Dampier North-West Western Australia
In 1977 I left school and moved to Dampier in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. I worked for the Iron Ore mining company Hamersley Iron. It was here that I probably made the biggest blunder of my dx career. Instead of looking at MW and doing Tropical Band dx, I was content on listening to the RSA's and KOL Israel's etc.
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| The North West of Western Australia - Hot and desert conditions (Can you see Kununurra?) |
I recall thinking that MW was a dead bore and I would curse all those Indonesian and Philippine stations that would come over the top of the car radio at the outdoor drive-in cinema. All of my DXing was done from the Single Men's Quarters and I never did any listening from remote locations. At that point of my hobby I didn't know about Coastal Effects or beverage antennas etc. In fact I had never even heard of Dxpeditions.
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| Single Mens Quarters Dampier . I had a longwire where that bike is |
For a few years I worked at the Parker Point mine site at Dampier, Western Australia doing maintenance on electrical equipment which included the complex conveyor belt system and even the Ship-loader etc. For a single guy though it was tough living there and I decided to leave around 1981.
In 2005 I returned to Dampier for the first time in 20 years. Sadly it was for my brother Ken's funeral. However I strung a bit of wire onto the car radio one evening and was in awe at the stations being heard. It was probably very similar to Gove back in July 2006 when I was getting 2 or 3 signals fighting it out on the same channel.
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| Parker Point Operations where I worked up until 1981 |
It would have been nice to return to Dampier one day for a dx trip. I have always wondered what the Indian signals were like. I know they were great on the Tropical Bands but not on MW. Some parts of Asia have always been tough for me. Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Burma etc. Maldives would have been nice as well. But I will never know now.
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| Well it was in the late 70's - I had hair and a tan |
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