Mount Evelyn DX Report

  This model, Lafayette HA-230, was the one with which I heard most of my utility DX back in the 70s.    (Image from an unknown source) UTILITY STATIONS FROM THE PAST Two years ago, I suffered from a dose of Christmas COVID. It was hardly a seasonal joy for me!  Determined to spend my time in isolation doing something useful, I went through old magnetic tapes of long-forgotten recordings from the early 70s. A discovery of utility station recordings led me down a fascinating memory lane. Over about two weeks, I slowly released video recordings of these voice mirror announcements. The hours spent recovering the deteriorating audio quality of these recordings proved a great antidote to COVID! Some readers may have missed the opportunity to explore these recordings, so I have gathered them in one collection below. Below each YouTube video you will  also find  additional details and observations  relating to each of the stations. Most of the recordings inc...

  ONDAS DEL META LEAVES MEDIUMWAVE It is sad to hear that one of Colombia's long-time broadcasters is leaving the mediumwave band. Final broadcasts from Ondas del Meta, 1170 kHz,  in Villavicencio, department of Meta, will conclude on December 31, 2024. This information comes from a post by  Rubencito Medina Parada in the WRTH Facebook forum. The official announcement from the station is below: Click to enlarge the image. I remember well the days when Ondas del Meta would send a strong signal into southeastern Australia on 4885 kHz shortwave. At a time when we were all young and enthusiastic DXers, sending out our reception reports to Latin American stations in what was probably a simplified and halting version of Spanish, I posted a report to Ondas del Meta on 4885 kHz for their broadcast on August 31, 1971 Eventually, I received two letters verifying my reception report! The first letter, dated January 10, 1972, is a longer personalised correspondence from one of the ...

  MORE LUNCHTIME DXING IN THE VICTORIAN ALPS The video below follows my last blog post about visiting Lake Catani several days ago.  This second video looks at summer daytime reception near Mount Hotham in the Victorian Alpine region. As we near the summer solstice, some surprising signals appeared.  The stations heard were recorded from 0150 to 0250 UTC (12:50 to 1:50 pm AEDT) on December 10, 2024. The antenna is a 25-metre long wire, and the receiver is the Tecsun PL680. The video below tells the story: 73 and good DX to you! Rob Wagner VK3BVW Current local time in Mount Evelyn, Australia CLICK HERE for VK3BVW Live Stream (Clublog) QRZ callsign lookup: Search Callsign lookups provided by qrz.com © Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2026

  LUNCHTIME DXING AT LAKE CATANI I am holidaying in the Victorian High Country, the Alpine National Parks. Today's stop was for lunch at Lake Catani, in Mount Buffalo National Park. This is a beautiful area. The day was perfect—sunny, about 19˚ C, with the occasional gentle breeze.  The recording of stations heard was made from 0200 to 0230 UTC (1 to 1:30 pm AEDT) on December 8, 2024. The antenna is a Wolf River coil. The transceiver is a Kenwood TS2000 powered by a big honking SLA car battery. I really must switch to a lighter-weight LiFePO4 battery one day. My back will thank me! The video below tells the story: 73 and good DX to you! Rob Wagner VK3BVW Current local time in Mount Evelyn, Australia CLICK HERE for VK3BVW Live Stream (Clublog) QRZ callsign lookup: Search Callsign lookups provided by qrz.com © Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2026