Where Are We Heading?

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 17, 4 November 1932, Page 11

Where Are We Heading?

A Challenge to Present Dxers

I DO not know if I am at liberty to use this suggestive title, but I feel it is appropriate when one seriously considers the Dx Club news and views of the last few issues. Probably I shall be unpopular, before I have finished; someone should take it upon themselves to call a alt. . The question has been asked where are the old writers, and as I consider myself one of those, I have been quietly sitting back and digesting the news which ap-. pears to-day, and comparing it with what constituted dx news some two and gq half years back. When S. Hillis, "Kauspanker," "Amazon," "B.W." (Stratford), "D.N.A." (Timaru), "M.B.S." (P.N.), "Bob" (Lyall Bay), "Cromdale" (Otago), and a few others used to express their views, and report on new stations, they were real dx. We had no books to work upon, and a station call must be heard before it could be logged. What a pity those logs ever came into the country. Nowadays, it seems to me, a carrier wave is picked up, the book is consulted, and there is the station, ifrespective of power.

Chinese stations especially are interesting traps, as half the stations which appear in books don’t exist. I was pleased to see 23A (Cambridge) had the courage of his convictions. don’t wish to single out anyone for special mention, but I would like to hear more about the verifications from many of these logged stations. I like N. Jenkins’s method. He never considers a station logged until he has definitely heard the eall, or written away to 2 doubtful one, and received verification. I note with interest the loggings of London, Aberdeen, Davenport. No consideration of time in these places at. time of logging seems to be taken. Might I say that in September most mention is made of them. Now at 5 a.m. N.ZS.T. it is 5.30 p.m. in England, practically in the middle of the afternoon, and still at least four hours off dark, which I would consider really good dxing time. I maintain if England is going to be heard at-all, it would. be December or January, when it is dark at 4 p.m., and just breaking day here. (Continued on page 24.)

A Challenge to Dxers

(Continued from Page 11.) _ While we can hear American stations in New Zealand daylight we must Tremember that it is fast approaching darkness. I would like to hear from all dxers who have receiyed verification from England. I think we should have heard about it before now. Just to touch on one or two instances in other directions, my latest information tells me there is only one station in Costa Rica, and that a 50-watt, yet we have a suggestion that a Costa Rica station is heterodyning 2CO, Corowa; another one thinks he heard 7LO, Kenya Colony, B.E.A. A letter from the manager of this station informs me that this station is purely short-wave, and_ has never been on the broadcast band. Then we have identification of a station inquired for from 12 noon every day. I think the identifier of this station as KDKA must have been joking. I am not being persuaded to that extent yet. There are plenty more cases I could mention, One in particular, where station at 11.45 am., heterodyning 2CA, was given as KNX. I think quité.a few know that KNX signs off at 7.80. N.ZS.T., and at 11 p.m., KFBI comes in on’ their morning session, Now I believe that others can get stations I can’t, and I have heard stations many cannot get. I don’t think there is a keener dyer than me. I have put in many "all nights," and think I can log with the next best, but I do think we are reaching a limit in our news and views section, and while the saying, "Nothing is impossible," still holds good, I still think there is the impossible yet in wireess.

I want to appeal to all my dx friends, Let us use a little more discretion in our notes; think it over well before commit- ' ting it to print; remember there are a’ lot of new chums, following our footsteps and looking for information ; let us give only what we know to be the genuine article. I think it was ‘"Cromdale"’ (Otago) who was howled down for his suggestion of guessers. I may be wrong, and at the time I hadn’t much sympathy with him, but I begin to think he was somewhere near the mark, do not suppose anyone has given a thought to the expense to which we put stations, especially Americans. As an example, suppose WENR received 600 New Zealand letters, and have to bear the expense of postage, this would cost them, in stamps alone, 30 dollars, irrespective of stationery. Tf you can’t get stamps, send a dollar to the next station to whom you write, and ask for the equivalent in stamps, and you will have very few nonrepliers on your list. In conclusion, I appeal to fellow members to accept this letter in the spirit in which it is meant, purely for the welfare of the elnh and aaprtaté ax 3 work.-

J.P.

C.

(P.N.)_ DX12W .