John Sampson Verie Collection

John Sampson: My DXing started in the summer of 1951 while I was at a summer camp in northern Wisconsin. A cabin-mate and I, both Chicago Cubs fans, found we could listen to their night games over WIND. After camp, I returned to my Des Moines, Iowa, home and decided to see what other "far away" stations I could hear. In the next three years, I was able to hear many stations from (to me) fascinating places all over North America. In 1954, we moved to Omaha, Nebraska. By that time, I'd heard over 1200 stations from Des Moines. Unfortunately, I did not do any AM BCB verifying until late 1953 {I'd done a bit of SW verifying earlier). I became more serious about verifications after we moved to Omaha, where I DXed from 1954 through 1960 and again from 1979 through 1981. In the fall of 1954, I met Marv Robbins who had just moved to Omaha. Marv introduced me to the NRC, which I joined January, 1955. I graduated high school in June, 1955, after which, I attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and MIT in Cambridge, Mass. I continued to do my serious DXing from Omaha during winter, spring and summer breaks. I did some listening from Northfield (no verifying, just occasional listening) and Cambridge {where I wrote for a couple of verifications in my Senior Year before deciding that school was more important). After graduations and marriage, all three in 1960, I started work with the 3M company. After a brief training period in St. Paul (no DXing there, WLOL, 1330, was about a half a mile south of us, beaming everything north and all over the AM band), we moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota. That was a great place for DX with only one daytime local. My wife was (and still is, after 60+ years) wonderful, she let me keep my Hammarlund HQ-129X with four foot loop antenna in the living room of our Hutchinson apartment. Subsequently, we moved around the country with 3M and, later, with the Bell System. I was able to DX from Freehold, NJ, in the early 1960s when TA DX was at its peak. After Freehold, my work had us living in New Providence, New Jersey, Cupertino, California, Winston-Salem and Kernersville, North Carolina, back to New Providence, back to Omaha and, finally, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. After my retirement, we left Minneapolis and now spend our winters in Sun City West, Arizona, and our summers in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. As a result of all of these different DXing places, I've kept my QSLs separate by location. In total, I have over 3600 veries and am still somewhat active in Sun City West and Grand Rapids. {I even tried verifying LW beacons from Sun City West but found that too labor intensive.) I've separated my veries by listening location. Also, when I scanned them, I found that I have a number of veries from stations where the frequency or city of license isn't clearly identified, that have had subsequent call changes or are no longer with us. This is why I've included call, location and frequency on several scans. Also, during my DXing experience, I've made many NRC friends; many now SKs and others still active. It's been a great ride!

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Cambridge, MA
Cupertino, CA
Des Moines, IA
Freehold, NJ
Grand Rapids, MN
Hutchinson, MN
Minneapolis, MN
New Providence NJ
Omaha, NE
Sun City West, AZ
Winston-Salem and Kernersville, NC
LW Beacons in AZ
Shortwave

Page last updated November 10, 2022 wwh