About Me
My interest in DXing began around 1976 when I was 14 years old. One weekend while visiting my Grandmother, I took notice of a multiband portable transistor radio that she kept on a bookshelf in the living room. Curious as to what the shortwave bands were, I soon realized that I could hear radio stations from all around the world. Very interesting! The first station that I tuned in to that was broadcasting in English and turned out to be Radio Tirana. A quick check in the Encyclopedia told me that this station was coming from a country called Albania. I was hooked.
In 1976, my parents bought me a Heathkit SW-717 receiver kit, and I stayed up almost 48 hours non-stop building it. Having my own shortwave radio at home meant that I had more time to truly discover what shortwave had to offer, and soon discovered DX Partyline on HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. DX Partyline introduced me to the shortwave clubs, QSLs, etc. My first QSL card was from CBC Northern Service in Canada.
Soon thereafter, I received my first pennant from a radio station and fell in love with collecting radio pennants. After High School I went into the armed forces, and thinking that my DXing days were over with, I regrettably sold my entire pennant collection to Sam Barto, long time editor of the NASWA QSL column. Mama mia, I think I must have lost my mind, hi! From what I gather, Sam in turn sold my collection through the Handicap Aid Program. I have tracked down many of my old pennants to the collection of Andy Schmid in Germany, but of course they are not for sell =) My favorite pennant had been a nice yellow pennant from Cadena Sonora featuring a rooster playing a guitar, which I had received from a Radio Sonora after sending a reception report for one of their mediumwave stations that I had received. While I still occasionally receive pennants directly from radio stations, that tradition has died fast over the years with only a few stations still sending them out anymore. These days, the main source is Ebay.
I have had many periods of inactivity throughout the years, but had always seemed to come back to DXing once or twice every decade since my teenage years. Over the years I have owned many of the big name receivers: NRD-535D, all three of the Drake R8 series and the Racal RA6790 to name a few. Over the last few years I have have developed a strong interest in SDR, or software defined radios. The main receiver used is a Microtelecom Perseus. Also in the shack are a Winradio G313e and RFSpace SDRIQ. After buying a Perseus, the other receivers don’t get used very much.
After hitting the big Four-O a few years back, I have finally found the time to concentrate on this great hobby again. My main DX interests are Tropical Band SW, foreign MW DX and DXing longwave beacons. Although I am very pleased with the “shack”, my suburban location leaves much to be desired. Hopefully at some point I can finally relocate to a rural QTH and finally have the room and quiet conditions to put up some real DX antennas.
Thanks for visiting my web site.
73,
Brandon