[jdandy]

Steve.......Back in the 70's I work for a small 5000 watt AM radio station, KOHI in St. Helens, Oregon. It was my first full time on-air gig out of college. One day a post card arrived from Sidney, Australia. The card was an acknowledgment that the sender had heard our station on the air in Sidney. He state the time of day, noted my name as the on-air personality, and mentioned several commercials that were aired. I remember checking the stations daily log from the date mentioned, and sure enough we logged the two commercials he said he heard at the time he indicated. He was a DX'er, and enjoyed tuning the radio dial to see how far away he could hear a broadcast, then sending cards to let the stations know. That was his hobby. I was amazed that our little 5000 watt signal skipped off the upper atmosphere and bounced down half way around the world in Sidney, Australia. The station manager kept the DX post card. I sure wish I had it. I sent a short note to the DX'er on our station letterhead letting him know we received his post card.

I like to search the radio dial, too. Late night DXing is fun. The clear channel stations on AM come in good at night from all over the country. I have listened to KSL in Salt Lake, Utah, KSF in San Francisco, and WABC in New York on my radio while in Florida. Amazing. I even caught the short wave and long wave bug, and have two tuners, a world band radio and a UHF/VHF radio, connected to roof top antennas that let me hear broadcasts from all over the world. A few nights ago I was listening to an English broadcast I enjoy from Radio Havana Cuba, and another English speaking news cast from China Radio broadcast from Beijing. Lots of fun.