The New York DX Association Shortwave & Scanner Listeners Net is the latest incarnation of the NYDXA Radio Club that was started in February 1984. At that time, the President was Charles Hargrove and the Secretary was Gregory Baker (Greg came up with the initial idea but insisted that somebody else be President).

The club met in Greg's apartment on Ft. Hamilton Pkwy near 41st Street in Brooklyn, NY until Greg and his wife Sharon moved to Washington DC due to Greg taking a position with the Internal Revenue Service in 1986. The meetings then moved to the home of Sig Hoffman. Sig was a radioman on a Merchant Marine vessel during World War II. Even though his grasp of radio and CW was strong, Sig never became a ham radio operator. Instead, he was satisfied to spend his retirement years sitting in his easy chair, in Flushing, and listening to shortwave broadcasts and utility stations on his Sony 2010 radio. Sadly, Sig passed away about 8 years ago after a long illness. After Sig's passing, the meetings moved to the Clove Lake Nursing Home on Staten Island, but many did not want to trek so far from the Bronx and Long Island. Since another site could not be found, the club dwindled to a handful that met informally.

The name NYDXA continued to live on in the hopes that it would once again be a vibrant organization. During the early years, the club received numerous letters from SWLers from all over the world and was publicized in other hobby publications and on the DXers phone mail system sponsored by Andrew O'Brien of Beltsville, MD. Since the basic theme of the club was to help those who lived in cities learn to enjoy the hobby, the name of the newsletter was "The Urban DXer". The newsletter was produced on an old portable Smith-Corona manual typewriter by Charles Hargrove. The newsletter was typed on 8 1/2" x 11" paper in the landscape mode and folded in half to look like a miniature magazine (I still have the original "boards" somewhere). Articles covered equipment reviews, broadcast schedules, tips, antenna articles (I'll post the plans for the "Perverted Vee Antenna" sometime), photocopied advertisements for new rigs, editorials (like Greg's "Beyond the Aether") and other related articles of interest (like the NY Times article on UTC and WWV). Many who wrote in asked for sample copies of the newsletter/magazine.

Unfortunately, many did not join the club and funds for publication dwindled quickly. Within the first year of publication it ceased. Now we jump to 1992. In the spring of 1991, the FCC announced the opening of the No-Code Technician class of Ham Radio license. After taking the exam and being issued the call of N2NOV, Charles hoped to find a way to contact others who had a similar interest in discussing the wide ranging parts of the radio hobby. It all came together on the night of March 21, 1992. That night was cold and wet. With snow starting to fall outside, a group of hams met on a local repeater to chat. Suddenly, another ham jumped on frequency to let the others know that USAir flight 550 had just fallen off of the runway at New York's La Guardia airport. Questions were raised as to what frequencies would be good to listen to. Lists were passed back and forth; much was heard that night between NYPD, FDNY, EMS, Port Authority, airport ground operations and tower, news crews and others. The following Monday night, the same group of hams were on the air and the idea came up to start a regular net that discussed various things that would help others in listening to their scanners and shortwave radios. Thus was born the NYDXA Net! After gathering quite a following, the net flourished until that ominous Monday, January 17, 1994. It was then that jamming and intentional shutting down of the repeater started occurring. After trying to deal with it for two months, the Net moved to another repeater on the Net's second anniversary. That night the Net had over 60 people checking in to pass information and to listen in. The Net lasted for almost two hours. This went along for a short time until the jammers moved over there and started up again. Just seven months after moving, the Net moved again in November of 1994. After the same problems popped up once again, the Net made the move to its present location in June of 1996.

Today, the Net can be heard on the 147.000 repeater (-600 / PL 136.5) in NYC every Wednesday night at 8PM.

In the February of 1997, "The Urban DXer" once again was in circulation, this time via Internet E-mail! Ironically, just as the net was created "by chance", the newsletter was the inspiration of Bob Kozlarek, WA2SQQ, created to try and keep the group together during periods of heavy intentional jamming. The newsletter now contains full color pictures for those who have the Adobe Acrobat v3.0 Reader program. The idea for using Acrobat came from WA2SQQ, a strong supporter of the Net who does a lot to help it along. Bob's background dating back to 1963 includes his own radio career that started in AM BCB DXing. There are many who have helped with the various stages of evolution along the way. We are eternally grateful to them and the many who participate on the weekly Net. These, our most valued contributors, are those of you who check in each week to share the rare DX and newly discovered scanner frequencies. This is the essence of what makes the net the success it is. I am sure there are many times more the number who just listen as there are who get on the air each week.

The Net also sponsors a Packet Radio/land line computer BBS system. The phone number is (718)876-7928 and the ham packet (N2NOV-6) frequency is 145.770 MHZ. Users enter their ham call sign (non-hams use first initial and last name - jsmith) and any password will do until one is setup by the user. It has taken over a decade, but the New York DX Association is once again alive and well. Thank you to all who helped along the way.
73's and good DXing.
N2NOV - Charlie
WA2SQQ - Bob