HowTo Am I DX-ing Wrong?

[ditto1958]

The other day a YouTube video came on my feed from one of the bigger SW channels and I decided I’ve been doing DX-ing all wrong.* Apparently the right way to do it is to show your receiver tuned to a frequency with audio of noise. Then you tune up and then down a couple of kHz until the noise stops and back to the noise and say: “Yes, it’s faint but it’s definitely there. That’s a Russian-Chinese-North Korean jammer number time station broadcasting from Moldova that’s only on every other Friday from 1500-1510 UTC.”

So, to each his own I guess, lol. My style is similar to an extent, but a little different. I enjoy searching for 1. SW signals from distant lands, and 2. Interesting programming.

If a signal from the other side of the world is just barely there, but not listenable, I’m mildly interested, but only briefly. And 3. Out of nostalgia for my youth, I also enjoy trying to catch distant AM stations from here in the US and Canada.

Actually, if you look up what DX-ing is, the first way I described is actually pretty accurate. Looking for distant and often weak signals. I guess where I differ is that I get bored quickly if a signal is not “listenable.”

*Note: this post is mostly serious, but with a bit of humor mixed in. 🙂

 

[EAFrizzle]

If it gets to me through other-than-groundwave propagation, it's DX to me.

Except for longwave. That's all DX.

 

[kc2asb]

DXing is seeking out weak/distant signals. Nothing wrong with a tentative log on a mostly-unreadable signal.

How distant does a signal have to be for it to be DX? I never saw a clear answer on that. Does a weak MW station from western PA received here in NJ qualify? For my purposes, it does.

Just spin the dial, log what you hear, and have fun. Some people get too hung up on formalities.

 

[ditto1958]

DXing is seeking out weak/distant signals. Nothing wrong with a tentative log on a mostly-unreadable signal.

How distant does a signal have to be for it to be DX? I never saw a clear answer on that. Does a weak MW station from western PA received here in NJ qualify? For my purposes, it does.

Just spin the dial, log what you hear, and have fun. Some people get too hung up on formalities.

That last part is exactly what I do. 🙂

I think I’m more of a true DXer when I do the AM (MW) band than when I do SW. All I know is it’s a very enjoyable hobby.

 

[EAFrizzle]

It's all about having fun. Your enjoyment is more important than someone else's process. 👍

 

[kc2asb]

That last part is exactly what I do. 🙂

I think I’m more of a true DXer when I do the AM (MW) band than when I do SW. All I know is it’s a very enjoyable hobby.

With SW, it depends. It used to be that if you logged the BBC via one of its 500kw transmitters, it was not DX. But logging the BBC via a relay transmitter in India, for example, was. Certainly, logging Radio Tahiti or just about any African SW station was DX back in the day.

In any case, just keep having fun!