DXer's Notebook
By: David Braun <dcbraun@delanet.com>
We’ll start this time with another installment of the best bet to hear certain areas, this time working on the Maritime provinces of Canada. We’ll also have some more on the Xband stations, and begin a discussion of the current status of QSLing. Any comments you have on these subjects? Send them to me, they’ll get fit in somewhere down the line.
PROVINCES
Rick Kenneally <woodlandview@yahoo.com>: Which NF station have Eastern DXers heard most? I've yet to hear any NF station from any DX location. And, based on the note below, I'd like to hear one before they're gone.
Bob Klinger <Rklinger97@aol.com>: Rick: In regards to your question, I am in the same boat as you.
Bob Galerstein <bgwb2vgd@nac.net>: Rick, Best bet is 740 Marystown, especially at sunset. I've heard it through the former CBL at times.
Bruce Conti <BACONTI@aol.com>:The following are received here most nights:
Mike Brooker <aum108@idirect.com>:In 25 years of DXing from Toronto, I have logged only two Newfoundlanders:
Benjamin Dangerfield <ben-dangerfield@worldnet.att.net>: No one has yet mentioned the station on 1210. Last summer, when I was DXing at Rockport with Bruce and Mark, this one was nicely picked up with WPHT phased. I would think that WPHT could be phased once clear of the Philly metropolitan area.
Brent Taylor, VE1JH <btaylor@nbnet.nb.ca>: Here in NB the best bet has historically been 740, Marystown. It was audible in the daytime from the Northern Shore of Prince Edward Island....
Phil Greenspan <PGreen1950@aol.com>: One advantage of being on the coast is Canadian DX. From Marshfield, MA we've heard:
by far 740 CHCM is the most prevalent.
Bruce Conti <BACONTI@aol.com>: 1210 is easy on the shore, but once inland it's extremely rare. I'll typically hear Venezuela with WPHT nulled. 640, 740, and 750 are definitely easier catches.
Jim <K1ygg@aol.com>: Rick, the Newfoundland station on 740 was getting into Springfield, MA. pretty well last winter, it very good copy on it on my car radio one evening around 8 PM.
Rick Kenneally <woodlandview@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NRC-am] Best bets for Newfoundland?
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2001 12:29 PM
A great big thanks to Bruce, Bob, Mike, Ben, Brent, Phil and Jim for your responses to this question. Got some time off coming up, and I'm looking forward to camping on 740 at sunset trying for Marystown.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: On the subject on "Best Bets". I still need PEI and NS. Any idea on those from the West Coast? The only thought for PEI is probably 720, which I have tried for when KDWN has been off . So far no luck on 720. I did log and QSL CBT-540 from AK in the 60s and CBY-990 in the 90s from OR for NFD.
Bruce Conti <BACONTI@aol.com>: Definitely 720 CHTN Charlottetown for PEI, received here with a solid signal on any given night. My best signals from Nova Scotia are 920 CJCH Halifax, 960 CHNS Halifax, and 1000 CKBW Bridgewater.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: 920,960, or 1000 are real toughies with the QRM. Any others?
Rick Kenneally <woodlandview@yahoo.com>: Patrick, I've heard:
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: 720 & 780 are possible and 1000, if KOMO is off.
Doug Smith W9WI <w9wi@w9wi.com>: Catch 1000 fast, it has a permit to move to FM.
Doug Smith, W9WI <w9wi@w9wi.com>: Isn't CHTN the only AM left on PEI?
Barry McLarnon <bm@lynx.ve3jf.ampr.org>: Nope, CFCY-630 is still on - I hear them fairly frequently with C&W programming, though they have much more competition than CHTN does on 720. PEI is the only province I can claim to have completed.:-)
I concur with Bruce's observations re NS. CKBW is the one most frequently heard here. Their daytime 10 kW ND should be a good sunset target. They have a very deep nighttime null to the west to protect WMVP, but despite that, I sometimes hear them well at night, so maybe they occasionally "forget". This is a good one for the DX tippers to keep an eye on... maybe they'll become more lax in the days before they shut down their AM transmitter for good.
XBAND
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: Per a follow up phone call to engineering at KOME-1630-CA, there is a good chance they will not use 1630 as in new tests the 5 kW 790 covers better. So another one we can scratch.
Powell E. Way III <powell@conterra.com>: Well, if they give it up, someone else will apply. I also wonder about the unbuilt or "not on the air" allocations....1660 was allocated to Charlotte. They were going to do a petition for 1610...the current station is on 1600. I don't know what the deal is....maybe I should call...
Patrick Griffith, N0NNK/ WPE9HVW <AM-DXer@webtv.net>: "And you'll notice that Elizabeth NJ-1530 and Vallejo-CA-1190 are still alive and well, over five years after their X-banders began broadcasting." I don't know if this is the case with these examples but there seems to be a big loophole in the expanded band rules. You do have to surrender one of the licenses by the end of the 5 year period. However you can immediately reapply for that license after surrendering it. Of course you would be in competition with anyone else who might want to apply for that license. But it appears to me that if you do reapply and get the license back that you just surrendered, there seems to be no limitation on how long you can continue to operate both it AND the expanded band station. It seems apparent to me that the intent of the expanded band was not to lessen channel loading in the existing AM band but was instead simply to accommodate an increase in the overall number of AM stations capable of being supported within the entire AM band. Read carefully the following excerpts from the FCC web site.
"Once my expanded band facility is built, may I surrender my existing band license and then apply to use my old existing band frequency?"
Yes. An expanded band licensee may surrender its existing band license for cancellation once the expanded band station is licensed. The new station application specifying the "old" existing band frequency must satisfy current existing band allocations criteria. The FCC Form 301 application would be subject to competing applications and petitions to deny.
"I understand that the expanded band license will be for a five year term. Will my existing band license expire automatically at the end of this license period?"
No. Five years after the issuance of an expanded band construction permit, one of the two authorizations must be surrendered. The choice is solely at the licensee's discretion.
Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: Do we know for certain that the prior owners didn't simply sell the old facilities to a slightly or somewhat different ownership group in these cases? The rules don't prohibit that either.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: I was talking with a CE in Texas a while back about the X Band. He told me "Why wouldn't a station want to have an X Band frequency? You get two stations that way". When I asked him about the 5 year limit, he laughed at that, saying stations should not be worried. There are ways around it.
John Tudenham <w0jrp@earthlink.net>: I think some stations are having 2nd thoughts about the X band. If they already have a low frequency even with less power their daytime groundwave coverage may be better than the 10 kW at 1600. They may do somewhat better at night with 1 kW and a non DA Antenna on the X band however.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: That is what the CE stated at KOOR-790. They have decided against 1630-Clovis, as 790 does better they feel.
VERIFICATIONS
Eric C. Loy <obvious@prairienet.org>: Well, in getting back into the hobby these past two years, I've pretty much stopped sending out reports. For the 1999-2000 season, my return rate was well short of 50%, with a ZERO return rate from Canada. That's especially sad for me, as some of my most treasured ones of the past are Canadian: CJOY. CHLO, CHAB, CFOR and my all time favorite Canadian, CHYR7 on CHYR7 stationery. For this last season, I hit 100%: one for one. KBIM-910 for a new state was too much to resist.
I see a lot of folks are now collecting e-mail veries...maybe I should give it a try...but there was just SOMETHING about a trip to the post office that made it special. Of course many of my last few replies were of the "note on the report" variety, but still.
Working at a graveyarder, we get very few reports. Even when we DX Tested a while back, I practically had to search the internet for reports. We did get a verifiable taped report from Finland, though.
All time report story: our GM was running around the station holding a report from a Swedish DXer, hooting about how long the signal traveled, and how he was going to mention it on his Morning Show....until I noticed the scrawl on the bottom of the report: "Heard while on Amtrak." The Amtrak track runs north and south about 30 yards away from the station.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: QSLing is tougher than it once was. I have pretty good luck with US & Canadian stations (90-95%), but to get that I have to resort to e mails, ppcs, and phone calls to stations to "pry" a QSL out of them. I get this "We have hundreds of reports to reply to and don't have the time. Could you send me something to sign?" That works too. I remember wanting a QSL out of KENI-650-Anchorage AK a few years back. I sent follow ups to the station with ppcs, etc. for a couple of years. No luck. I tried calling the station. The CE is the only one that will reply to reports and he is never in. Finally I found out his home address and sent my report direct to his house. It worked. I got a QSL form back. So anything goes in this day. I don't care for e mail QSLs., but I will use them if I can't get anything else. I do try to replace them in time if I can. The same goes for ppcs. At least it is one form of a QSL. Canadian stations are much like the US ones many times now as the Eng. is the Eng. for several stations in a network and has less time, so you have to try again. It will work out in time. But it takes time...
Paul Swearingen <PlsBCBDXER@aol.com>: I must say I feel somewhat sorry for those of you who started taking only paper veries and try to hang on and continue ... and probably annoy poorly-paid station personnel to the point of not wanting to deal with DX'ers ever again. Sure, the collection is great and is a lot of fun to take to conventions and let attendees paw over ... but at what price, in terms of postage, time, and the patience of station personnel?
I'm just glad that I started taping ID's when I did, even though it was only 26 years ago. The nostalgia factor is immeasurable when I listen to those tapes; it took only seconds for me to make them and subsequently dub them; and if I get around to burning them on CD, they'll be that much more accessible to me and anyone else, including poor John Bowker whom I've promised to send ID's for his DXAS program and never have.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: I don't find phoning a station to find out about a reception report that was sent is bothering the station. A DXers needs to be polite. You have to remember that the station is there to serve its listeners (at least that was the original idea), and dropping a note to a DXer is not a lot of work. People now have gotten so lazy. That phone call to the station might do more good than you think. Several times the report never reached them, or maybe they did not understand what you wanted. There are lots of reasons you can phone a station.
On the subject of taped veries, I could count all my taped veries, as I always have a tape back up, especially if I need to send a follow up, but I don't care to count them as QSLs. What about the "tentative" report you send to the station. You have a darn good idea you heard the station, but there is no ID. With a tape, you could not count that station. If you send the tape to the station and they confirm it was their station, you've got your verie. That has happened to me many times through the years. Who cares about the time, postage, etc. Any hobby is going to cost your time and money. What ever hobby you chose, to be successful, you have to put a lot of work into it. In QSLing, it is not the 60s anymore and many of the stations do not even know what a QSL is, so it is the job of the DXer to educate them. That has been done by New Zealand & Australia DXers for years, and it pays off. 90% of more of the DU's QSL.
For the stations that do not QSL, they have DXers like John Wright that have taken on the QSLing. I have thought that would be a great idea in the US. A few of us are doing that now.
I still like what Ernie Cooper once said about collecting QSLs. He has been at it for 70 years. It is nice to look through QSLs on a rainy day. Each one brings back memories on how that station was received and QSL'd.
David Gleason <david@davidgleason.com>: I take considerable exception to your opinion, Patrick. Radio stations today have far fewer staffers than they did 20 years ago. Most of us never, ever write a "real" letter, even in administrative positions. I, for one, would not know where to find letterhead! Add that to the fact that DXing is not understood or appreciated by most younger staffers, and that engineering is almost always done by an outside contractor at all but the biggest stations and you have what is tantamount to an imposition on station time and productivity.
Answering a letter form a listener outside the station service area is not serving the listener... It is just serving the DXer.
As someone who ad over 2200 paper veries at one time, I feel I have enough knowledge of both sides of the issue to say that writing for verifications today is not a good idea. Some stations may be fascinated by reception letters, but others are not. Most don't have the time. Most don't see any reason to answer.
Forgetting for a moment about consolidation, we have to realize that most markets have triple or quadruple the number of competitive stations when compared to the late 50's or early 60's (the time when 80% of stations verified on the first try). FM is competitive, 80-90 drop-ins have come in, and many AMs have been marginalized due to signals that no longer cover the entire expanding metro. There is not triple the money for ad revenue, so staffs are smaller and expected to work longer, even in the big markets (where I work it is common to see lots of people still in offices after 7 PM!). There are fewer resources for verie answering.
Add the fact that half the letters coming in nowadays are from some guy in Italy who says, "I heard you while I was at Disneyland. Please QSL." Plus, with many stations on the net in some form or fashion, the "proof" of reception issue is taken with considerable skepticism.
Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: Thanks David for your comments on the subject. I do have to agree with you on longer hours and less staffers. However, there are those that just don't want to write a letter. Face it, unless a person can make a buck doing something they are not interested. I am not saying all people. To give you an example. I have had CEs return my calls on their nickel, which is very nice. But they will spend 1/2 hour or more talking to you, but they don't have time to write verified on your report and mail it back? "Something is wrong with this picture". It does not take any time to QSL a ppc or to write verified on a report. I used to feel that stations got tons of reports. That is not the case anymore, as few people QSL. I know of many stations that readily QSL correct reports, from secretaries to CEs. Some of the CEs engineer many stations and they work alone. Why do these CEs have the time and others don't? I still feel that many just aren't interested, and don't want to bother. As far as letterhead goes, to me it is nice, but not important. Some stations still go "the extra mile" and they print up QSL cards to send out. Those stations spend even more time that is not needed to help out the DXer. All I am talking about is getting some form of QSL back, be it e mail, ppc, letter, signed report...That is all. I still don't see why someone can't scribble "verified" on your report and mail it back, especially with a self addressed stamped envelope. If I write a letter to Proctor & Gamble about some product they sell, I would always get a friendly letter back. Is radio any different? I still feel, no matter if the listener or DXer is in the area, they should respond some way.
As far an the station being on the internet, that is why I generally send a cassette tape with my reports. I do know that some guy in Italy will send bogus reports. Hey, I even got one for KAVT. But I would think a tape of the signal would be enough to get the station to believe you. I don't think the station owes you a QSL, don't get me wrong...I just feel it can't hurt to QSL that DXer out there.
Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: I stopped writing for verifications in about 1975, having only a few hundred. In my case, the combination of poor returns without endless follow-ups, which I was unwilling to do (even then !), the time I had to divert from listening to 'secretarial duties ', plus the increasing (yes, even back then) postal costs, coupled with the fact that I had started taping nearly all of my DX in 1969, all contributed to the decision.
I never was going to create a collection for others to look at during get-togethers or conventions, and even that activity was dwindling. I was doing it for myself, and so I stopped.
When I moved to the Philadelphia area in 1983, I didn't pick up the hobby again until 1989. At that time, as now, I had the problems of a basement shack, and electrical noise, and so, as I spent a lot of time locally in the car commuting or whatever, I commenced doing most of my DX in the car, and so as a result of that, plus the death of the reel-to-reel recorder I had used, I also stopped taping. And, only in part due to the death of the tape machine, I've not listened to my tapes since!
At some point, I'd like to re-listen, and, if the quality is still there, transfer them to CD or something else, but try finding a reasonably-priced stereo reel-to-reel tape machine these days ! I suppose I have diminished some of my hobby enjoyment by not replacing the taper, but a long time ago I made the decision to spend more of my hobby time actually DX'ing, and the less hobby time I have, the more I'm glad that I did. I know what I've heard, and require neither veries nor tapes to 'prove' it to anyone else, because, again, I only DX for me!
Ron Gitschier <RGITSCHIER@doyle.navy.mil>: With all this talk about veries, I want to thank the members on this list that donate their time to volunteer to be QSL Managers. Hobbyists looking to make a difference... there are a handful here on this list. From that lead I became involved in hunting down mailed reception reports at the station. At first there were many just lying around pinned up in the studio or tucked away in drawers or hoarded by various staff as trophies or mementos... I snuffed each of them out, read them, and prepared on station's stationery, with the PD/Acting GM's permission, a verie letter printed out of my home PC/Printer. I paid postage where there wasn't an offering or it was taken by the staff earlier from my own pocket because I wanted to make a difference. Being a single income family with one in college at the time, I usually took postage from my coffee money and was happy to do it. About every week, I'd make sure I drove the 50+ miles each way to the station to collect the reception reports.
A lot of folks were mighty grateful for my efforts. Many from this group/club and many other fellow DXers abroad. Some of which had been trying to land a WGSR (WQAI/WYHI) verie for years. Once word got out we were verifying, and subsequently I held DX tests, correspondence grew to new heights, acquaintances made, etc.
I used to report loggings before I enlisted in the Navy and had a fairly good return rate ('81/'82). Through most every QSL I learned something new about the station I logged as I'd ask a number of questions, mostly technical whenever I'd write a station. I thank all those folks for taking the time to reply. While AM DXing is indeed a thrill, I don't feel that it's 'law' that they 'have' to reply to every single piece of mail. It's a 'if you have the time' sort of thing... it's a very nice thing to do on behalf of the broadcaster to promote the hobby and good will... all that said I hope that everyone eventually gets a good return rate. It's frustrating, but keep at it.
Me, I'd like to do reports again, but don't have a lot of time to DX. Maybe that's one reason I collect AM IDs. And the ones I reap from the ether are the most special to me, because it's sort of a living QSL in a sense... my personal memento that I heard station W/K/C/X-xxx when I lived in Jacksonville, FL or was sailing through their city grade signal on a trip with the ship along our coast or abroad.
I am no longer associated with radio station WGSR as it has a different party that just opened a lease with the ownership. I may later on, as history has it - I always come back to Fernandina's airwaves but for now I'll have to step back and feel things out. I've been there at 1570 since June 11, 1997.
If anyone on the list should ever get their foot into a station, I encourage you to see about volunteering to be a "QSL" manager. I enjoyed my tour as one immensely. It gave me a good feeling inside that I was helping to make a difference in the hobby from my little corner of the world. We can numerate all the reason why we can't take the time, but on the most part the challenge is to think of all the reasons to do it - 'support radio' (and our hobby), as Fred says every month.
Kevin Redding <amfmtvdx@qwest.net>: I tape stuff and wonder why I do it. I rarely if ever listen to the tapes and they take up space and probably if I ever get the time to listen, the tapes will be unusable. Looks like you and I are just about on the same page. I keep a log of interesting things that I hear and tape some stuff and that’s it. I might stop taping and just keep the log. The important thing is to remember that this is a hobby and what its all about it to have fun. You don't have to do anything but enjoy whatever aspect of the hobby you like best. Listening is the part that’s the best for me too!
More on QSL’s next time. Hope to see you then.