A VALUABLE GUP WON

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21726, 7 March 1936, Page 11

A VALUABLE GUP WON

A LOCAL DXER’S SUCCESS MANY “SINGLETONS” CLAIMED The news published recently of Mr J. L. Sullivan, of Pukeroro, winning a valuable cup of the International OXers’ Alliance, has been quickly followed by the news of a local DXer’s success in an important world-wide competition. Mr Colin L. Sutton, of New Brighton, has been announced the winner of the Singleton Cup of the Universal Radio DX Club, an American organisation of 4500 members. . Mr Sutton is well known to Christchurch DXers, being the secretary of the Marlbor-ough-Canterbury branch of the New Zealand DX Club. He is also an official listening post for the American magazine, "Radio Craft,” and the director for New Zealand of the Universal Radio DX Club. For winning the Singleton competi- ; tion, Mr Sutton becomes the possessor' for a year of a cup presented by the ; Bresident8 resident of the club, Mr Charles, C. [orton, and valmY at 50 guineas. The cup is 17 inches high; arid is made of solid silver, embellished with gold, It'is mounted on a bronze baseband small shields, on which the names of the winners are inscribed, are let into base. Because of the high cost of transport, and probably high duty, it has been arranged for the cup to remain in the headquarters of the club in San Francisco for a year, instead of being sent to New Zealand. Mr Sutton will have his name engraved on it. As well as the cup, the winner of the competition received a trophy. This was the third time the cup had been competed for, and Mr Sutton has the honour of , being the first person to credit it to New Zealand. This time his runner-up was in Ontario. Canada, and the third competitor lives in Pennsylvania. Mr Sutton’s win is particularly meritorious when it is learned how he was handicapped. He told a representative of “The Press” that he was put 75 verifications back. Altogether his total number of “cards”—a term many DXers use for any verification, whether by post-card or letter—was 320, all collected from stations operating on the broadcast band. ■ The Singleton Cup was awarded to the club member receiving the most “singletons,” or cards not held by any other member, during the competition period, which lasted about 13 months. During this , time Mr Sutton gathered no fewer than 89 such verifications of reception, ' Early Morning Listening “During the competition period 1 would often, begin the day by listening from 5.30 to 6.30 am. for European stations,” said Mr Sutton. “Then in the afternoon I would start listening at about 4,30, and keep it up perhaps "till midnight, 1 do nearly all my listening between March and September* when I find conditions are usually much better than during the summer. "With my report I nearly ■ always send pamphlets about New Zealand, supplied by the Tourist Department. This would not for one moment influence the stations in* sending their verifications, but they evidently appreciate these booklets, and perhaps they are more generous in sending photographs of their studios, and so on.” Mr Sutton operates a six-valve H.M.V. all-wave set, with which he- is, very satisfied. One of the details he -ikes most in this model is a rubber. ' mounting, which he thinks saves a lot •U . • : r J ;

liy V* II« ■ V of wear in the receiver, which would have been caused by the vibration, of loud: static. The aerial he uses is a simple one, 40 feet high and 100 feet long, and one of the.,reason* why. Mr Sutton’s recep-. tion is -so good is that his hpuse jisonly. a lew hundred yards trony ihe searHfs' earthing system consists of three slats of corrugated iron buried in the ground. He had a connexion for .bead'* phones pnt on to the receiver, but he does-most of his listening through the speaker, as the volume seems greater. Mr Sutton said that his locality has. quite' a large amtfuttf 'of electrical in-' terference sometimes, although this is not caused by the trolleybuses, which are some distance away. When conditions are very noisy 4teweate the’ headphones to avoid disturbing any. ‘Other members of, Mr Sutton said he Ibbught 1 teVeMir of his verified stations had not, been heard by hhyone Clse ini' He thought' he wa& ih New Zealand to f^^yn ; |WSrlQc|tion§ from CJRC, a station an Can-'' ada. CKX, also of Canada, ZTG, GrahamstoWn, Sdtlth Africa, " and’ a few others. Most Interesting. Station “I think my most interesting verification was from CTIGL’ Parede, Portugal,’7 said Mr Sutton. “I remember ‘logging’ this station early one morning, and I was very pleased , when I received their verification. It is a most interesting station/ It claims to be Europe’s most westerly, broadcasting station. Besides the studios, it has a library, a workshop, tennis courts, . basketball and volley-ball' courts, and hockey and skating rinks, and these were all entirely built by Portuguese amateurs, members of the club which operates the station.” . Mr Sutton also gets excellent shortwave reception, although this was not Included in-the competition. He timed in on 49 metres while the representative Of “The Press” was interviewing him, and with terrific volume received a station rarely heard half so loud in Christchurch at this time of the xear.