I’m not sure how I missed this, but Bryce, K7UA, updated and published the second edition of The New DXers Handbook in January. I like this book. Even more, I like the price. It’s available for free from the author’s website, K7UA.Com. (I’m having trouble accessing his site today, and Bryce says, “About once a month something like this seems to happen [for some people],” so don’t be surprised if you have trouble, too.)
This book is written in much the same style as my “No-Nonsense” amateur radio license study guides. That is to say it’s short and to the point. That’s another reason I like this book.
The chapters include:
- Listening – The key to successful DXing
- DX Cluster Basics
- The Pinnacle of DXing-The DX Century Club
- The DXer’s Toolkit
- Split Operation & How to Be Heard in a Pileup DX
- Propagation Basics
- Phonetics
- The Art of QSLing
- DX Intelligence
I like that he starts out with listening. Learning how to listen really is one of the keys to working more DX, and there are a lot of great tips in this chapter about how to listen and what to listen for.
Chapter 4, “The DXer’s Toolkit,” also has a lot of practical tips. For example, K7UA advises,
When listening for a very weak signal, turn your RF gain DOWN. Sometimes this improves sensitivity by suppressing the AGC (automatic gain control) in your receiver. AGC is designed to reduce the receiver’s gain to keep strong signals from blasting your ears out. It still reduces the receiver’s gain with moderate strength signals. Turning down the RF gain is counterintuitive, but it works! Let the rig run at its maximum sensitivity by disabling the AGC.
This book is chock full of stuff like this. So, get this book today and start working more DX.
Leslie says
The site k7ua appears to be down
Dan KB6NU says
As I noted, Bryce, K7UA, says that this sometimes happens. When I e-mailed him yesterday, he could access the site. I can’t access it here this morning myself. I guess that you just have to keep trying.
Ric Peterson says
I was able to access at http://www.ncdxc.org/misc/K7UA-NewDxersHandbook.pdf
Ric KD8QNZ