Dr. Richard Wood dies at 67
Report by Bruce Conti for BADX

    Mediumwave DXer extraordinaire and former BADXer Dr. Richard Wood died of a heart attack on September 25, 2007.  He was 67.  Dr. Wood recently reactivated his mediumwave DX activities in Hawaii as a member of the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) and the National Radio Club (NRC).

    "He had been living in Hawaii in recent years," wrote BADXer Mark Connelly. "In the last few years he re-activated his MW DXing and even won an NRC contest last winter.  He had numerous Beverages and an R75 receiver.  Latin Americans, of which he received many, were a main interest but he also did well to all of the Pacific and Asia, including numerous Middle East logs at distances in excess of 12000 km.  His contributions to the NRC and IRCA bulletins and his helpful advice to less experienced DXers will certainly be missed.  Somehow he never really got into the computer age, otherwise he would have definitely made big contributions to the discussions and loggings on this list."

    Here are sample 2007 loggings reported by Dr. Wood in the NRC DX News magazine.  The map and close-up show the location of his Beverage antennas where he planned to build a new home on the southern edge of Paradise Park, Kea'au, on the big island.

890 CHILE CD89 R.Nacional, Punta Arenas MAY 17 0840 - Magnificent program of patriotic music with folk singers accompanied by Chilean harp.  Motifs such as "la Patria santa... la vergüenza... la familia... el hombre."  0843 man spoke through song, "la leyenda... la memoria del pueblo..."  Inspirational! 0858 ID, "Nacional de Chile," brief news.  0904 time check, "La hora en 890, las 5:04. Los titulares deportivos... en Santiago, educación fisica para adultos."  Very good, dominant, some KLFF and WLS at times.  Last heard in 1980s.  Punta Arenas is the world's southernmost city and capital of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. It is south of the Falklands which gives real hope of hearing 530 FIRS. [Wood-HI]

963 CHINA (Inner Mongolia) CRI Hohhot (41°12'N 111°30'E) APR 22 1454 - Chinese language lesson taught in Russian, teaching words like "self-confidence."  1455 gave Internet address www.crirussian.com.  Sign-off wording, "Peredacha iz Pekina okonchena. Do svidaniya." No times or frequencies announced.  1456 into usual Chinese fill music.  Very good. [Wood-HI]

1188 CHINA CRI Kunming, Yunnan MAR 25 1505 - "CRI's correspondent... CRI radio... visit www.crieng.com."  Promo, "In April stay with CRI," then "Welcome back to news and reports on CRI. I'm..."  Booming signal, new, parallel 1323 Lhasa. [Wood-HI]

1230 ARGENTINA LT2 R.Dos, Rosario MAY 3 0910 - "Notidós" news program.  0914 promo, Radio Dos es la radio mejor..." 0919, "La familia... los padres en la ciudad de Rosario..." 0920, "La provincia de Santa Fe... los principales titulares en Radio Dos." 0922 ID, "Radio Dos AM doce-treinta," into "el pronóstico" by woman weathercaster, then back to "Notidós" news. Good to very good, booming at times, new, my most distant graveyarder. [Wood-HI]

1233 TURKMENISTAN Türkmen Radiosi, Syrtagta APR 15 1440 - Man/woman alternating in Turkmen, mentions of Asgabat, Türkmenbasy, Türkmenistan...  1443 choral music, 1452 woman in Turkmen, 1455 soft instrumental music, 1500 time signal (•••—), ID by man, "Türkmen Radiosi."  Fair to quite good on 300-ft east/southeast longwire.  New country.  WRTH-listed SW parallel 5015 not heard.  I have now heard all Central Asian republics except Uzbekistan (the traditional leader) and all Inner Asia; Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Chinese-ruled Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan, to its government-in-exile in Istanbul) and Tibet. [Wood-HI]

1440 KAZAKHSTAN Quazaq Radyosy, Qyzylorda MAR 25 1500 - Time signal, man in Kazakh, "Qazaq Radyosy, Khabar."  Alternating man/woman, items from Astana (the capital), Almaty, and Moskva.  Good, new, no parallels noted.  I consider this my best Asian catch. [Wood-HI]

1440 NICARAGUA YNRM R.Maranatha, Managua APR 8 0502 - "Bajo la presidencia del... Radio Maranatha, Managua. Radio Maranatha, Managua," into Spanish preacher with Easter sermon, began, "Es un verdado privilegio estar con ustedes... en Radio Maranatha."  Good, dominant on east Beverage over KUHL and an unID XE, probably XEVSD.  New, first Central American heard since I reactivated in Nov '05 and no coincidence that it comes after I built and extended the Beverages. Nicaraguans I heard here in the 1980s were 750 Estación X, Managua (now 740 R.Sandino "La S Grande"), and 1475 R.Cosigüina, Chinandega (now off). [Wood-HI]

1467 KYRGYZSTAN R.Maranatha, Bishkek (42°52'N 74°59'E) MAR 22 1442 - Concluding TWR Russian religious broadcast to central Asia, female announcer requested reports to an address in Kazakhstan, listed days of the week program is on.  1444 organ, two playings of Monaco national anthem, "O Monaco notre chère patrie," TWR music box interval signal, and off.  Booming signal, revealed a station in a central Asian language (Iran?). [Wood-HI]

1548 SRI LANKA Deutsche Welle, Tricomalee (08°44'N 81°10'E) APR 6 1452 - Urdu talk about Sri Lanka, Bharat (India), and Pakistan. 1459 ID, "Deutsche Welle, Voice of Germany," into Hindi.  Good. [Wood-HI]

Map of Beverage antenna site marked by Dr. Wood.   

        
Dr. Wood's reports to DX News were always delivered in envelopes
using classic commemorative postage stamps.


    On the Radio Netherlands Worldwide Media Network Weblog, Andy Sennit wrote, "Dr. Richard Wood was one of the most experienced mediumwave DXers in the world, and his was one of the names I heard most often in my early years as a DXer in the 1960's.  He was also a contributor to the World Radio TV Handbook and its offshoot, How to Listen to the World.  A native of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, Dr. Wood taught at several universities in the United States, as well as in Norway and Saudi Arabia, and was a remarkable linguist, which helped him enormously in his chosen hobby.  He later settled in Hawaii, from where he was able to log some very rare mediumwave stations, and remained an active DXer right up to his death."

    "One of the unique contributions to the DXing community that Richard made goes back to the early seventies when he did the commentary for the popular 'Foreign Language Recognition Course' that I produced for the Radio Canada SW Club program - the ancestor of the DX Digest & SWL Digest programs on RCI," adds Ian McFarland.   "In fact as you may or may not be aware, that very popular feature is available on a CD which I produced with the help of Colin Newell (the man behind the DXer.ca SW website). That CD project is a fundraiser for the local food bank in the town of Duncan, British Columbia, where I live.   The CD project, along with an earlier one which featured the popular Idents & Interval Signals Series, also aired on the RCSWC program back in the early '70s, and has raised $2,000 for the food bank so far."

The language course is still available from www.DXer.ca.

    Dr. Wood had no family or relatives and left no will.  The State of Hawaii is believed to have taken possession of his belongings.  Fellow DXers are hoping to retrieve what may exist of his QSL collection for preservation.

    "Richard joins other legends of the 'sport' such as Gordon Nelson, Ernie Cooper, and Ron Schatz," wrote Mark Connelly. "Farewell friend."


ALOHA



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