Did some good DX'ing of the AM band last night and predawn this morning for the first time in quite awhile.  Here DXing AM is a total crap shoot, some nights it's crackling with life and full of distant stations, other nights it's literally nothing.  (Nothing local within 200+ miles).  It seems to go in "good" and "bad" "cycles" (for lack of better terminology) of a week or so.  Last few nights were awful but last night was great, the dial was FULL of stations.  I even logged a couple new ones.  It's nice having something with digital tuning now as opposed to analog...tuning in the dark laying on bed landed me at least one station I used to hear all the time a few years ago, night after night, but never did learn the dial position or call letters of.  I'd like to find it again, if that's even possible, if it has the same programming it did.  (If it's changed formats, forget it!). 

IMO the predawn hours (Say, 3AM until sunrise) are the best in terms of reception.  I try to hear the sunrise fadeout/pattern switches in the winter but rarely do since I'm too groggy to want to.  I want to figure out how to record some airchecks though. 

Now that we are back on wintertime I intend to be in my shack around 16:30 GMT to try to catch some DX from the east and south I'm hoping to here Russian and other east European domestic stations. It mite be hard going thoughts the number of high power outlets is getting less and less. High power I mean more than 120 Kw

For shortwave that is?

I fabbed up a wacky antenna of multiple pieces of wire, some of it just wadded up, that actually pulls in a very weak FM signal here PERFECTLY!

old metal slinkys work wonders as well just hold one end and toss the other up tree so it snags on branch they are nice portable antennas and they fit in your pocket when it's time to move on.. And if you get two of them you can actually make a half decent dipole antenna with them which will cover most of the SW bands and if you get the brass slinky it's good outdoors for several years..

I have one vintage radio, a 1970s GE flip-number clock-radio. 

Somewhere I've got one of those GE flip-number clock-radios stored away in a box somewhere .. probably early 80's, or late 70's at the oldest.


This thread also made me remember something from years gone by: somewhere I've got a boombox that does SW...when I was young (like highschool age when I got it)  I'd occasionally enjoy going through the SW bands at night to see what I could pick up even though 'boring' one of my favorites was the was the atomic clock's station. There's some weird senseless stuff out there too.

Even now Its kinda fun to now & then go through the FM 'dial' and see what's out there (in this case on my modern digital tuner - I don't do vintage or analog for stereo equipment).
In the daytime, sure you'll get the normal/big stations...but forget anything farther out, and forget the HD-radio signal some stations do (the electronic-ballasted fluorescents absolutely kill that part of the signal). Seems like as years go by getting a decent signal is getting harder -- probably as more "electronic 'stuff' " (not just lights) is added by people in the neighborhood?

Agreed, in many places (1) the RFI has gotten worse and (2) the dial is just jam-packed with as many translators as possible instead of a few good commercial stations.  Back in my old hometown in CA there's many channels with nothing super local, but two or even three fringe signals audible, reorient the radio and pick up something else!

I sold all my gear save for an old Kenwood TH79A HT as I needed the $$$.  I hope to get back into the hobby if I am ever able to land me a good job. 

73s