CQ Amateur Radio

DX

Over my 55 years of chasing DX, my methods for doing so have evolved. In the beginning, I just turned on my radio and tried to work what I could hear. Information was sparse other than what was read in the available monthly magazines at that time, so you never knew just what you may come upon considering the long print lead-time required. In a way, those were the more exciting times of DXing for me. Just turning on the radio and wandering the bands listening for DX forced me to “listen” a whole lot more than I do now. When a new one was found, it truly was more exciting than the current method of finding the pre-announced DX station on a spotting cluster and going to his frequency and start calling. But times have changed.

As I got a bit more serious, I subscribed to the Long Island DX Bulletin which, as I recall, would send out postcards with special announcements. Then came along (for me) Gus Browning’s The DXer magazine, Hugh Cassidy’s West Coast DX Bulletin, “The DX Bulletin” by Chod Harris (WB2CHO / VP2ML now SK) and later Jim Cain (K1TN), and more recently, Carl Smith’s (N4AA now SK) QRZ-DX.

Currently, my information has moved completely online by using the ARRL DX Bulletin service <> as well as the OPDX by>, which are both free weekly services. I complete my incoming information by subscribing to “The Daily DX” by Bernie McClenny, W3UR, which is what it infers — a daily email service providing up-to-date DX information. Bernie even includes additional “as necessary” email bulletins for a complete and timely flow of pertinent DX scoop. <>. There are other sources of online DX news out there, but these are the ones I use here.

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