History of Chicago Area DX Club (CADX)
Written by Karl D. Forth
September 2007
The group that would be known as the Chicago Area DX Club for more than 35 years met for the first time in January 1973 to discuss forming a club and publishing a bulletin. Most of the members were shortwave DXers, but there was a large medium wave group. Many early participants had been in the old Midwest DX Club, published by Dave Alpert from about 1968 to 1972.
Mike Nikolich of Wheeling, Ill., was the main force behind the new club, and he produced and mailed the first DX-Probe bulletin in February 1973. Editors used typewriters to cut stencils, which were mailed to Wheeling for reproduction on a mimeo press. Nikolich did the main SWBC log column, Karl Forth edited the BCB-DX Directory, a loggings compilation, and Robert Kramer edited BCB DXers Guide, which included a variety of subjects. In addition, Eric Draut did the QSL report column, Steve Wayman edited Feedback (later called CADX Chatter) and Don Petravick did a frequency changes column. Jim Ericson wrote a Ham-DX column, and Keith Zahnle did a Utility DX column, but these two columns lasted less than a year. Other active members at this time included Bruce Gladstone, David Peterson, Mark Lathrop, Gary Skubal, and Rick Evans.
Subsequent issues in 1973-74 followed a similar format, dominated by plenty of SW and BCB loggings, and station profiles. Kramer did many features and a frequency check list that rivaled the major clubs. Nikolich wrote a lot of regional shortwave features, and along with notices of upcoming get-togethers and gatherings. And there were lengthy recountings of members’ boozy hijinks at the mid-1970s conventions. Looking back, too much time was spent on things like the board of directors. (After 1980, there was no constitution, no elections, and the club never joined ANARC.)
Meetings were held in November and December 1974 to address falling support for the bulletin, especially in shortwave (BCB support was still strong in late 1974, as the 1974-75 BCB season was one of the best). More importantly, many of the key people in the club were 17 or 18 years old. As many of these members left for college, there wasn’t time to produce a bulletin. The last issue was December 1974.
Club revival
In September 1980, local DXers were invited to rejoin CADX. Once again, Nikolich was the catalyst, organizing the club and publishing the bulletin. The first issue of the re-formed CADX (originally the DX Probe, later called DX Chicago) in October 1980 featured a map showing the location of the first 25 members. Nikolich, Kramer, Forth and Jerry Lineback were the only members from the 1973-74 CADX to be back in 1980. For the first issue, Nikolich retyped all the columns, which were xeroxed in a booklet form. Nikolich did shortwave loggings and a new column called DX Chicago Style, Kramer did a feature on sunrise DXing and a column that included subjects outside of medium wave, and Forth again edited BCB-DX Directory. In 1981, Forth moved to Shortwave Band Scanning, and Mike Jeziorski took over the BCB-DX Directory. Later, Kevin Mikell edited the shortwave loggings column.
The bulletin itself was well done, and a lot of time and effort went into its production. Some of the members were in advertising and publishing and wanted to produce a good bulletin. There were a number of “publishing parties,” with as many as a half-dozen members going to Nikolich’s apartment in Chicago’s Rogers Park to put together the bulletin. Kramer, Mikell and Forth were often involved at this time. The bulletin went back to stencils at one time before using early word processors and finally computers.
Mikell wrote a series of articles on Latin America, Nikolich did more regional shortwave stories and station profiles, and Kramer wrote articles about TV DXing and articles on sunrise and graveyard MW DX. Forth did a story on Sunset DXing in Depth, articles on foreign BCB-DX, a comic strip called the DX Auditing Service, and a fictional story, “The Night Hong Kong Went Off.” (Karl’s father, Clyde Forth, contributed a cartoon of Moamar Qaddafi for one cover.) Sheryl Paszkiewicz, Evelyn Hampton, Sholom Gliksman, Christos Rigas, Jay Golden and Gerry Dexter were active members in the 1980s.
Transition
An important transition took place in early 1983 when musician Paul Kowalski of Milwaukee became publisher, in charge of layout, printing, assembly and mailing. Austin Kelly, an economist from Chicago, was publisher in 1985-87, and wrote articles and edited columns. Joe Farley of Downers Grove, an inventor and shortwave listener, was the next publisher. Tom Ross of Lyons, a police officer, served as Band Scanning editor and then became publisher. Ross had a special interest in Radio Moscow transmitter sites and composed several songs related to sites designated on QSL cards. (The Kinks’ “Lola” was changed to “Tula.”) Ed Stroh of Thornton was publisher of the CADX bulletin in the 1990s. In recent years, the CADX tradition has been carried with an emailed bulletin of loggings and station news by Christos Rigas, who has been one of the most active shortwave and medium wave DXers. Go to http://home.earthlink.net/~dxchicago/ for recent information and an article archive.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Rigas served as BCB, QSL and scoreboard editor, and Paszkiewicz edited the Voice of CADX column. DX Hotline, a list of DXers, phone numbers, and desired stations (“Call me if Tristan de Cunha or Swan Island is in”) was also featured. Kramer continued his column, and Mark Konen compiled the CADX Interview with different members. And there was the account of an unpleasant trip on a DXpedition by a member’s then-wife.
In May 1987, CADX went online with a DX/SWL special interest group run by Evelyn Hampton on the BBS Chicago computer bulletin board, primarily for Commodore and Amiga owners.
Although the bulletin was well done, the big advantage of a local club was that local DXers could get together easily. DXpeditions were infrequent, though, because they usually required a long trip to get out of the city and away from the QRM. Over the years, there were dozens of get-togethers in Chicago and Milwaukee, a banquet in Rosemont, a convention in Gurnee, and trips to ball games and table hockey tournaments. Get–togethers included some memorable visitors. Bishop James Ryan of Santarem, Brazil, sent a verification to Kevin Mikell for Radio Rural Santarem and was invited to a get-together. Bishop Ryan, originally from Chicago, was in town visiting relatives and stopped at our gathering. And then there was the visitor from clandestine Radio Venceremos in El Salvador, who addressed us with his arm in a sling. (We were told the injury was from a household accident.)
When support of the bulletin waned, the question was brought up: Should CADX continue without the bulletin? And what was the role of a local club? Should the geographic area be expanded, increasing membership support? At one time a Great Lakes DX Club was considered to replace CADX. In 1983, Milwaukee DXer John Rieger wrote that CADX regularly scooped the national clubs—he saw his loggings in DX Chicago before they were published elsewhere!
In the early bulletins, the typos and mistakes couldn’t cover up the enthusiasm for radio and DXing that we shared with our new friends. The future of shortwave, medium wave and TV/FM DXing is uncertain, but we had fun with our hobby—and with our local club. And many of the friendships made years ago remain to this day.