What was the first station Y'all caught DX'ing that got You really interested?

[kudzooter]

Wow.  Very thought-provoking question.  Early 1950s in south-central Arkansas, 870 WWL and 650 WSM were pretty much regulars.  But once in a while, I'd meander across the dial and find 720 WGN, 780 WBBM, 890 WLS and even occasionally (but with a lot of interference) 1000 WCFL, all from Chi-town...760 WJR/Detroit...700 WLW/Cinci...and that crazy thing with the 570/820 trade-outs between WBAP/Fort Worth and WFAA/Dallas.  All this was done on a little 4-tube Arvin table model radio with NO outside antenna.  radioman 148, you blew me away with your paean to your Zenith Trans-Oceanic.  I upgraded to that from the Arvin when I was about 13, then almost broke my neck crawling across our steeply slanting second-story roof to string a 150-foot longwire.  After that, I realized that those 50kw blowtorches pretty much commanded the skies ... but that getting 950 KIMN/Denver or 560 WQAM/Miami was really DXing.  And once I got hooked up with the National Radio Club and found out about the middle-nacht specials arranged by their incredible Courtesy Programs Committee, I even got stuff like 1340 WALL/Middleburg NY and other low-power high-distance jewels.  Alas, just as I was (I thought) starting to really get the hang of DXing, my hometown station, 1240 KWAK/Stuttgart AR put me to work full time (in my 9th grade year) and the next 53 years were spent on the sending side.  Either way, a helluva ride!!!

[radioman148]

Where were you located?

Alexandria, indiana at the time. my room faced west. and the radio was sitting on a dresser in front of the window, dont remember the exact month i do know it was winter as there was snow on the ground.

That's amazing. You wouldn't happen to remember the station you heard would you?

i wish i did man.  i was more worried about mom coming in and smashing the radio so i would sleep lol

Honolulu was sometimes heard on 650 KHz in Indiana and Ohio.  This was
back in the 1970s.  You had to null out WSM to hear it.  It was long ago
but I think the call letters were KORL.  Also, you could hear KFI just about
any night if you stayed up till midnight and nulled out Cuba.  Those were
the good ole days and the noise level was much lower on AM.

KFI was usually an easy catch in the Chicago area in the 60s through 80s. Never heard KORL or any Hawaii in the midwest although I heard both WLS & WBBM in Hawaii in 1978.

[radioman148]

Wow.  Very thought-provoking question.  Early 1950s in south-central Arkansas, 870 WWL and 650 WSM were pretty much regulars.  But once in a while, I'd meander across the dial and find 720 WGN, 780 WBBM, 890 WLS and even occasionally (but with a lot of interference) 1000 WCFL, all from Chi-town...760 WJR/Detroit...700 WLW/Cinci...and that crazy thing with the 570/820 trade-outs between WBAP/Fort Worth and WFAA/Dallas.  All this was done on a little 4-tube Arvin table model radio with NO outside antenna.  radioman 148, you blew me away with your paean to your Zenith Trans-Oceanic.  I upgraded to that from the Arvin when I was about 13, then almost broke my neck crawling across our steeply slanting second-story roof to string a 150-foot longwire.  After that, I realized that those 50kw blowtorches pretty much commanded the skies ... but that getting 950 KIMN/Denver or 560 WQAM/Miami was really DXing.  And once I got hooked up with the National Radio Club and found out about the middle-nacht specials arranged by their incredible Courtesy Programs Committee, I even got stuff like 1340 WALL/Middleburg NY and other low-power high-distance jewels.  Alas, just as I was (I thought) starting to really get the hang of DXing, my hometown station, 1240 KWAK/Stuttgart AR put me to work full time (in my 9th grade year) and the next 53 years were spent on the sending side.  Either way, a helluva ride!!!

Kudzooter,

I still have the Zenith Trans Oceanic which is almost 50 years old. It's not in working condition at the moment, but I hope to get it back up & running in the not too distant future.
Still the best radio I ever had.

[kudzooter]

radioman 148, 20 years ago my sister and I took the scenic railroad that runs around NW Arkansas. During a 2-hour pre-return break, we wandered into a little place that sold 'a bit of this, a bit of that.'  My heart almost broke when I looked up and saw at least a half dozen Trans-Oceanics on a wall shelf.  I'd just lost a job and was no way capable of buying one of them.  Mine was lost during a 'spite' burglary in 1970.  Compared to the Hammarlunds and other big names I saw listed in 'DX News,' I'm sure it was small potatoes ... but to me, that radio was--if not God, at least--Godzilla.

[EnbyCee]

I was a young lad of about 8 trying to listen to a Blackhawks-Red Wings hockey game on WBBM 780 in the suburbs of Chicago and tuned my Sony boom box to what I THOUGHT was the Hawks station, but the announcer sounded strange......then I heard a commercial with Steve Yzerman of the Wings and realized I was actually listening to the Wings broadcast (on WJR 760). Since we never had cable untl the mid 90's, I got into DXing as a way of following games I couldn't see on TV, and eventually started listening to stuff besides sports, eventually shortwave as well.

Then a few years later every station on AM started sounding the same and everybody on shortwave seemed to stop broadcasting to North America, but that's another story.

[Steve Green NEPA]

The Folks had a big Zenith AM-Phono console on the front porch in the early 60's.

A bit of an explanation .... Our house,  like every other Archie Bunker home in Southern Queens NYC,   had an enclosed,  indoor 'front porch'.    (At the other end of the house was the similarly enclosed,  but smaller,  'kitchen nook').

The first distant station of note that a buddy and I heard,   when he dropped by and commented on the radio,   got me hooked on radio as well as DXing.    On this swell,  mammoth radio (with the rotating 'Wavemagnet' antenna in the back),     in came WPOP Hartford.     My pal and I caught some others,   like WBZ and WBAL,   but WPOP really stood out because of this nut who was doing his Top 40 show.    A guy named Joey Reynolds.

[eskipper411]

I remember that when I was 7, I was watching channel 2 because back then 2 KDTN was a children network, I noticed that it was getting staticy so after a minute it said... "KTVU 2 Bay Area." And it was clearer then ever.

[Bongwater]

For me, it was noticing strange noises on AM radio at night that weren't there on FM. There I figured it out...TUNE...S...L...O...W...L...Y.

After KGDN 630 AM Edmonds, WA signed off in 1976, there was a weak Top 40 station on 640. Curious, I listened and voila! KFI LOS ANGELES!

I just about freaked. This can't be real....WHY was I getting an L.A. radio station all the way up HERE (near Seattle)? Does the media know about this? Should I write a letter to the President? My 8 year old mind was buzzing with questions......

My friends didn't believe me until I proved it the next night. Then they found other stations and we began writing them down.

Our teacher was the first one to talk to us about it, She explained how AM radio waves traveled and referred us to some books in the school library about it. We grabbed those books and studied like nothing else. One of my friends had an uncle who was a ham operator and he went into further detail. He suggested we mail the stations for verification cards. So we did and voila, over several weeks and months, every day we got new ones and they were like baseball cards to us. They became show and tell exhibits for us and other kids got interested. Finally, our teacher set up a field trip tour for us at KJR-AM. We hit the jackpot.....

Some of us continued our love and fascination of radio into careers. Others thought it was briefly cool and moved on to more interesting stuff for them. But it was that magic moment on 640 kHz that solidified a lifelong interest.......   

[radioman148]

radioman 148, 20 years ago my sister and I took the scenic railroad that runs around NW Arkansas. During a 2-hour pre-return break, we wandered into a little place that sold 'a bit of this, a bit of that.'  My heart almost broke when I looked up and saw at least a half dozen Trans-Oceanics on a wall shelf.  I'd just lost a job and was no way capable of buying one of them.  Mine was lost during a 'spite' burglary in 1970.  Compared to the Hammarlunds and other big names I saw listed in 'DX News,' I'm sure it was small potatoes ... but to me, that radio was--if not God, at least--Godzilla.

Kudzooter--I know exactly where you're coming from. That Zenith Trans Oceanic will mean more to me than any radio I ever own. Just the memories alone that it brings back are priceless.

[cyberdad]

I'm a little late to this movie, but the rig that got me started was my grandparents' massive circa 1938 Zenith console.  One night during the summer of '61, I found myself fiddling with it and listening to top 40 from a thousand miles away on WBZ.  It all unfolded from there.