You may have noticed on the front cover of No. 1 that Paul was "musing" about the future of DX tests. Well, many members on the listserv voiced their opinion on that:

Harry Helms <ak6c@earthlink.net>: The latest DX NEWS arrived today and Paul Swearingen raises an intriguing question on the front page: are DX tests an outmoded concept in these days of corporate ownership and non-resident engineering? Certainly the number of tests is way, way down (remember those Monday mornings in 1970 when over a dozen tests would be scheduled on near-empty channels?) and the odds of any test being widely heard are slim. Maybe----like frequency checks----DX tests have outlived their usefulness. Any thoughts?

Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@hotmail.com>: Although my DXN usually arrives Mondays, today was an exception. However, I think there's a cause which predates large corporate ownership - the near-elimination of daytimers. Then came relaxation of engineering standards and requirements by the FCC. Both of these occurred some time ago, and both before the relaxation of ownership rules and its more recent visible results...

Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: That is a very interesting question. I think DX tests are still very useful and as many have seen the WJNT-890-MS test was heard coast to coast. Here in Seaside Oregon, hearing a MS station is rare, so that was really great to log WJNT. Yes, there are fewer tests and I think many stations do not have the interest or the time. There still are many CEs that take an interest in reception reports. Even with all the QRM, stations running non-directional daytime power seem to do well. I know of many stations I would never have heard without the DX test in recent years. One comes to mind is WARV-1590-Rhode Island. That was a real thrill to hear that, even if it took a beverage to hear it. I think DX tests will always be very useful in hearing new stations. Keep em' coming!!!

Kevin Redding <lwdxer@juno.com>: OK Harry, I have to admit that I consort with the enemy at IRCA. I work with Lynn Hollerman on CPC. We ask everyone on earth if they will run a test and a lot of them say that at night no one is there. Its all on auto pilot and they aren't coming in to do a test. It looks like tests are a vestige from the past and they will be completely gone soon. I like the tests, but I think they are gone the way of the flat top antenna.

Doug Smith <w9wi@bellsouth.net>: There will continue to be a few engineers who have the time and inclination to try these. It won't be as important as it was, but they'll still happen. I would disagree with the "odds of any test being widely heard are slim" comment. Morse Code IDs really cut through a crowded channel. (use Cuba's Radio Reloj as an example. You can hear that "RR" plainly even if the voice audio is completely buried in QRM.) Even the voice and music portions can be widely heard on the right channel. I definitely feel DX tests are still worthwhile from the DXer's standpoint, it's just a matter of finding stations that feel likewise<grin>. I'm actually surprised that frequency checks lasted as long as they did!

John D. Bowker <wa2wen@juno.com>: Kevin.. regarding DX tests at automated stations: Maybe we should track Jerry Starr's column closely, and when a station moves its transmitting site.. or changes its coverage pattern.. we should suggest that we have listeners all over the country who would be happy to report.. etc., etc. The station I was with for a couple of years in New Jersey went to an engineerless-transmitter but often had a person out at the transmitter during the first few days of our change -- and all we did was switch to a new transmitter.

Kevin Redding: John, The idea about asking after seeing antenna and power changes in the column is a good one and I have done that. It may give a better yield if I did it more, but so far it hasn't been all that successful. People just aren't all that excited to go in after midnight on a Monday morning to run a DX test that they aren't getting paid for. The station being automated doesn't seem to help much.

Randy Stewart <jrs555t@smsu.edu>: About the continuation of the tradition of DX tests... I can certainly understand the reluctance of most stations to bother with them these days. But I'd personally hate to see them die out altogether. As Pat Martin and others have noted, those CW IDs can cut through the most crowded channels...most of my best DX test loggings, in fact, have been mostly on the basis of CW IDs, rather than voice IDs or any identifiable program material.

John Tudenham <w0jrp@earthlink.net>: With tube transmitters and crystal ovens in 1970 frequency checks were very important. With new solid state, transmitters usually stay close to frequency (or at least suppose to) and frequency checks are usually not needed. A tone or morse code usually can be heard through the QRM and a good way of IDing a station. With all the 24/7 operation this is the only way we can hear a DX test.

Barry McLarnon VE3JF <bm@lynx.ve3jf.ampr.org>: Great - another reminder that newcomers like me have missed the Golden Years of AM DXing.:-) DX tests may be few and far between these days, but I've had great fun (and fairly good results) with those that I've tried for. I spent many years chasing CW DX on the ham bands, so those Morse IDs are like music to my ears, and they really cut through the crud. You could argue, I think, that with the demise of clear channels and silent periods, DX tests are more needed than ever. Keep 'em coming, I say...

John Callarman <JohnCallarman@email.msn.com>: "The Golden Years of DX-ing" ended when virtually every station in the United States license for unlimited hours went 24/7. The golden PAGES of DX'ing ended when DX News went offset. There was one advantage to mimeographing DX News. It was possible to airmail IDXD editor Pete Taylor DX-ing results from Monday morning, have them arrive in his P.O. Box in San Francisco Tuesday night, have Pete's stencils typed and in Ray Edge's hands in time for the bulletin to be received by Saturday... or the following Monday at the latest. We - the overall BCB DX'ing community - have developed since the advent of universal NSP operations have developed antennas and filters that clear away a lot of the crud. DX-ing, thus, still has challenging possibilities. But it isn't as easy as it used to be. As far as DX tests are concerned, cheers for those who endure the frustration of stations who neither know nor care about DX-ers and keep trying to find those rare ones who will do something special to help us to hear them. Just because it's a lot harder is no reason to quit trying.

Anyone who is not on the listserv and would like to comment on this topic (or any others that appear here, or topics which haven’t appeared yet!!) can send me an e-mail or a regular old postal letter, and I’ll include them at the next opportunity. My two cents worth on DX tests is that, properly done, they are very useful in logging hard or impossible to hear stations at your location – my best DX test results are two ND stations, one MT, and one CA, in addition to numerous stations closer that are normally too weak to hear without some kind of help. However, perhaps there needs to be a shift in which stations we pursue for testing (see the comments on facility changes above), and maybe even in what we expect the station to do during the test. The old standby of a half-hour of special programming on daytime facilities is ideal, but even having stations insert a code ID on a regular basis should help someone hear it that otherwise wouldn’t, no??

You also may have noticed in IDXD Bruce Conti’s recent log of Uruguay on 930 (maybe in this issue). His posting of that log on the listserv brought the following:

Neil Kazaross <neilkaz@interaccess.com>: Congrats Bruce...I believe this is the first logging of Uruguay from the US I've seen in the 25 years I've been in the club.

Robert Foxworth <rfoxwor1@tampabay.rr.com>: The last CX I recall being heard in the US was CX28 Radio Imparcial on 1090 which would be occasionally heard on the one day a week that WBAL had it's silent period, they were AN. That may have been in the '60's certainly early 70's at latest I believe. They were heard by a number of DX'ers then, on occasional good mornings, and QSL'ed by some of them but unfortunately not by me. Was in NJ at the time. Russ didn't you get 'em?

Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: No! Wish I had. I had several Peruvians during that time, and several Brazilians, but never got either Argentina or Uruguay. I'd be inclined to guess/recollect it was Ray Moore or Bill Bailey...

Neil Kazaross: I'm well aware of logs of Imparcial in the 60's and perhaps early 70's but by the time I came on the seen in the later 70's the channel was occupied by closer LA's even when WBAL went off. This highlights one advantage that occurs for DSA's now the further east one goes. In general you get further from pests in Colombia and to some extent Venezuela and by getting up the coast of Maine you make Cuba a much weaker two hop signal. As an example, from Narransett RI in the late 70's early 80's I only heard a few Brazilians on a R390A/Sanserino Loop. The same set up in Ogunquit ME in 1983 resulted in 20 Brazilians in one night and when I got the Beverage up that improved on the best nights off course. I must have logged 100 Cubans from Narragansett, but from Ogunquit anything in Cuba that wasn't superpower was DX thanx to land blockage and more distance which meant that the low angle 1 hop sig wasn't receivable. Speaking of Brazilians and coastal DX, I had several nights where I left Narransett listening to Mundial on 860 and once I arrived back at my parent's home in Pawtucket there never was a trace. I heard absolutely no Brazilian or anything south of Ecuador from Pawtucket which was about 25 miles from the water to the south. I could regularly hear most of the Ecuadorian splits and in severe AU logged a 1 kW Colombian on 1600 and a 1KW Costa Rican on 1320, but DSA's forget em for me inland.

Russ Edmunds: Mundial-860 was my first Brazilian ever (from North Jersey) heard with HQ-150 and NRC loop, several times. Also got Brazil on 940, 980, 1180, 1280, 960, 1000 & 1100. 960, 980 and 1280 were probably the more exciting. My best SA still has to be Peru on 980, though which remains my only even-channel Peruvian. I guess my only 'DSA' would be Paraguay-645. Wish I could hear anything like that from here! I continue to hold out hope that one day I'll be able to outfit the family's summer cottage on the coast in Jonesport, ME with some gear and give things a try. I won't have adequate land for a beverage, but I could do some temporary longwires across the blueberry fields and some more permanent shorter wires in the trees. But that's probably a few years off, yet, sigh...

Mark Connelly <MarkWA1ION@excite.com>: First of all, a great report Bruce. Especially Uruguay-930...awesome!…I had a lot of fun DXing the same Latin American "feeding frenzy" from Cape Cod on Saturday evening and I'm going to shoot out to the beach (Rockport or Rowley) on Wednesday after work for a couple of hours to see what else I can uncover. The report will be too long to comply with list rules, so I'll put it on the Web and reference the URL here on the list. On Neil's comments (Narragansett versus Ogunquit) I find that on the Cape a distance as small as about 15 miles from West Yarmouth, MA with water to the SE, S, and SW versus Orleans, MA with water NE, E, and SE and sandy-soil blockage in other directions makes a huge difference on the eastern Brazilians. Fortaleza and Natal area Brazilians act like Africans and are better at the Orleans sites; the Cuban/Colombian QRM is much lower even without an obvious difference in skip distance versus West Yarmouth. The big difference is that anything low angle from the SW (Cuba 1-hop for instance) sails into West Yarmouth unimpeded but gets "eaten up" by the sand en route to Orleans. The west end of the Powder Point Bridge in Duxbury, MA ranks as one of the "top gun" Brazil-gettin' QTH's because the shoreline runs to the south-southeast, cutting off Cubans and even some of the western South Americans. The Brazilians from the southeast come in over a long stretch of fairly shallow water that probably has a higher salt concentration than deep water. At sunset I've seen Fortaleza, Brazil on 760 hit over S9 there quite often. The Duxbury location is also superb for the Africans including Lesotho-1197 on several occasions and tentative South Africa-846 with WEEI-850 nulled with the loop-whip cardioid array. This all goes to show that the mechanics of a location can be just as important a contributor (to what gets heard and what doesn't) as is the antenna and receiver themselves. Put the best of everything together and east coasters call it Cappahayden (NF) and westerners Grayland (WA). Most are us are aware of the accomplishments of the groups who visit these sites: DX you can only dream about at home.

Marc Delorenzo <Marc.Delorenzo@rcp.dph.state.ma.us>: Bruce, Great catch, nice going!!!!

John Callarman <JohnCallarman@email.msn.com>: If my tapes are still good from the 1964-65 DX season, I should have some material from Radio Carve in Montevideo on 850 kHz. Without digging out my old log books from my Pampa, Texas, days, I think I heard them about the same time I taped just enough of KICY in Nome to get a QSL for the taped report... ID was clear. Radio Carve, sad to say, did not confirm my report.

And, so we don’t ignore the left coast, Patrick Martin’s recent postings on the listserv have included some excellent TP catches from the west coast.

We’ll finish off with some Internet news, beginning with Blaine Thompson’s Indiana RadioWatch: AC/WRSW-AM & FM (1480am, 107.3fm; both Warsaw) will end their simulcast this month. The FM will continue its AC format while the AM will begin a sports format, airing ESPN Radio...WGTO (910am, Cassopolis, Michigan) is now broadcasting in AM Stereo...Artistic Media Partners' WAZY-AM (1410am, Lafayette) drops its simulcast of AC/WAZY-FM and flips to Standards under PD Steve Clark. According to an article in the Lafayette Journal and Courier, WAZY's programming comes

from Westwood One, and they have added hourly CNN Radio News updates.

And from Scott Fybush’s NorthEast Radio Watch dated October 2, 2000:

WNTY (990-MA) has returned to the air after that leased-time payment dispute that shut the station down for a few weeks. No word yet on a permanent format for the ADD Media station...Our engineering-minded friends have been perusing the FCC database as it slowly returns to being current, and it seems Framingham's WKOX (1200) and Waltham's WRCA (1330) are both contemplating sharing a new set of five towers at the Newton site of WUNR (1600 Brookline). It's not clear whether WKOX would be at the new site all day or only at night, and we're also told that WRCA's proposed 17 kW from the new towers wouldn't provide that much improvement over its current 5 kW in Waltham. We're hoping to know more about these applications, as well as WMEX (1060 Natick)'s power increase and site move (back to its old Ashland location) sometime soon...Wednesday marked the launch of New York City's newest all-news station. WNNY (1380) will have a staff of 50 people, comparable to its English-language competitors WCBS and WINS. Alejandro Guerrera is the news director at Mega's new entry into the Big Apple's increasingly crowded Spanish-language market...The Commission released a list of uncontested major AM applications last week, based on the applications submitted during January's window for new AM authorizations. We'll know all the details on these later this month, when the full Form 301 applications are due, but here's what's being proposed: Up in Maine, a Daniel Priestly has applied for 1230 in Hermon and 1340 and 1400 in Veazie. New Hampshire finds Bob Vinikoor (of WNTK and yet-unbuilt WQTH fame) applying for 1490 in Lebanon as well. In addition, one Jeffrey Steven Wendell wants 540 in Jaffrey. We already knew about the Connecticut proposals: Fair Communications for 1590 in Oakville, and Dennis Jackson's 1490s in Torrington and Uncasville and 1400 in Falls Village. Heading into Massachusetts, things start getting interesting. Remember our speculation that Alex Langer bought 1470 in Portage, PA (near Johnstown) with an improvement to WSRO Marlborough in mind? Seems he's applying to move WSRO to Watertown with a significant power upgrade...and to move the Portage station, WFJY, down the dial to 660 and an hour west to the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg. (He's also applying to move WVFC 1530 in McConnellsburg PA a few hours east to the Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia, and on 1180, to boot!) Also applying to change city of license to Watertown is Waltham's WRCA (1330) -- related, perhaps, to the proposed tower move? In New York, Arthur Liu's WNYG (1440 Babylon) would move to Islip Terrace on Long Island. Michael A. Sleezer wants a new station on 1440 up in Gloversville. Long-unbuilt WKNJ (550 Lakeside NJ) wants to slide across the state line to Harriman, NY. And in the Syracuse area, WOLF Radio wants a new DeRuyter station on 780, WSIV (1540 East Syracuse) wants to move to DeWitt and 720, while Craig Fox's Renard Broadcasting wants to put a 1510 on the air in Mexico, near Oswego. We'll have technical details on all of these, we hope, when the applications are filed later in October.

If you know of any similar publications floating around that would offer news of interest to NRC members, let me know and I’ll investigate. See you next time.