DX Dharma

View my Indian DX logbook here.  I've also got a "Bharat Yatra" page of photos of my India visit, Indian travel links, etc.

My main workhorse receiver is a 1978 vintage Panasonic RF-2200 - still an excellent MW DX machine, though clumsy to tune on SW. (Read a review of the RF-2200 here.)  I've also owned several portable receivers over the years, including a G.E. SuperRadio, Sony ICF7600D (which I am tuning in the above photo), and Panasonic RFB-45 (the radio I took with me to India).  All of the above were purchased in New York, at discount electronic/photo shops in midtown Manhattan, owned by Hassidic Jews.  On January 22, 2003, I got a Grundig YB-400PE to replace my RFB-45, which suddenly and unexpectedly died that day, in between listening to Imus in the morning on WFAN and Jim Rome at mid-day on WGR.  Didn't buy it in NYC, but at Bay Bloor Radio in downtown Toronto.

For the newbie, "DXing" is tuning in distant or hard-to-hear radio and television stations, whether on the broadcast bands (AM, FM, shortwave, longwave) or on the utility bands (aircraft, military, police, and other broadcasts not intended for the general public).  It's not the same thing as amateur or ham radio, as it doesn't require a licence or involve on-air transmission, although some DXers (though not me) are licensed amateur radio operators or DX the amateur radio bands.  Dharma is right conduct, righteousness, or devotion according to the practice of Yoga and the Hindu or Buddhist scriptures.  It's not a word you are likely to hear on any shortwave broadcaster, except perhaps All India Radio.  Anyone who has spent some time listening to shortwave soon finds that the loudest, most obnoxious voices on the SW spectrum are the high-powered Christian broadcasters such as HCJB, TransWorld Radio, World Harvest Radio, etc.  Christianity -- particularly the born-again, fundamentalist, right-wing brand of Protestantism and the "family values", homophobia and racism that often go hand in hand with it -- seems to have a virtual stranglehold on the SW bands.  I would like to nuke all the shortwave Bible-blasters, Gandhi's teachings of ahimsa (non-violence) notwithstanding.  My dream is to be able to listen to a shortwave broadcaster that advances my spiritual growth.  But I'm not going to hold my breath doing pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) waiting for "The Voice of Dharma" to broadcast yoga classes, Sanskrit chanting, etc. on shortwave.  However, for devotees of Tibetan Buddhism there's the Voice of Tibet, the voice of the 40-year struggle to free Tibet from Chinese rule and establish a Buddhist theocracy under the Dalai Lama.

Learn the basics of my adopted spiritual path, courtesy of the BBC World Service.

Although I have never seriously considered a career in the broadcast industry, radio has been a part of me for almost as long as I can remember.  As a single-digit age child I used to collect CHUM charts and listen to Bob McAdorey, Jungle Jay Nelson and Brian Skinner on 1050.  I discovered DXing around grade 8, when I received a portable AM/FM/SW radio as a Bar Mitzvah gift and started listening to out-of-town hockey and baseball games on the 50 kw blowtorches such as KMOX, WBZ, WABC, WJR, etc.  After the games, I would listen to late-night talk shows such as the Herb Jepko Nitecaps and the Bill Corsair Rascals.  My musical interests range from Oldies to New Age to Sanskrit bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) and mantra chants.  I stopped listening to CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio, i.e. Top 40 rock) years ago.  So while I give my parents the gears for being out of touch with contemporary music and still being stuck in the Tommy Dorsey/Benny Goodman era, I wouldn't be able to recognize a lot of songs written after 1989!

Here is a sampling of my MW and SW QSL card collection, from the 70s and early 80s.  Click on the thumbnails to view the full-size card.  After viewing the full-size image, click the "back" button on your browser to return to this page.

Mediumwave:
1.     2.     3.    4.    5.     6. 

7.      8.      9.      10.      11.      12. 

1. KFI (640 kHz) Los Angeles, CA        2. KSL (1160 kHz) Salt Lake City, UT
3. WHAS (840 kHz) Louisville, KY - special QSL promoting 1976 National Radio Club convention.
4. Westdeutscher Rundfunk (1586 kHz) Langenberg, Germany - my first trans-Atlantic DX catch.
5. CBNM (740 kHz) St. John's, NF       6. WPTR (1540 kHz) Albany, NY
7. XEMO (860 kHz) Tijuana, Mexico     8. CJGX (940 kHz) Yorkton, SK
9. WDOV (1410 kHz) Dover, DE          10. WCFL (1000 kHz) Chicago, IL
11. KWMT (540 kHz) Fort Dodge, IA  12. WHBC (1480 kHz) Canton, OH

Shortwave:
1.      2.      3.      4.      5. 

1. France-Région 3, Tahiti (15170 kHz)    2. La Voix de la Révolution, Benin (4870 kHz)
3. Radiodiffusion nationale du Mali (7110 kHz)    4. CKFX, Vancouver, BC (6080 kHz)
5. Polskie Radio (15120 kHz)

Pirate:
1.      2.      3.

1. "KPRC", Pirate Radio Central (1616 kHz)    2. Zeppelin Radio Worldwide (7425 kHz)
3. "WREC", Radio Free East Coast (6955 kHz)

General DX-related resources, basic information, where to buy shortwave receivers, radio formats, etc.

DXing.com: The Web resource for radio hobbyists  Lots of basic information and good links.  Recommended for newbies.

DXer.ca  "The orginal Canadian world-band radio resource"

The DX Zone  Over 2000 DX-related links.

RadioIntel.com A global radio portal.

TDP - Transmitter Documentation Project  A Belgian-based site with many good SW links.

Shortwave receiver shopping list from Radio Netherlands

DXtreme Computer software for DXers.

Where's That Station is a free Windows-based download to help identify North American AM broadcast band stations.

Prime Time Shortwave lists English shortwave broadcasts - many of which are scheduled for the early evening or "prime time" (to borrow the TV term) hours.

Radio HF Internet Newsletter  A monthly newsletter compiled by CIDX president (and Howard Stern fan) Sheldon Harvey.  Contains links to DX-related sites and promos for Radio HF, the radio equipment and accessories shop that Sheldon runs from his home in the Montreal suburb of Greenfield Park.  Archived editions are available online, or you can receive this newsletter delivered free to your e-mailbox by e-mailing hfnewsletter@yahoo.com

Shortwave Listeners QSL Card Museum  View QSL cards from SW broadcasters worldwide.  Welcomes input from QSL collectors, if you have a rare verification that's not illustrated on their site.

QSL Information Pages  MW and SW QSL information for broadcasters in over 100 countries.

The Bellabarba QSL page  An Italian DXer who has a reputation of sending questionable or totally bogus reception reports and still getting QSLs.

Radioworld Inc. in Toronto is "Canada's first radio super store", with the largest selection of amateur radio, shortwave, scanner, marine and CB stuff in the Great White North.

Universal Radio Inc.  Shortwave radio supplier based in Reynoldsburg, OH.  They even have a page for cat lovers.

Grove Enterprises  Sells radios, scanners, etc. from Brasstown, NC.  Also publishes Monitoring Times magazine.

Glenn Hauser's World of Radio

DXing with Cumbre A weekly DX program, broadcast on World Harvest Radio (another shortwave Bible-thumper).

The Shortwave Report is a weekly review of news stories recorded directly from shortwave broadcasts.

Free Radio Network  News and information on unlicensed ("Pirate" or "Bootleg") broadcasters.

Bry's Pirate Radio Station contains many links to European and North American bootleg broadcasters.

Clandestine Radio Watch  News and information about clandestine broadcasters. Clandestines are unlicensed broadcasters advancing some kind of political cause, while pirates broadcast just for the hell of it.

Pirates Week  A weekly podcast of pirate radio news.

The AM Stereo Page  All about AM Stereo, touted in the 1980s as the savior of the AM band.

SPEEDX (Society to Preserve the Engrossing Enjoyment of DXing) A now-defunct DX club, preserved on the Web.

Ontheshortwaves.com  A site devoted to the history of DXing and shortwave broadcasting.

South Asia Radio Guide  Compiled by Alok Das Gupta in Calcutta. (CAUTION: Angelfire pages are full of #$%^&!! pop-up ads!)

DXAsia.info  DX happenings in South Asia, edited by Alok Das Gupta and well-known Sri Lankan DXer Victor Goonetilleke.

Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC.  Regulating the U.S. broadcast industry since 1934.

Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Broadcasting page.  The CRTC's tentacles extend into virtually every facet of Canada's broadcast industry: regulation of formats (and outright prohibition of certain formats), Canadian content regulations requiring 30% or more of music to be by Canadian artists and/or recorded in Canada (extending the careers of many mediocre Canadian artists), and even a ham-fisted attempt to police the Internet, before coming to their senses in May 1999 and recognizing that Canada's existing kiddie porn and hate crime laws are adequate and government censorship of the Net is impossible.  What do I think of the CRTC?  What does a fire hydrant think of dogs?  What did General Custer think of Indians?

Canadian Broadcast Directory an old site (web design circa 1995), but still useful.

Milkman Unlimited  "Canadian Radio's ultimate resource" for format news, personnel hiring/firing, etc.

Broadcaster "Canada's communications magazine" since 1942.

Reel Top 40 Radio Repository  and Rock Radio Scrapbook  are fun sites for Top 40 rock buffs, where you can listen to airchecks of famous jocks on once-legendary AM blowtorches.  The latter site specializes in Canadian Top 40 rockers.

The Broadcast Archive  Radio history on the Web, presented by Barry Mishkind of Tucson, AZ..

History of Canadian Broadcasting  Learn about Canadian radio history at the Canadian Communications Foundation's site.

History of American Broadcasting  A fascinating site for radio history buffs, compiled by Jeff Miller of New Port Richey, FL.

North East Radio Watch  News about AM and FM broadcasters in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, compiled by Scott Fybush of Rochester, NY.

Radio in Montreal  Yahoogroup for fans of Montreal radio (no, the very insipid state of English radio in Montreal can't all be blamed on Quebec's language laws!)

Patepluma Radio  Resources and information on Latin American radio. Patepluma means "feather feet" in Spanish.

Hard-Core DX  An e-mail listserv and other resources for hard-core DXers.

The Radio Directory  Over 6000 links.  Intended for professional broadcasters, but useful for radio hobbyists as well.

100000 watts.com  A U.S. radio and TV directory site.  Any information not found on the main page requires registration, a password, and $ to access.

TVRadioWorld  Information directory of radio and television broadcasters worldwide.

TVandradiojobs.com  Visit this site if you're looking for a job in broadcasting, or if you're a broadcaster seeking to hire a DJ.  You can post a Real Audio aircheck along with your résumé.

Interval Signals Archive  Listen to the interval signals and station ID announcements of shortwave broadcasters, including many that are now defunct or no longer broadcasting on SW.

National Anthems  MP3 vocal and instrumental versions of national anthems, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Radio Locator  Links to over 10,000 stations broadcasting on the net.

Broadcast Band DX Logbook  A logbook of all U.S. and Canadian AM stations, created by Lee Freshwater of Ocala, FL.

Former Canadian AM Stations  Since the 1980s, Canadian broadcasters have been shutting down their AM facilities and moving to FM, like rats leaving the proverbial sinking ship!

Ontario DX Association  This was the first DX club that I joined, back in 1976.  I served for several years as ODXA's medium wave editor, but resigned from ODXA more than a decade ago after ODXA's founder and then-Chairman eliminated my column.  To make a long story short, I quit ODXA for philosophical reasons and have no desire to re-join.

Canadian International DX Club  Covers everything (AM, FM, SW, utilities, etc.).  I also used to edit a column for CIDX, but quit editing to devote more time to my yoga practice.  I'm still a CIDX member.  CIDX has a chat room and message board on Yahoo.

North American Shortwave Association (NASWA)  North America's oldest shortwave broadcast-only radio club.

Worldwide TV-FM DX Association (WTFDA) For FM, VHF and UHF DXers.

Longwave Club of America  Covers the world of radio below 500 kHz.

New Zealand Radio DX League and Australian Radio DX Club for DXers Down Under.

There are two clubs devoted entirely to DXing on the 530-1700 kHz AM broadcast band: International Radio Club of America and the National Radio Club.  Although some DXers consider the NRC, founded in 1933, to be the better of the two, IRCA has launched an innovative "Soft" (e-mail) bulletin to save postage and paper.

DX-MidAMerica For AM DXers, mainly in the U.S. Midwest.

AMANDX  Association of Manitoba DXers. (WARNING: Angelfire pop-up alert for above two sites!  Visiting an Angelfire site may also disable your browser's "back" button!)

Young Stars Radio Club  and  Globe Radio DX Club Clubs for DXers in India.

Medium Wave Circle is a British MW/BCB DX club

BLANDX is a parody of DX bulletins, loosely based on NASWA's former publication "FRENDX".

Association of North American Radio Clubs (ANARC) serves as an umbrella organization for DX clubs in North America.  ANARC used to host an annual convention, which was an opportunity to schmooze with fellow DXers and broadcasters, and to dine on loaves and fishes at the convention banquet (prepared especially for the benefit of certain members of ODXA).

The Winter SWL Festival is an annual event in Kulpsville, PA - just north of Philadelphia and only a few minutes from the site of Yogi Amrit Desai's original Kripalu Ashram in Sumneytown. (see below for a daytime bandscan from Sumneytown).  The 2006 SWL Fest is scheduled for March 3-4, 2006.

Dave Whatmough Hamilton, ON (another Angelfire page - beware of pop-ups!)

Werner Funkenhauser Guelph, ON (site now maintained by "Where's That Station" creator Eric Force)

Bill Dulmage Cobourg, ON

Tim Noonan  Madison, WI

Robert Kramer  Chicago, IL

Robert Wien  San Jose, CA

Mark Connelly  Billerica, MA

Some of my old daytime AM bandscans are hosted on Mark Connelly's Bandscan World page:
Chicago, IL (1987)
Huntington Beach, CA (1988) - monitored during 1988 ANARC convention
Seattle, WA (1988)
New Orleans, LA (1989)
Atlantic City, NJ (1990)
Lenox, MA (1990) - monitored at the Kripalu Center
Dallas, TX (1991) - monitored on the grassy knoll of Dealey Plaza.
Smithfield, RI (1994)- monitored at Bryant College.
Sumneytown, PA (1994)
North Port, ON (1998)

Tim Hall Chula Vista, CA

Chris Mackerell  Wellington, New Zealand

Adam Rivers  Chicopee, MA

Eric Conchie  Tweed, ON  This site is still online, although Eric passed away on Feb. 1, 2004 at a rather young age :(

Bruce Conti (and the DX cats, Loco and Novi)  Nashua, NH

KMOX (1120 kHz), the one-time voice of the St. Louis Blues and Cardinals, was one of the first stations I discovered when I began DXing.  I still have fond memories of the late Dan Kelly broadcasting Blues hockey games and listening to Lou Brock break Ty Cobb's career stolen base record in 1977.  Unfortunately, KMOX is no longer the Blues' flagship (no great loss, as most of my hockey listening is now done via Real Audio on NHL.com) and after more than 50 years of Cardinals baseball, they lost the baseball rights after the 2005 season (rat-bastards!! but they're not the only 50 kw blowtorch to lose a long-time baseball flagship recently -- the Atlanta Braves are no longer on WSB-750 and the Detroit Tigers have left WJR-760).

WCBS (880 kHz)  All news, all the time, from New York City, and the home of Yankees baseball.

Mix97 (97.1 MHz) Belleville, ON.  My cool cousin, Lorne Brooker, works in Mix97's Promotions Department.

CHUM (1050 kHz), was once Toronto's Top 40 blowtorch, before going all-oldies and had been the Blue Jays flagship from 1997 to 2001.  In what could only be considered a desperation move, in May 2001 CHUM became the flagship of Canada's all-sports "Team" radio network as "The Team 1050".  But without a major league flagship in Toronto, after losing the Jays broadcasts in 2002, their ratings tanked and Fan 590 basically cleaned their clocks.  Consequently, on Aug. 27, 2002 CHUM Ltd. pulled the plug on the Team network (though a couple of CHUM-owned stations, such as Montreal's Team 990, remain all-sports) and resurrected the oldies.  Quite a case of "bad format karma".  What goes around comes around.

Fan590 (590 kHz), Toronto's first (and once again, only) all-sports radio, is a direct descendant of Foster Hewitt's CKFH, formerly on 1430 kHz.  Except for the 2000 and 2001 seasons, they've been flagship station of the Blue Jays since the team's inception.  They are the flagship for the NBA's Toronto Raptors  As CKFH, of course, they used to be the Leafs flagship.  Since Fan590 is owned by Rogers - the media empire that also owns the Blue Jays - they re-gained the Jays flagship from the now-defunct Team 1050 before the start of the 2002 season.

640 Toronto once known as "Mojo Radio"  (640 kHz), the flagship of the Maple Leafs, the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League, and even the Leafs' AHL farm team Toronto Marlies (when their games don't conflict with the Leafs), is a direct descendant of CFGM, formerly a C&W format on 1310 and 1320 kHz.  For a while they were CHOG, a.k.a. "The Hog" ("Maximum Grunt" shock format, with pig-like sound effects and traffic fatalities referred to as "roadkill"), then "Talk 640", mostly regurgitating U.S. talk shows such as Dr. Laura.  In a bad case of "format karma", they even consdered a return to C&W, but in April 2001 launched "Mojo Radio", "talk radio for guys": beer, babes, and sports targeting macho, beer-swilling sexist slobs.  I'm not making this up, folks!  Their call letters are CFMJ; the "MJ" standing for Mojo, of course.  But call letters and legal IDs are for effete wimps! I only listen to them for the Leafs games, which is kind of like only reading Playboy for the articles.  In 2004, they lanuched a kinder, gentler version of "Mojo Radio", calling themselves "640 Toronto" or "the NEW Mojo Radio", and attempting to be more gender-inclusive.

CKLN broadcasts from Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnic University "at the far left of the dial", not only because of the frequency (88.1 MHz) but because of its radical left-wing slant on just about everything.  Listen to unrepentantly pro-Marxist dogma and apologists for Stalinist thugs without having to move to Havana or Pyongyang.  The University of Toronto campus station CIUT (89.5 MHz) is also heavy on the "progressive" (i.e. left-wing) rhetoric.  Despite CKLN and CIUT's frequent ranting against globalization, note the .fm in their URLs -- they've got sites hosted in the Federation of Micronesia!  Both CKLN and CIUT impose rigid litmus tests for political correctness on potential staff members and advertisers.

Radio for Peace International in Costa Rica was the only leftist/progressive shortwave station on a band dominated by right-wing war-mongering neo-cons and Bible-thumpers.  In November 2003 they were padlocked and shut down indefinitely.  Visit Save RFPI.org for latest updates.

CFRB (1010 kHz) has been the voice of Toronto's right-wing apologists for over 70 years.  CFRB's shortwave twin CFRX (6070 kHz) can be heard during the daytime in much of eastern Canada and the U.S.

Links to other Toronto broadcasters and many other useful links for visitors to Canada's largest city, pronounced by locals as "Trawna", also known as "T.O." (Tonga is even peddling its .to domain to local businesses!)

CKUT (90.3 MHz) is the radio voice of McGill University and Montreal's answer to CIUT and CKLN, but at least their website is hosted in Canada.  CIDX members Janice Laws and Steve Karlock host a DX program International Radio Report on CKUT, Sundays at 1030 Eastern time (1530 UTC; 1430 UTC April-Oct.).

Jim Rome  "Have a take and don't suck!!"  I get my jungle fix on Buffalo's WGR-550.  No, I'm not a "clone".  My takes would suck too much.

Herb Jepko Nitecap Radio Network Herb Jepko's Nitecap show aired from midnight to 6:00 AM on KSL in Salt Lake City (and for a while in the mid-1970s on the Mutual Broadcasting System).  I used to listen, mostly on Louisville, KY's WHAS-840, and occasionally called in.  From Larry King to Art Bell, and even Jim Rome, Jepko was the pioneer who opened the way for countless others to create their success in talk radio.  Unfortunately, after Mutual dropped the show, he virtually disappeared from the airwaves. Jepko died in 1995 broke and almost forgotten.  But this site keeps the memories of the first-ever all-night talk show alive.

The Howard Stern Show used to be broadcast, albeit in a somewhat censored version thanks to the CRTC,  in Toronto on  Q-107 (CILQ, 107.1 MHz) and in Montreal on CHOM (97.7 MHz).  But CHOM axed the show under pressure from their owners, the CHUM Group in Toronto.  CIDX president Sheldon Harvey even formed an orgnization called S.T.E.R.N. (Stop Toronto's Executives in Radio Now) with the goal of bringing Howard Stern back to Montreal.  But to no avail.  On Nov. 26, 2001, after more than four years on Q-107, the suits at Corus Entertainment (Q-107 and MOJO-640's parent company) pulled Stern from the morning slot and replaced him with their usual heavy-metal "classic rock".  They had some pretty lame excuses, but I would guess they just got sick of the battles with the CRTC's thought police, and decided they would rather take Stern off the air completely than broadcast a sanitized, cut-up version of his show.  After getting the axe on Q107, I could still listen to Stern (uncensored!) on Buffalo's WBUF-92.9 until Stern took his weekday morning schtick to Sirius Satellite Radio and left conventional radio completely as of January 2006.

Radio Canada International  (Visit the RCI Action Committee to find out about the effects that recent labour disputes and government cutbacks are having on Canada's national shortwave broadcaster.)

Voice of America

Voice of Russia  - post-Cold War successor to Radio Moscow

China Radio International  -formerly Radio Peking/Beijing

Radio Habana Cuba -one of the last bastions of Communism

BBC World Service - arguably the standard by which all shortwave broadcasters are judged, nothwithstanding their decision in July 2001 to stop SW broadcasts to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The Internet is no replacement for real radio. Visit Save BBC.org and join the fight to restore BBC World Service broadcasts on SW.

Radio France Internationale - pissing off Americans since 1789!

Kol Israel the Voice of Israel - the Israel Broadcasting Authority plan to end shortwave broadcasts.  Keep Kol Israel on SW.  Write your Member of the Knesset!

Radio Australia

Radio Japan

Radio Sweden

Deutsche Welle

All India Radio

Radio Netherlands

Radio Nepal  - OK, so they're not a major SW broadcaster and not easy to hear unless you go there, but it's a cool site!

Many of the above sites feature live or pre-recorded broadcasts in Real Audio.  If you don't have Real Audio, click on the logo to download a free player.

Raise the Red Ensign -- Canada's true flag!

Mike Brooker.  [ Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]