Geoff Watts DX News Sheet. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

G6Tanuki · 19th Sep 2023, 5:20 pm

Did any of you subscribe to this in the 70s and 80s?

In those pre-Internet days it was pretty much the only reliable way to get advance warning of DXpeditions planning to activate 'interesting' prefixes and the frequencies on which this was likely to be happening.

[OK, you could listen to the GB2RS and W1AW news but they often didn't go into much detail; the DX News Sheet had - on a couple of sheets of A4 - the space to provide lots more information and you didn't have to write things down/tape-record things like when listening to GB2RS/W1AW].

BTW there is an obituary for Geoff here: https://dokufunk.org/upload/watts_geoff.pdf

dsergeant · 19th Sep 2023, 6:05 pm

I subscribed for a very short period in the 1980s and also knew the editors who took over from Geoff when he became unable to produce it. If you are a member of CDXC you will have online access to most of them which is fascinating reading when I have little else to do.

73 Dave G3YMC

G6Tanuki · 19th Sep 2023, 6:13 pm

I'm not a member of CDXC but it's good to know that the old DX News Sheets have been digitized and archived in an accessible format.

In the 70s as a SWL I did a sort-of 'listener version of DXCC' for myself - and with the help of Geoff Watts' info managed to easily push it well past 100 countries - I think I managed more like 140 over a half-decade, using an AR88 and a R209 as my receivers.

19th Sep 2023, 5:20 pm	#1
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 13,460	Geoff Watts DX News Sheet. Did any of you subscribe to this in the 70s and 80s? In those pre-Internet days it was pretty much the only reliable way to get advance warning of DXpeditions planning to activate 'interesting' prefixes and the frequencies on which this was likely to be happening. [OK, you could listen to the GB2RS and W1AW news but they often didn't go into much detail; the DX News Sheet had - on a couple of sheets of A4 - the space to provide lots more information and you didn't have to write things down/tape-record things like when listening to GB2RS/W1AW]. BTW there is an obituary for Geoff here: https://dokufunk.org/upload/watts_geoff.pdf __________________ I played a blank tape at full volume. The mime-artiste who lives next door complained. Last edited by G6Tanuki; 19th Sep 2023 at 5:50 pm.

19th Sep 2023, 6:05 pm	#2
dsergeant Octode Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Bracknell, Berkshire,UK. Posts: 1,156	Re: Geoff Watts DX News Sheet. I subscribed for a very short period in the 1980s and also knew the editors who took over from Geoff when he became unable to produce it. If you are a member of CDXC you will have online access to most of them which is fascinating reading when I have little else to do. 73 Dave G3YMC

19th Sep 2023, 6:13 pm	#3
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 13,460	Re: Geoff Watts DX News Sheet. I'm not a member of CDXC but it's good to know that the old DX News Sheets have been digitized and archived in an accessible format. In the 70s as a SWL I did a sort-of 'listener version of DXCC' for myself - and with the help of Geoff Watts' info managed to easily push it well past 100 countries - I think I managed more like 140 over a half-decade, using an AR88 and a R209 as my receivers. __________________ I played a blank tape at full volume. The mime-artiste who lives next door complained.