[Hallicrafters] DXing at the beach

[Bill Krause]

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I spent a lovely four days on the 
Oregon Coast. The weather was exceptionally nice for this time of year. 
One of the things I wanted to do was see whether or not it would be 
worth the effort to try some serious Dxing during my fairly frequent 
visits to the coast. I particularly wanted to see what I might expect if 
I used a battery operated radio away from any over head power lines with 
nothing between me and Asia but a lot of water. To test this I brought 
along two Zenith Transoceanics. One was a B600, an example the last tube 
model radio made in America and a later transistorized Royal 7000. Both 
have decent sensitivity but lack selectivity. This was really a 
feasibility study. Two morning in a row I got up at 5:30 AM a drove 
about 7 or 8 miles North of Florence, Oregon to a a road side rest with 
no visible power lines in sight and worked 60 and 90 meters. I am sure 
some of the early risers driving the coastal highway must have wondered 
what the heck I was doing as their headlights caught me and the rather 
tall antennas of the Transoceanics in their glare, but I am pleased to 
report that Homeland Security did not haul me away. I got no definite 
IDs , I was more interested in a survey and quantify of reception. I 
heard quite a few stations on both bands both days and came way 
believing that it would be worth a more serious effort in the future. My 
plan is to go back the first or second week in April with my Icom R-75 
and probably another radio or two.  I plan to to bring  four 5 foot 
sections of radio shack antenna mast and a suitable SWL antenna with 
traps and set up on the beach. I am particularly interested in 
Indonesians but will try and Id whatever I hear. I'll be going for five 
days so I am pretty optimistic and I was quite pleased at the results of 
this trial. Any comments or suggestions??

                                                  Bill Krause