SWARL

How I found this great hobby called radio back in the 1970's when I still followed hockey. I wanted to get a score of a Leaf game. I knew I needed 1430 C K F H but on the way to 1430 I heard many other stations. So a few nights later I started my first list of stations 25 to 30 that first try. This has grown to 1050 stations as of 1-12-04 I wish I had kept a date by date running log ,no such luck.. As I logged a new one it just went on a log sheet for that frequency. There are also many mobile loggings in the 1190 ,as of 1-2 -05.

1430 CHFH Toronto Ontario
800 PJB Bon Air Netherlands Antilles
1000 WCFL Chicago Illinois
760 XEABC Mexico City Mexico
750 YVES Radio Caracas Venezuela
710 R. Rebeldse Havana Cuba
1620 WDHP Fredricksted U S Virgin Is
1341 B B C Belfast Northern Ireland
790 LRE R. Marte Buenos Aries Argentina

Then my next steps in the hobby came in 1975 when I went on the C.B .radio as Marshall Dillon talking local and DX'ing as unit 101 working many stations in the U. S .A. Then in 1996 finding that my TS450 had free band open ,I was able to work 92 countries and confirm 71 on 11M, including Morocco, Gibraltar Greenland Ukraine Zimbabwe and many more.

In 1980 I got my first shortwave receiver a Heath Kit GR54 and started my SWL'ing and other HF listening hearing many swbc stations and some pirate stations HF marine & aircraft.
One station I will remember is the first time that I heard Radio Tarana Albania ,I heard a stinging anti American editorial. Thinking it was Moscow until they started blasting the U S S R then I had to hear the ID. An other I will remember listening to radio Berlin on German reunification night. R B I ID before 00:00 news and Radio Deutsche Wella ID after the news.
Also getting my first scanner the original 10 channel Bearcat210. Quickly I found inversions on the VHF low band and began DX'ing and listening to the usual local stuff. The winter DX on 42 mHz was from California Highway Patrol, summer was southern, mid western state troopers. Also on 37 & 39 mHz I have heard county sheriffs and local P.U.C. type stations and a lot of other things. There will be scanning files added later.
I realize that many scanner buffs consider those stray signals on the VHF low band, 30 to 50 mhz, as a necessary hinderance to their listening to local services on this band. But not for me, as you will see from this article. Shortly after I got my first scanner In 1981, I heard my first unusual signal on 42.060 mHz in with the Ontario Provincial Police (O P P). I quickly ID'd the Missouri Highway Patrol at Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Through the rest of that summer I would ID at least five more highway patrol services in the O P P range. I did some other searching to see what else I could hear on 37, 39 and 42 mHz, finding many active and interesting frequencies.

These are some frequencies I would start listening to if I were a novice low-band DX'er. So you will know when skip is rolling in. I recommend using one channel on the active bands of your scanner and program either 42.120 or 42.500 on that channel. When that channel shows activily, set up a DX bank in your scanner and see what you hear. One day in the middle of November 1981, I heard a few words including the words "Los Angeles". I listened to 42.120 mHz It turned out to be the California Highway Patrol including KR0424 Los Angeles and Fresno and San Diego. I went into search mode. In a short time I had several other blocks of info similar to the above on frequencies such as 42.080, 42.340, 42.500, 42.540 and 42.880 mHz. The next surprise came with hearing the Nevada Highway Patrol in Las Vegas. By the end of March 1982 I had logged about 50 base stations of the California Highway Patrol. But it would be a while before I would pair up base and mobile frequencies.

By the spring of 1982 I had heard voices on all of the above C H P frequencies. It was much later before I paired up all of these channels. I also logged the Los Angeles County Sheriff on 39.080, 39.120, 39.140, 39.540 and 39.880 mhz. In the mid-80's I really went to work on the state ; 37.260 adding 25 counties a local police departments. I scanned to see I could hear any US Military stuff and 36.050 mhz. This seemed to power company in the southwest. Through research I found this to be the White Sands test site Mew Mexico. Here are some other highlights of my low band scanning.

I have logged well over 500 low band skip catches in the last 20 years of listening. I hope whom ever reads this enjoyed hearing about my scanner monitoring hobby.

Total Countries Confirmed On Each Band

As of Nov. 1 2005 total band countries confirmed is 748 when all totals in above table are added up.
As Of May 1 2009 I have confirmed over 1754 call sign prefixes world wide . In 14 years on the air and with each pack up to 7-10 new prefixes. Over the years I have achieved many awards for DXing and ham DXing including 6 Canadian Provinces awards Ontario Counties award 1997 O. D .X. .A. DX Challenge top score on ham bands ,1998 DX Challenge 54 countries 11M free band 2003 D X Challenge 150 stations on A.M. band and others awards and in January 04 Canadian cities & towns award.

High lights in 2005

-AM band logged 600 khz Radio Rebelde in Cuba
- Receiving QSL’s to put 17m band up to 49 countries and working many new prefixes on 17M will get many 17m QSL’s in 2006

High lights of 2007

Taking over ownership of SWARL Yahoo reflector radio group with almost 500 members. After 9 years getting a QSL reply from TL5A Central African Republic. Now up to over 2150 Call sign prefixes including CB free band & SWL Amateur QSL's.

High lights 2008

The big thing this year was on the AM band on 19 12 08 I reached 1,190 stations logged and should hit 1,200 by January 10^th 2009.

High Lights 2009

Reached 2309 call sign prefixes before May First