A group of central Pennsylvania DXers, calling themselves the Three Mile Island DXing Association, used to gather for DX sessions in the late 1970's. At prime DX sites like Vinco, Bakerton, Altoona, Johnstown, State College, Allentown and Dunlo, PA, we relentlessly searched for the holy grail of stations: the Falkland Islands Broadcasting Service (FIBS) which broadcast on 2370 kHz shortwave (that frequency was burned into the brain of any 70's-era DXer). Attendance at these gatherings varied, but the core members of the group usually included:

-Dave Valko
-Doug Wicks
-Jeff O'Donnell
-Don Moore
-Ed Berzonsky
-Brian Cartwright
-Brett Saylor

Every few months we would all gather at one of the member's homes for a night of eating, drinking sodas, and listening to shortwave radios 'til 4 AM. We had a list of regular stations that we would always try for: Radio Ulan Bator, Mongolia on 12070 kHz at 1220 GMT, for one. But the Falklands remained our most elusive goal. One night, we all heard the strains of "God Save the Queen" on 2370 kHz at about the right time for the Falklands to be signing off, but never got a definite ID. Finally, one memorable night, we heard it, ID and all! We transcribed what we heard, made a duplicate of the tape, and sent in our "combined" verification report. It worked - we got them verified!

Here now, for the first time in over 20 years, are the photographs and sounds from those memorable DX sessions...
 
 

Brian Cartwright, and his room heater (a.k.a. R-390),   with Doug Wicks and Ed Berzonsky	Don Moore and his Barlow Wadley
Ed Berzonsky proudly listening to his brand-new   DX-160	Jeff O'Donnell studies his   FRENDX
Dave Valko (note beverage antenna on   speaker next to DX160)	Unidentified DXer, after too little sleep
Ed, Doug and Jeff at a post-DX session meal at  Bell's Greek Pizza, State College (note Ed's FIBS   Listener's Club T-shirt)	Another group shot at another local eating establishment  (left to right: Jeff, Doug, Brett, Dave, and Brian)
Dave, thinking he had heard New Hebrides	The first annual Allentown DX session in 1980   (left to right: Ed, Brian, Don and Jeff)
Brett struggles to get that ID	Ed, Doug and Jeff take a break from listening while Dave and Brian continue to check out the radio action in the background

  The ID that did it: FIBS station ID and signoff (listen closely!)

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