Hi Alain...San Diego
That's some nice catches = well done, especially considering you only had an
inside apartment antenna. Just shows what a determined DXer can do with
limited resources.
How about you, what's your best catch?
Had to give that some thought.........
A VHF catch, but still a big thrill - getting your U.S. president on "Air
force one" working Joburg ATC on VHF. U.S. Presidents have only been to
South Africa twice in history....
Listening to Cambridge Bay aeradio on 4675 Khz (9000 miles away) wkg various
a/c. This is a technically very difficult catch requiring extremely good
propagation conditions and has to be DXed on the grayline, as they are way
up in the Arctic circle at 70 North. Took me a year and several letters, but
I eventually got a QSL from them.
Listening to the Dakota command a/c working the rescue helicopters (on 8 Mhz
HF) removing all the crew and passengers safely from the "Oceanos" cruise
ship that was sinking in a gale off the South African Indian Ocean coast.
All 600 souls were saved and it goes down in history as one of the greatest
maritime rescues of all time. The final message "All souls removed safely"
was greeted with euphoria..!!
Listening to a Herkie Bird "rescue 555" doing a search for a lost
merchantman in the Indian Ocean (also on 8 Mhz) who were being controlled by
Mauritius ATC. At the end of the search pattern, the pilot was heading for
the French airbase on Reunion, and Mauritus ATC said the French wanted to
know how he was going to pay for his refuelling. By "Shell" carnet replied
the pilot. Later, ATC came back and said the French would only accept a
"Total" carnet, to which the pilot replied that he did not have one.
How was he going to pay for the fuel then, asked Mauritius? "CASH" replied
the pilot laconically. This stunned the ATC controller as it did me, as the
thought of this pilot carrying around a huge bag of cash to pay for the fuel
was quite funny.
Keep DXing there Alain, its a great hobby and you can always expect the
unexpected, that's why I'm still at it after 38 years.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop
"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...
John,
One of my most thrilling DX catches was one that lasted through most of
the night and into the early morning hours...
I had just come home from work and as I normally do, I turned on the R
71-A; as I was turning the dial in the 5 meg band I caught a Boeing 747
[heavy] departing Washington State {USA} discussing his flight plan to
someone over the air. As it turned out, this pilot was on a test flight
heading towards Rio! I followed him until I just could not keep my eyes
open. It was a fun voyage for me, that's for sure!
The longest DX I ever caught was a U.P.S. flight leaving Stockholm,
Sweden, heading home to the U.S.A. That too was a lot of fun to monitor.
Both were accomplished with a 100' long copper wire antenna wrapped
around the ceiling of my apartment, until I ran our of wire!
How about you, what's your best catch?
Alain...San Diego
John Plimmer wrote:
8942 is also a great frequency. One evening I was sitting with a fellow
DXer
in his garden overlooking the "Valley of a Thousand Hills", and handed
him
my Sony 2010 portable and tuned to 8942. Hong Kong and Manila, some
7,000
miles away came in as clear as a bell working various a/c whilst we were
quaffing lager during sundowner time (happy hour). Very thrilling!!
I have a lovely tape recording of a SAA flight all the way from Taiwan
to
Johannesburg"s Jan Smuts airport working those frequencies, with touch
down
on VHF.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop
"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...
Hi John,
Yes, I know exactly what you mean about the "thrill" of receiving a
distant station. I used to do a lot of DXing of the areo bands. I
remember the first time that I heard Vietnam on 8.942 MHz! Some of the
South American countries as well, were great catches.
Alain...San Diego
--
MZ
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