NASWA Notes, March 1998
Here’s a FINAL reminder that the 11th edition of the Winter SWL Festival will take place on 12-14 March 1998 in beautiful and Dxhistoric Kulpsville, PA. Check the Calendar of Events and February’s Journal (page 60) for a registration form. As usual, I look forward to meeting many of our members at this year’s event!
The club’s latest version of the Country List and Awards Program booklet is selling like “hotcakes.” Because of the demand, a fresh batch had to be printed. It can be ordered direct from the Company Store (705 Gregory Drive, Horsham, PA 19044) for only US$3.00 in North America. The booklet is 3-hole punched in an 8 x 11 format which allows for easy updating. The list utilizes a user friendly format which should make it more attractive to newer members and old timers alike. This is essential material for any serious shortwave listener.
Congratulations go out to John Reed of the Longwave Club of America. John was recently selected as the winner of the John H. Clements Memorial Award as the club member who provided the most significant contribution to the longwave hobby the past year. His contributions of many fine articles for the Lowdown did not go unnoticed.
This year marks the 12th and final year for Arthur de Maine as Chief Editor for the DX Times, the monthly bulletin of the New Zealand Radio DX League (P. O. Box 3011, Auckland, New Zealand or e-mail to clarkb@sparc.org.nz). At a recent Annual General Meeting, Arthur announced that 1998 would be his last year in that capacity. Congratulations to him for a job well done over a number of years! NASWA members interested in DX news from a Pacific based club should check out this fine organization. Dues are US$30.00 in North America. Hear is a DX tip from the pages of the DX Times: Worldtime is a web-based service featuring an interactive world atlas, information on local time as well as sunrise and sunset times in several hundred cities, and a database of public holidays worldwide.
Ludo Maes has just released the latest version of the Transmitter Documentation Project. The fifth edition. It is an 80 page booklet listing shortwave broadcaster transmitters worldwide, arranged by country. Each listing indicates the name of the station, transmitter site, geographical coordinates and call-sign. It also shows the number of transmitters at the site, their power, manufacturer, and year of installation and year out of service. The fifth edition is printed in color includes full color advertisements from companies in the shortwave business. Check the Company Store for pricing information.
If you are interested in multiband shortwave portables from the seventies or a 1927 Zenith floor model, you may want to contact (Name removed at request of person mentioned; the radio is no longer available). He has an extensive collection that has grown too large for his humble home according to his wife and daughter. Contact him for a list and related pricing.
Finally, the Australian Radio DX Club (“ARDXC”) and the English Language Department at Radio Australia reached an agreement in February that provides for the re-introduction of Radio Australia QSLs. The agreement will have the station forwarding reception reports to the ARDXC. The club will check the reports and fill out QSL cards. The station will be responsible for mailing of QSLs.
That’s it for this month. Enjoy this month’s edition of the JOURNAL; it’s another good one.
ANARC SWL Net
Tune in Sunday mornings at 10 A. M. Eastern Time on 7240 LSB for the latest in shortwave, medium wave and longwave listening, DX tips, and up to the minute hobby news. Contributors share their DX tips via their own amateur radio stations or by telephoning a “gateway” station who then broadcasts the relayed tips. Contributions are also accepted via the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel #swl while the net is in progress. Net Controls Dave Kirby N1DK, Hausie WB4JSP, and Bob Curtis W1EXZ host an always lively gang of DX monitors. (Best heard in the eastern half of NAm) Net info is also available from Tom Sundstrom’s web page. If you miss the net, you can hear it in RealAudio on the Internet, on Dave Kirby’s home page. Dave also posts text versions of loggings.
Our Motto is — “Unity and Friendship”
Contribute!
Send your loggings and QSL information off to our Distributing Editor, Fred Kohlbrenner (2641 South Shields Street, Philadelphia, PA 19142). He will forward them to the appropriate editor. Remember, Fred has now expanded his business to include QSL report information and totals for the Scoreboard column. He can also be reached through the Internet at: fkohl@ix.netcom.com.
FRENDX: Twenty Five Years Ago….
In the Loudenboomer Report, Charlie writes about his adventures to oriental nation of Kwangpo where 400 million people are encouraged to listen to shortwave by their totalitarian leader, Chairman Di Po’l. The Shortwave Center featured an excellent report about Radio Maldives through the collaborative efforts of Ralph Perry and Al Sizer while Dan Henderson wrote about “Some Considerations for Frequency Measures for Dxers and Henry Michalenka discussed the forgotten band, 3500-4000 kHz. John Hoogerheide’s 10 toughest countries to log were: Falkland Islands, New Hebrides, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia, Sao Tome, Cook Islands, Swaziland, Maldives, and Mauritius. The QSL Report featured six DX’ers with 200 countries heard: Gerry Dexter (207), James Young (206), Don Jensen (203), Ed Shaw (202), Dan Henderson (202), and Bob Padula (200). Only Dexter (201) and Jensen (200) verified 200 or more countries. 182 members reported to the Scoreboard. Gregg Calkin noted that a record 86 reporters contributed to the QSL Report. Larry Magne’s clandestine station of the month was the Voice of the National United Front of Kampuchea. Marlin Field, reporting in Al Niblack’s Flashsheet, reports that Trans World Radio hopes to have a permit soon to start construction of a station in Swaziland.
Calendar Of Events
- Mar’98
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Contest. 1998 North American DX Championships. Further information will be published in the Journal or at the link above, or you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to 1998 NADXC, c/o Dr. Harold Cones, 2 Whits Court, Newport News, VA 23606.
- Mar’98
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Convention. The 11th Annual Winter SWL Festival will be held at the Kulpsville Holiday Inn (Exit 31 on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike) on 13-15 March 1997. Organized by the infamous “gang of three” (Messrs. Brown, Cones, and Field) this all wave gathering attracts about 200 hobbyists each year.
- Mar 20
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Meeting. Philadelphia Area NASWA Chapter. Kulpsville Holiday Inn, Kulpsville, PA at 7:30 PM. For more information contact Dan Cashin at 215-446-7831.
- Mar 20
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Meeting. Boston Area NASWA Chapter. The Lexington Club, Rts. 4 & 225, Lexington, MA at 7:30 PM. The location is 1/4 mile west of Rt. 128, Exit 31. For more information contact Paul Graveline at 978-470-1971 or Internet: 74007.3434@compuserve.com. Check the BADX Web Page: <http://www.grove.net/~badx/>.
- Mar 21
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Meeting. The Miami Valley DX Club (all band orientation) meets at 1:00 PM. For more information plus this months meeting location contact Dave Hammer at 614-471-9973 or write to MVDXC, Box 292132, Columbus, OH 43229-8132.
- Apr 11
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Meeting. The Tidewater SWL’s meet at 6:30 PM. For more information plus meeting location contact Joe Buch at Internet: joseph.buch@dol.net
- Apr 11
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Meeting. The Cincinnati/Dayton Monitoring Exchange (MONIX) meet at the Lebanon Citizens National Bank on U.S. Route 42 in Mason at 7:00 PM. For more information contact Mark Meece at 513-777-5296 or e-mail at mmeece@siscom.net. For additional information about MONIX, check out their web site.
- Jul 98
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Convention. The 4th National Meeting of Mexican DXers will be held in Tehuacan, Mexico on 31 July – 2 August. All shortwave listeners and broadcasters throughout Mexico and around the world are invited. A basic knowledge of Spanish will be helpful, as most convention activities will be conducted in Spanish. For more information contact Jeff White, coordinator of international attendees, c/o Radio Miami International, P.O. Box 526852, Miami, Florida 33152 USA, Telephone: +1-305-267-1728, Fax: +1-305-267-9253, E-mail: wrmi@compuserve.com.
- Aug’98
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Convention. The 36th annual European DX Council conference will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden on 28-31 August 1998. It will be organized by the Swedish DX Federation. More details to follow.
Musings
This column provides a forum wheras members can express comments, ideas, and thoughts about NASWA or the SW radio hobby. Please feel free to comment on anything presented this month (or previous months). Opinions expressed here are are soley those of the submitters. Please submit all Musings to Richard A. D’Angelo, 2216 Burkey Dr., Wyomissing, PA 19610 or via email – r.dangelo3@genie.com
Richard A. D’Angelo, 2216 Burkey Drive, Wyomissing, PA 19610 <r.dangelo3@genie.com>
Our Dxpedition season closed with our final trip to Gifford Pinchot State Park. Only two trips this season as conflicting schedules made life difficult for this band of DX’ers. Bob “Mr. Coffee” Montgomery couldn’t make it this time. Bob grinds his own coffee so we didn’t have the excitement of Bob grinding a batch of beans to brew some java during station identifications. We didn’t miss Bob nearly as much as his antenna.
Our favorite cabin was booked by another party; we didn’t know non-DX’ers were allowed in. We had to settle for a “lesser” cabin to do our listening in. Naturally, the weather was a major factor once again. The remains of a “nor’easter” drenched the park making antenna set-up a wet, messy affair.
GPDX #23, yes I know the last one was #25 but Fred thinks we are beginning to count a little too fast, was attended by myself, George Zeller, Fred Kohlbrenner and Kris Field. Being in a new cabin, running antennas on wet, unfamiliar turf made for some interesting times. The River Johnson was flowing due to the heavy rains. When this happens you need to exercise good judgement while stringing antenna wire.
Conditions were awful on our first day but steadily improved. However by late Saturday, conditions to Latin America fizzled. The highlight of the weekend was catching a Europirate, Laser Hot Hits. It was the first Europirate I can remember logging at Gifford Pinchot in years.
73 – RAD