

Now here's one hopefully someone can explain... As a kid, I had a pair of cheap 22-channel walkietalkies my grandparents gave me for my birthday. One day when I was around 7 years old, I got the grand idea of turning on my radio (same one as mentioned above) and leaving one walkietalkie next to it with the talk button held down using a rubber band so I would hearing the radio through my other walkietalkie. I took the second walkietalkie outside and accidentally dropped it on the lawn. When I picked it up, it was on the wrong channel. Must have hit the button when it fell. So I went back to the correct channel and much to my surprise, i heard the opening theme to one of the cartoons I watched back then. I went inside and turned on the tv, and sure enough, that show was on and the walkietalkie was in sync with it. It was on a pbs station I think. So I went upstairs and the radio and other walkietalkie were working just fine. I've never been able to figure out why that walkietalkie played audio from a tv channel for a few seconds, and it never happened again. Analog tv was definitely on the air at this time, walkietalkie must have glitched and picked up the broadcast for a few seconds.

It is possible the one transmitting beat against the TV carrier creating a heterodyned image of the TV station in the reception band of the unit receiving....

matt99... do you happen to remember what channel the tv station was? There may be some easily calculated relations. For example the audio carrier of channel 5 TV was 81.75 mHz, almost exactly the third harmonic of CB ch 23.

benman94...Nice! I bet you can catch some pretty good dx when the tropo is hot. :music:

jr

Back around 1971 heard a Jesuscaster near 1520KHz from Iowa. I was in New Jersey just outside of NYC. About the only K callsign I ever heard from NJ (aside from the one in Philly).

I don't remember for sure, but I really wanna say it was PBS, KRMA on channel 6. I know that's the channel that can also be heard on FM 87.7. What do you think?

I'm betting that was KXEL, Waterloo.

Best catch I ever had was back in the 60s. I had an aircraft receiver that covered approx. 150-400kHz and in the dead of winter with about 800' of wire strung tree to tree picked up Radio Luxembourg on 233kHz.

Of course, they were running about a megawatt or so. That might've helped:)

I've had the occasional good fortune to catch over the air digital TV broadcasts that were being propagated over a long distance, usually from northern Missouri.

Probably the "best" DXing experience I've ever had, though, was in late 2014. I was cruising down the road, scrolling through the FM dial when suddenly KLOU came in loud and clear! I'm only about 300 miles away in Illinois, so this was quite a surprise and definitely like nothing I'd seen before.

Reception was clear as a bell, and even the RDS data was coming in perfectly.

Luckily I met up with my father and asked to borrow his phone to get some video. The reception window stayed open for hours. I later tried some stereo receivers and (very good) standalone tuners hooked up to an outdoor antenna, but none of them managed the outstanding performance of the radio in my truck.

1 time a friend was up on MT washington NH and a CA station came skipping in for a few mins. (AM) I forgot whether it was LA or San Diego..

He heard it long enough to get a location.......

The oddest DX catch for me was in the wee hours of the morning on a December day in 1982 (or was it 1983?), when a very good sporadic-E opening was going.

I had been watching a test signal from a TV station in Saskatchewan on channel 3, which was built to repeat a channel 5 station some distance away.

Suddenly, the resolution bar test signal gave way to an ID slide from Channel 5 Chicago (WMAQ-TV), and later test patterns of Channel 5 Cleveland (WEWS) and Channel 5 Bay City (WNEM). I was DXing the DX!

Excellent!!!!

The highest DX I have ever seen is when I was going to a school in Devon PA . At night channel 40 came skipping in but would fade out during the day.... (Channel 40 in maryland I think) It came in pretty much full quieting on rabbit ears!! (This was 1990)

Every night it was there........

1. Around 1979 or so, living in Western Mass. I picked up WBAY-TV Green Bay WI on channel 2 clear enough to watch and get the ID. Quasar 14" portable color TV with built-in rabbit ears.

2. In 1982 I was living in New Brunswick, Canada, and one evening got a whole ton of FM stations that were clustered around St. Louis for about 20 minutes. Technics SA-222 receiver with a twin-lead FM dipole.

3. Again in New Brunswick, listening to the space shuttle directly as it flew overhead. Panasonic RF-2200 with an ±80 foot wire antenna.

4. ±1988, living in Niagara Falls ON, two solid hours of Detroit UHF TV clear enough to watch. Toshiba 19" color TV with rabbit ears.

5. Until 2003 or so, living in Western Mass. meant analog springtime DXing from Florida, with WJXT in Jacksonville coming in most often, like clockwork on hot days, well enough to ID through windowblinding. GE 25" CTC-177a with amplified RatShack VU-75 roof antenna (yes, the same TV as in my sig).

I remember in the 80s during the summer,every morning channels 2 thru 5 (And sometimes 6) came skipping in.... They mostly all faded by noon......


I miss the good days!!


I LOVE IT WHEN THERE IS A BAND OPENING ON 3 METERS!!!

The last opening was last summer and man was it good one day!!!!!! -- I got 105.1 from MAINE FULL STRENGTH for about 8 hours!!! -- Other stations were in and out but them having thier antenna on a mountain,THEY DID WELL!!!!!!! (They were so strong they came in on my GE superradio also!!! (With just a little whip antenna))

I remember back when Art Bell first aired his new show Midnight in the Desert about a year ago. I looked up what stations were playing it, and I found one in Tennessee on 5.85 MHz. I tuned my Philco 16B in and I could hear it crystal clear. I used to listen to Coast to Coast with George Noory, but I lost interest. That was on WERC 960.

Philco 16B huh? Must be nice. I now have a 37-665B and will soon have a Zenith 11S474. BTW What are you using for a shortwave antenna?

The 16B is out of commision as I do not have sny room to display it, and it is unrestored, so it looks like garbage. The chassis needs a total recap, esp since it was in a flood. The filter caps were replaced a year ago and that was it. I'm pretty sure I had a wire going outside onto a tall bush outside my window. I tried to get the station on my restored Zenith 5S127, and it wouldn't pick it up. I guess I should put the antenna outside again.

WTWW is on 5.085 mHz, but from the west coast, IIRC I heard the program better most evenings on WBCQ 7.490 and/or 9.330 mHz. After the shooting drama in December and his recent illness, I doubt that Art will ever return to the air. :(

jr

Are you guys talking about AM radio frequencies?

No, the two that I listed are shortwave stations... they *are* amplitude modulated but are transmitted in the shortwave broadcast bands. The frequencies are indeed, in the mHz range as I listed. In recent years SW broadcasting has seriously declined, but it is still in use.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands
jr

ahh that makes sense. I haven't checked out shortwave in years, should give it a try

6 meters was open yesterday, with plenty of sporadic-E east of the Mississippi. I worked a dozen stations on sideband (using a wire antenna), and on FM I worked stations in Canada, Florida, and Maine from here in East TN.

When the sporadic-E season is in gear, it's amazing what you can pick up.

I've picked up a station in Window Rock, AZ a few times from here in N.E. Arkansas. I also pick up the Chicago and Dallas stations fairly regularly using only the receiver in a cheap Juliette all in one in my workroom.

Today may be a VERY good day to DX FM in the midwest. I just got to work in Menomenee Falls Wi from Pewaukee Wi, and the whole commute with occasional static drop outs I was getting 87.7 METV FM (LP analog TV Ch.6) coming in clear out of Chicago!

I wish I had a small TV with me...I really want to see if the video carrier is making it here! When I get home if the band is still open I'm going to scour the TV, FM and SW bands.

Indeed! it looks like there is a bit of moderate tropo enhancement in the great lakes region today... good catch!

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

jr

Well, if you want to try it again 5 years later check this web-page for when conditions are good...

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_nat.html

I was still getting it about an hour ago with diminished strength....Seems the visual carrier ain't making it. Quite a bit on FM presently. I got 2 new DTV carriers too. Next on the scan list is SW and AM.

I bet the DTV carriers didnt ever come in strong enough to properly see them do they?