An Introduction To DXing Equipment
What equipment is needed in order to hear a DX station?
Well, any radio from a transistorized pocket radio, stereo system, to an
expensive
general coverage receiver will capture DX stations. Just turn on your radio and tune the am dial!
To best take advantage of the AM band, 530 to 1700 Khz.,
I would have to say that an outdoor longwire antenna would be required.
But if city living or apartment dwelling restricts your use of an outdoor
antenna it is still quite possible to hear great dx stations.
I was spoiled for many years living outside the city limits where I was able
to use a 1000 foot longwire antenna at about 35 feet. Moving into the city
cramped my antenna space, but I still manage to receive great DX!
A shorter wire of 75 to 100 feet works fine and indoor antennas work fine also.
However I would suggest an indoor amplified loop antenna such as a Polomar
loop. They are not too expensive and work much better than some outdoor antennas
on the am band.
I would advise the use of a cassette or reel to reel tape recorder for capturing
your dx on tape. Not only does this serve as a permenant record of your catch,
you can also listen and re-listen to your tape in the event you are trying to
obtain details from that catch to use in a report to the station engineer in an attempt
to obtain "proof" of your catch in the form of a QSL card or letter of verification.
You may also use your PC to record your dx catches. This is useful in the event you
have a lot of buzzing noise or low speach quality. With the use of your PC and
an audio editing program such as "Cool Edit '96" it is possible for you to filter
noises, etc without having to purchase an audio filter.
I personally enjoy the older tube receivers, but they are fairly large and
tubes are getting harder and harder to find. Most of the higher quality general coverage
receivers perform better than many of the older radios, plus the newer radios are tiny
in size by comparison.
