A Few American DX Nets

Butterfly DX Net
14,226 kHz
Around 4:30-7 p.m. U.S. eastern time (ET)

Affable Florida-based Phyllis presides over regulars from Sao Tome, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Latin America and more.

The so-called W7VHO Family Hour meets on this same frequency around 11 am-2 pm eastern for activity from China, Malaysia, and other Pacific rim countries best heard west of the Mississippi.

Daybreak eastern time, this very busy frequency is taken over by the US/Australian Southern Cross DX Net.

247 DX Group
14,247 MHz
Around 5:30 ET until ...

runs from late afternoon eastern time until well after midnight if conditions hold, when exotic Pacific spots like Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, and Western Samoa check in. At start up, East Europeans and West Africans dominate. The list of participating foreign stations is always impressive, but the real joy here is the easily-irritated net manager, Alan, a warm-hearted but sanctimonious powder keg always mere moments away from bursting into a tirade over some small overstepping of his rules. Because it's so fun hearing Alan blow a gasket, this is the frequency most frequently heckled by more freewheeling souls.

243 DX Group
14,243 kHz
Late afternoon to early evening ET

Easily-rattled net manager Margie doesn't get much respect. She doesn't get a raft of check-ins, either, and it's fun hearing her open the net and shut it down three minutes later after plaintive calls to every continent generate no response.

256 Group
14,256 kHz
Lafte afternoon to early evening ET

Another not-so-successful net is the once pre-eminent 256 Group on 14,256 kHz, whose thunder and stations have been leveraged by 247's Alan. Still, it's occasionally, inexplicably chock full of Falkland Islanders during winter evenings, eastern time, and these guys actually take the time to ruminate about life at the bottom of the world.

NOTE: As of November 1996, the first two listings above are definitely active, and I've heard some activity on 14,243 kHz--but I have no idea if the 256 Group still functions.

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