Google Earth an aid to DX’ing

The more I use Google Earth, the more uses I find for it relating to DXing.  Case in point- I’ve been looking at some vacant land behind the house with the anticipation of laying out a pair of BOGs (beverage on ground antennas).  Google Earth’s satellite view allows me to visualize the antenna layout (to work around obstacles, etc.) and provides a tool to measure length and heading.  With this information, I can figure out exactly how long of an antenna I can layout and the true direction it will “aiming”.  Knowing the antenna heading, I can then extend a theoretical path from my QTH along this heading to see where the end results are, and tweak as needed for the intended target stations.

I’ve also been using Google Earth to create a DX map of stations received here as a better way for me to visualize what I’ve been logging (in addition to spreadsheet logging).  From Google Earth, this data can easily be exported as a KMZ file and brought into Google Maps to share with the public.  Here is how my DX map is looking (still populating fields, but you get the idea), QTH is West Michigan, blue placemarks are night catches, yellow are afternoon catches, and red are some LW beacons logged:

View Larger Map

Clicking on the colored placemarks will popup more information about the logging including station call letters, frequency, time of logging, etc.

DXing the ’80s

I just started DXing again this year after being out of the hobby since about 1990.  I was active during my teenage years in the 1980s and was affiliated with such radio clubs as IRCA and the ACE.  I was primarily interested in shortwave pirate radio DXing, mediumwave DXing, and shortwave utility monitoring.  My equipment was modest and included various old tube “boat anchors” that usually gave poor results but kept the room warm on winter nights.  Antennas used were nothing more than a long wire strung through some tree branches outside.  At some point I got a little more serious and saved enough money to buy a General Electric #7-2990A “World Monitor”.  Finally – a receiver with a digital frequency counter!  Never mind the fact that the VFO drifted like a log down a river – I could finally “see” what frequency I was on with some degree of accuracy!

The next major purchase was a Microlog “SWL” cartridge for my Commodore 64 computer.  The “SWL” allowed digital mode reception to be captured and decoded using the C64 allowing clear text viewing and printing of non-encrypted RTTY, CW, etc.  In 1986, this was indeed high tech stuff, or at least it seemed like it to me!

Electronic messages with other DXers occurred through computer bulletin board systems and many long distance telephone charges to Kansas City’s ANARC BBS.  Cassette tapes of recorded DX receptions were happily traded with other DXers across the country and from overseas..  I have numerous air checks of shortwave pirates, numbers stations, and other curiosities that I’m slowly migrating to MP3.  The same goes for my humble collection of ’80s pirate QSL cards which I’m beginning to digitize.

By about 1990 I left the hobby and moved on to other things, but the DX bug has struck again twenty years later, and here I am writing about it.  I have a lot good memories “DXing the ’80s” and I’ll be revisiting them here from time to time while learning how the hobby has changed since then.  This thing called IBOC sounds very evil…

1986 WRNO QSL