HankG wrote:
Hi All:

Thanks to all who responded; both factually and humorously. The
humor was
especially appreciated in light of my very recent, unexpected stay in
the
hospital (cardiac event). Let me elaborate.
snip
At what point does a transmission become DX? Is it a matter of
distance only, or distance when station power is considered?
snip
HankG
For me, DX is a funciton of both power distance and power.
Low power stations that are closer can be much more difficult
then a higher power distance station.

My personal best QSO, I am a ham radio operator and QSO
reffers to a 2way communication, was from the parking lot
where I worked in Lexington KY, to Port Morseby in Papua
New Guinea. The ham in Port Moresby was runnng 100W and I
was running ~1.8Watts. That qualifies in both distance and
low power. I was using a modified J.C. Penny CB that I moved
up to 10Mtrs.

Some of the low power "tropical" stations are much harder to
receive then R. Australia. The first station I eveer IDed was
R.A. back in 1963! It was on a olde Zeneth SW. I was hooked.
Some of "best" catches are the low pwoer aero weather xmissions
from south east asia. Back in Hihg School a friend and I had a
year long contest back in 1968 to see who could receive the most
AM bCB stations. He called me at 2:30 one Saturday morning
to tell me that the Los Angeles (CA) clear channel station was
load and clear. We where both shocked to receive it so well.
A week later I called him at midnight to tell that the BBC
domestic AM BCB was booming in. I have only received AM BCB and
LW signals from Europe 4 times in 40+ years.

DX can mean many different things. I received a ND air beacon from
St. Loius (MO) for 3 days several years ago. I think thaey were
running 25watts into a very poor antenna. Lofers are license free
LW broadcasts, and they are limited to 1Watt. A friend picked on up
that was about 800 miles away. Sadly I have too much local QRM to
receive LOFERS very well.

So instead of getting hung up on exactly what DX is, concentrate
on what interests you. I am currently mainly into listening to
international broadcasters, with some aero utility. In years past
I was into RTTY and FAX. Sadly press RTTY has gone the way of the
dodo. But there are lots of odd and interesting radio signals out
there demanding attentin.
I don't know what type antenna you use, but you might be helped by
John Doty's articles on low noise antennas and his 9:1 matching
transformer. Just do a net search.
Have fun and good listening.
Terry