2015 - THE YEAR IN REVIEW




My very best wishes for the New Year. May you and you family have a safe, healthy and peaceful year ahead. May you continue to enjoy this fabulous radio hobby.

Thank you for your support of the Mount Evelyn DX Report throughout 2015. Without your "views", "likes", "shares" and "retweets", I doubt that I would have continued to write this blog. I appreciate your generous words of encouragement and friendship. It is much appreciated.

2015 - THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Here are some of the most popular posts and articles that appeared in the MEDXR blog over the past 12 months:

EQUIPMENT REVIEWS:
An old DXing friend from New South Wales, Michael Stevenson, wrote a review on his Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop antenna. This wins the prize for being the MOST POPULAR post on the site this year! Thank you again to Michael for taking the time to give readers an in-depth report on this antenna. I reviewed the Alpha Delta ASC Antenna Coax Switch, an excellent device for the radio shack. And, while not exactly a review of a new piece of equipment, an old article I posted on the construction of the Tilted Terminated Folded Dipole proved to be of interest to many antenna lovers.

SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTING SITES:
Information and news on shortwave transmitter sites (both old and new!) proved popular amongst readers and the following articles and YouTube videos were very well received. Amongst these were the excellent YouTube video on Vatican Radio's transmitters, an early video of the construction of the Issoudun transmitter site in France, a look into the past with Radio Sweden’s transmitters and antennas, a most unusual visual perspective with US broadcaster WTWW’s antennas seen from the air, the proposed plans for the new World Christian Broadcasting (WCB) site in Madagascar, and an historical look at a private US shortwave broadcaster - WWBS.

OLD RADIO RECEIVERS:
Things have changed so much on the shortwave bands these days, and we just don't have the vast range of shortwave receivers that were available 20 or 30 years ago. Yet, it seems that receivers are always of interest to both shortwave listeners and amateur radio operators. I was delighted that my DXing colleague Craig Seager VK2HBT agreed to be a guest contributor to the blog with three great reviews of some rare and unusual receivers not often seen these days: the Dansk RX-4000, the Hitachi KH-3800W and the Schaub Lorenz ITT Touring T104A receivers. Thanks again, Craig! There's more to come in 2016, so watch out for those!! And recently, Roland Richter WA5IEX kindly offered an excellent read on the many receivers he has operated over the years  in his two-part series, Receivers I have Known - Part 1 and Part 2. Thank you to you also, Roland.

LATIN AMERICAN DX SURVEY 2015:
Once again, my Latin American DX Survey proved popular with many listeners, and the 2015 edition contained an article on the Guatemalan broadcaster Radio Verdad. Thank you to all those who downloaded the survey, I'm pleased to found it useful. It's still available at
Latin American DX Survey 2015.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:
I travelled around quite a bit this year and heard some fabulous DX along the way. I really enjoy taking the radio gear and antennas into low-noise locations and discovering what's possible on the shortwave bands. The travelling posts and videos that were well received by readers included the DXing in the Buckland Valley YouTube video, the Stony Creek DXpedition, the Holiday Loggings from Lakes Entrance, and the post on Bush Bashing with Radios.

And of course, throughout the year we had many of the Station News and the Log Book posts with reports of monitoring here at Mount Evelyn, regular roundups of Shortwave In The News, book reviews and more. Thank you for your support and feedback on all these posts during 2015.

Looking forward to wonderful DXing and radio enjoyment in 2016.

73,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW



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