Hilltop and a telescoping antenna

[Swede P]

Last night at local 1 am (2300UTC) on top of a hill in Central Sweden with a simple Realistic DX-380 and nothing more than the telescoping antenna.

Usually, down in the valley reception of stations from North America is iffy at best using nothing more than the attached antenna. It was amazing what a difference climbing the hill made. I received WBCQ and heard Ramsey's Roadhouse on 7415. There was some interference from an adjacent channel but physically rotating the receiver allowed me to zero in on the intended channel.

A few minutes later on 9480 I could hear WTWW and Scriptures for America (no comment on the content of that programme).

I know this is not in the form of a proper reception report, but I was pretty excited and I will see if I could put up a long-wire antenna in the trees up there and set up a reliable connection with North America.

DXing in itself is fascinating, but when listening for content, European radio and other state-run broadcasters heard in Sweden leave a lot to be desired. I love WBCQ and get a kick out of the other US broadcasters. They are the whole reason to have shortwave in my opinion.

[The Hokie]

We've had a pretty good path on 20 meters from the East Coast to you guys. A few weekends ago during the Scandinavian HF contest, I was having pretty good luck with even 100 watts.

US SW broadcasters other than WBCQ? Really?

[Zoidberg]

...DXing in itself is fascinating, but when listening for content, European radio and other state-run broadcasters heard in Sweden leave a lot to be desired...

Heh... one of my favorite QSLs was from Radio Sweden, for a low power test back in the late 1990s or early 2000s.  I always thought Sweden's programming was pretty interesting, even after they used Sackville relays and it wasn't really DX any longer.

I think DXers suffer from "grass is greener and radio listening is more exotic on the other side of the fence/ocean" syndrome.

[Swede P]

...DXing in itself is fascinating, but when listening for content, European radio and other state-run broadcasters heard in Sweden leave a lot to be desired...

Heh... one of my favorite QSLs was from Radio Sweden, for a low power test back in the late 1990s or early 2000s.  I always thought Sweden's programming was pretty interesting, even after they used Sackville relays and it wasn't really DX any longer.

I think DXers suffer from "grass is greener and radio listening is more exotic on the other side of the fence/ocean" syndrome.

Well, Radio Sweden certainly was more interesting than SR (Sveriges Radio) which is intended for domestic consumption. Interestingly enough, while you could hear Radio Sweden from Sackville, Radio Canada broadcast from Hörby. I wonder if it was simply a case of switching sattelite feeds. Hörby no longer carries Radio Canada in either English or French anymore, so I am afraid I have missed out for the past year or so.

I certainly suffer from the grass is greener syndrome. That is not by any means limited to radio; however, as far as radio is concerned there is simply not the same amount of personality, variety or quality on this side - except of course for the pirates 

[Swede P]

US SW broadcasters other than WBCQ? Really?

Forgive me my blasphemy  WBCQ is certainly the best.

Through the late 90's there was interesting stuff on WWCR. I admit I purposely looked for spooky things, like "Hour of the Time" and "Overcomer Ministry". WWCR lately has just been a bunch of frantic save-me-Jesus orgies so I haven't listened in a while, but in the past there were more scholarly religious discussions dealing with history and doctrine etc.

I was interested when WTWW started up about 18 months ago or so, but it seemed to be monopolised by that bigoted fool Pastor Peters so I am not so interested. Still, it is worth mentioning that their 9480 signal comes in very clear from the hilltop at my location whenever there is a line of darkness, using only the telescoping antenna.

Before it gets too cold, I might camp out on the hilltop some night and do a proper survey of the kind of signals I can get from North America.

[Pigmeat]

That sounds like a good idea. Verticals are good dx antennas.

When I was a young pirate I used to test my audio by driving around my end of the county with the Grenade feeding a Hamstick while recording the audio from a radio at home. I always did it the middle of the night as to not raise suspicions. It would shock me when I would get reports from listeners,as I knew with that antenna and a tuner I was maybe throwing out mighty 4 watts ERP?

After doing it on and off for about 6 months,it struck me that I was being heard when I was driving along a certain ridge? Down in the valley's nada,on the ridge,reports out to 900 miles. Propagation is a funny thing.