About Us
| About the DXer.ca team |
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| Written by colin newell |
| Friday, 09 September 2005 01:22 |
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What is DXer.ca? This website is dedicated to the promotion and enjoyment of long distance radio listening - also known as DXing. DX is ham radio shorthand for "distance" - and although ham radio is an entirely different hobby, we share a lot of the common attributes (especially the positive ones!). A little history: There has been a DX hobby since Marconi received a radio signal from England on Signal Hill, St. Johns Newfoundland - considered quite the feat at the time. In the 21st century, there are still opportunities for long distance radio reception - plenty of them in fact. Any AM radio, large or small is a good place to start. Most people have "DXed" radio stations and not even realized that they are engaged in our hobby. A quirk of AM radio is - at night-time, AM signals can carry for hundreds and thousands of miles - and not all of them use that much power. So. We at DXer.ca enjoy long distant AM radio reception as well as chasing exotic locales on the Shortwave dial - and I know what you are thinking: What is Shortwave? Well. I will be answering that question in a whole article coming up... Who we are. Bob Zanotti - Bob was a full-time broadcaster and radio journalist with the English Service of Swiss Radio International in Bern between 1970 and 2002. During that time, he was also one of “The Two Bobs” of the Swiss Shortwave Merry-Go-Round, SRI’s SWL program. Now retired, Bob is still active through his own website www.switzerlandinsound.com, where he offers audio-based reports about Switzerland. There is also a section devoted to The Two Bobs. Bob is also active as a media consultant, writer and voiceover artist. Bob is one of the voices on Series-3 Yesterday and Today - 20 years of SW Broadcasting! Gary DeBock - Gary started serious BCB DXing as a 14-year old in Japan (military dependent in 1967), and enlisted in the Navy in 1971. Gary was fortunate to not only receive intensive electronics training as a sonar repair technician, but also to have free travel to almost all of the countries we dxer's currently chase for TP contacts. A fascination with Asian foreign languages led to a conversational ability in Japanese, and (after meeting a cute Hong Kong girl in 1980...) Cantonese. That girl, Ruth, later became his wife, and now heads the Chinese TP Translation Service, providing translations of any unidentified Chinese audio clips for DXers. After leaving the Navy in 1982, Gary has been a Washington State real estate broker and property manager, while maintaining his intense interest in DXing, radio tinkering and experimentation, foreign languages, and searching for the ultimate antenna acreage next to the ocean.
Nick Hall-Patch - Nick and I met in 1975. He was 26 and I was 15. Some years later, we have not aged one day! Electronics technologist and radio enthusiast since the late sixties, Nick uses a Drake R8 for trans-oceanic MW DXing, as well as a Dymek DR333 and an RFSpace SDR-14 for propagation studies. He is technical editor for the IRCA, has edited several editions of A DXer's Technical Guide and been known to write the occasional article himself. He resides in Victoria, B.C. Canada with his lovely and devoted wife, Susan.
An international broadcast consultant, Ian has worked for the BBC in London as well as NHK Tokyo. Ian is still a regular at Radio Conventions around North America. Ian and Colin are working on a few radio related CD projects in addition to the now complete CD series 1 and 2. More info will become available as things evolve. Photo left: RCI Graduate, Ian McFarland lives on Vancouver Island with his wife Mary - Ian's current projects include 2-CD sets of classic Interval Signals and a language recognition course featuring the late Dr. Richard E. Wood. Dr. Walter Salmaniw - (photo lower right) Walt has been a radio enthusiast since the sixties while growing up in southern Ontario. He became a doctor while in the Canadian Army and has lived overseas. Until recently, his greatest ambition was to own at least one boat-anchor receiver (old, big, tube-type) but has since fallen in love with modern technology (AOR7030+, Ten-Tec, etc) - Yup, they all come around eventually. Walt lives in Oak Bay with his fabulous radio collection, a new Wellbrook ALA100 active-loop antenna as well as his understanding wife Wanda. Walter has just finished building the ultimate DX site, I mean... family holiday get-away... located at... hold on... knock on the door... hey! Put down that hammer! No! Argh!
Colin Newell - Creator of the DXer.CA webpage and radio enthusiast since 1971, Colin became an electronics technician/technologist in the late seventies and early eighties. Growing up on the farm meant plenty of room for antennas. Modern living in the urban jungle has forced Colin to become more creative with antenna solutions. His current receiver is the Drake R8 and he uses a Wellbrook ALA100 active loop for wideband reception. He is the creator and editor of Canada's beloved Cafe Culture website and blog - CoffeeCrew.Com. TV writing credits include a very brief one episode stint on CSI Las Vegas, an appearance on WTN's "The Shopping Bags", and one too many radio interviews. He is the primary media contact for DXer.ca... I mean, as if! The DXer.ca Coffee Social - From time to time (usually once every few months) we invade a local cafe, drink coffee and talk story about all things radio. If you are a Vancouver Island resident or are visiting Vancouver Island and the immediate area, let us know and we will coordinate a social DX-centric event. You will not regret it. Editor and creator of the DXer.ca website, Colin Newell has been writing since the early 1970's - into a notepad... pretty much unseen to the World. His credits include a stint with the CIDX Club in the late 70's and early 80's, an active membership in SPEEDX in its heyday in the 70's and 80's - His radio website, espresso.ts.uvic.ca first appeared in 1995 containing some very basic radio reviews and circuits. Times have changed. The goal of the DXer.ca is to educate and entertain and to bring reviews of the latest receivers and antennas to our readership. Our motto at DXer.ca is: Listen to your radio always... because you might miss something if you don't!
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| Last Updated on Sunday, 25 October 2009 10:48 |
Ian McFarland - (at left) Former CBC Broadcaster and host-writer of Radio Canada Internationals English Language Service, Ian currently resides in Maple Bay British Columbia and is a regular participant in our coffee forums.
Photo at right - Doctor Walter Salmaniw, Victoria area Physician and Surgeon, enjoys all aspects of the radio hobby - especially travel... and his top secret seasonal get-away. Lately he has gotten into software defined radios like the Perseus - which makes his actual tonnage of radio gear somewhat lighter. We like his enthusiasm and dedication to the time. He is also handy to know if you have a headache or dislocated shoulder from falling out of the Cyprus tree!