DX NOTES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 732, 24 July 1953, Page 20

DX NOTES

land Radio DX League and are designed tecord items of interest from overseas Stations on both the broadcast and shortwave bands. Inquiries sent to The Listener regarding the identification of stations will be forwarded to the League for attention. Particulars of the type of programmes, approximate frequency. date and time heard, are necessary notes are supplied by the New Zea: to

NE night back in 1930, A. L. Stanton was bitten by the radio bug. Visiting a friend, he heard WLW Cincinnati coming in like a local station-: and another DX-er was made. Today "Albie" Stanton is the leading broadcast band DX-er of New Zealand, and. as far as distance is concerned, probably has the best log of anyone in the world. After all, DX means distance, and this 50-year-old Dunedin man has verified over 1000 stations on the standard broadcast band from over 7000 miles away. The latest count of his log shows 1427 stations verified, all on the band where the average listener hears his locaf station. His lug total has been bettered only by North American DX-ers, who have two-thirds of the world’s stations on their own continent. Mr. Stanton is weil-known for his reticence, but now that he is more or less retiring from listening, his outstand-

ing feats deserve recording. His DX-ing in the early days was Lampered by the lack of a really efficient set, but after he consulted Frank Barnett, one of New Zealand’s first champion DX-ers, he bought a ten-valve Patterson, which he has used since 1935. Since the war he has DX-ed only at the Christmas and New Year holidays. He listens at his bach at Doctor’s Point, with two aerials

-a 1000-foot directional Beverage run-. ning north-north-west, and a conventional inverted L. His best catches are listed in this order: CFYT Yukon (100 watts), VU2ZU, a 50-watt U.S. Army station in India, WRDO Maine, VK3IV South Australia (three ~vatts), CBI Nova Scotia, KNOW Texas and two 50-watt American stations. Mr. Stanton built up his log despite many other activities. He is managing director of a printing firm, until recently was on the council of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, is vicepresident of the Dunedin Citizens’ Association, and holds several high lay positions in the Methodist Church. "Although I have found a new hobby in bowls and resurrected an old one in stamps, I'll still write to a new station if I hear a new one," he says. "If I were 20 years younger and could concentrate in the early morning, plenty more could be logged with directional aerials." ‘ Mr. Stanton’s verifications. include 307 from Australasia, 49 from Asia, 1014 from North America and ten South Americans. As he has been New Zealand’s broadcast DX champion for about 11 years and realised his ambition of 1000 verifications, he has no more targets to reach, unless it is to verify an African to complete ail continents. Honour for DX-er ‘THE well-known Invercargill DX-er Arthur T. Cushen was awarded a Coronation medal for his services in the

radio field. Mr. Cushen has conducted ‘the New Zealand Radio DX League's ‘prisoner of war service in two wars and has been an observer for the ‘BBC for 14 years. Incidentally, he recently achieved an outstanding ‘"double"-1000 verifications on broadcast and 1000 on shortwave, Around the World Fiji: Suva’s new shortwave frequency of 3980 kcs. (80-metre band) is putting an excellent signal into New Zealand. A 500-watt transmitter, it operates from 7.0. to 9.0 aim., noon 10 2.0 p.m., and 5.30, to 10.0 p.m.-There is a staff of four-the manager, two announcers and an announcer-technician. Thailand: The new 50,000-watt Bangkok transmitter broadcasts to this area, with English news at 10.15 p.m, Frequences ‘are 11700 kes. (25-metre band) and 6010 kcs. (49-metre band). The Thai ovetseas service is from 10.0 p.m. to midnight, with English from 10.0 to 11.15 p.m. Peru: Lima’s most powerful station, the Government operated "Radio National," has an excellent signal in the afternoon, with typical South American tunes on 9562 kcs. (31-metre band) and 5885 kcs. (50-metre band). Closing announcement at 4.55 p.m. is in English,