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Old 02-24-2008, 08:18 PM
N2RJ N2RJ is offline
Elmer
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Wantage, NJ and NYC
Posts: 38
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You're quite welcome.

I do use my Icom ProIII for SWLing though. Hooked up to the MonstIR, it really pulls out the weak ones.

When I started out as a SWL, we had an old boombox with the SW bands and the antenna was a piece of wire.

Then later on I climbed a mango tree in the back yard and hung a wire in it. I realized that by doing that I was able to hear more distant stations (DX!)

My dad bought me a lot of the old popular communications magazines, as well as CQ and 73. The book store had them on sale cheap. I especially enjoyed 73 mag, that Wayne Green was crazy as a fox, but ran a good mag. I remember an issue from the 80s having plans to build an electronic bug repeller using a tweeter, a 555 timer and a few other parts.

Of course in school, my teacher (9Y4AL) had the current issues of QST and CQ magazine, as well as books with homebrew stuff.

I enjoyed the SW hobby a lot.

In 1990 a group of radicals called the Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen overthrew the Government and took over the state owned TV stations and a couple of privately owned radio stations. So basically all TV was off the air, and some radio.

I remember hearing the reports on the BBC world service about "a group of radical muslims in Trinidad has overthrown the Government."

It was the first time in my life I remember Trinidad and Tobago making the headlines in any world news!

Of course the rich folks had their satellite dish to get CNN and the like, but we had the good old shortwave radio.


Currently listening to the voice of Russia on 7250
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