OPENING THE LOGBOOK - OCTOBER 1971
OPENING THE LOGBOOK - OCTOBER 1971
Although I received my first QSL card in 1968, it took several years before I really hit the bands and enjoyed some great DX from that era. It has been fun looking back at old issues of the Australian DX News (the newsletter of the Australian Radio DX Club), bringing back lots of memories.
Each month, I'll open up the old records to see what I (and others) heard during that month. So, let's start with October 1971—54 years ago!
All frequencies in kHz, all times are UTC (or GMT as we used to say in those days!)
The Logbook
9562 Radio Nacional, Lima, Perú. Station ID at 0630, then Latin music programming. QRM from Radio Moscow on 9560 kHz, Oct 21.
9595 Tunis, Tunisia. 0632, Arabic musical programming. Oct 21.
10038 Hanoi, North Vietnam. English news at 1000, down frequency from the usual 10045 on Oct 23. The Vietnam War was still underway around this time.
11780 NHK, Japan. A variety program in Spanish at 1040. Here's an example of the interference caused by so many stations crowding the shortwave bands in those days. I've written that there was QRM from the BBC (also on 11780), All India Radio on 11775 and Radio Moscow on 11785. There was no HFCC to sort out frequency usage in those days! It was a free-for-all! Oct 23.
15190 Radio Havana Cuba. French at 2130 until s/off 2145. Oct 16.
21485 VOA - Greenville. English at 2102 with news, using their new 250 kW transmitter, which in those days was considered very high power!
21525 WNYW - New York. At 2047, with pop songs, but a poor signal. Oct 16.
21570 R. Nederland - Bonaire-Noord. French to West Africa with a good signal at 2045, Oct 16.
21670 VOA - Greenville. English at 2157 with jazz music. This was running // 21720, which was also heard. Oct 16.
21740 VOA - Greenville. Czech at 2053 with a good signal, Oct 16.
25710 BBC - UK (I didn't note the transmitter site). English programming with music at 1245 and a good signal, Oct 17. Remember, the Cycle 20 solar maximum was in 1968. So, we were well into the decline by October 1971. Other stations heard up on the 13 and 11 metre bands during that month by Aussie DXers were Norway, Moscow and Deutsche Welle.
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| Radio Fiji |
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| The folding QSL card from Radio Sutatenza with lots of information and showing the transmitter facility. (Click on the images for a closer look.) |
Reception Reports
In October 1971, I was at secondary (high) school in Year 11 and dealing with the end-of-year examinations. But it seems that exams didn't stop me from sending off 50 written reception reports! Stations reported included:
Radio Cairo on 9805, Radio Finland on 11755, U.N. Radio (remember them?) via Delano on 6185, R. Republik Indonesia Jogjakarta on 5047, R. Western Districts, Daru, P.N.G. on 3305, R. Noumea on 3355, R. Algiers on 9685, R. Tashkent on 15115, R. Tunisia on 9595, R. RSA on 9560, RNE Tenerife, Canary Islands on 11800, Voice of Vietnam on m10038, Voice of Free China (Taiwan) on 7130, and many other international broadcasters.
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| ORTF station in Moroni, Comoro Islands on 3331 kHz. This nice DX at 1800 UTC. I sent the report in French.....which must have appalled my French teacher at school! |
QSLs in the Mailbox
The family's letterbox received 27 QSLs that month. Some of the highlights were
Suva, Fiji, on 3230 and 3284,
KGEI on 15280,
Gaberones, Botswana, on 4847,
R. Republik Indonesia - Jakarta on 6045,
Moroni, Comoros Islands, on 3331,
Kathmandu, Nepal, on 4600,
R. Sutatenza on 5075, and
Ponta Delgarda, Azores, 4865.
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| A QSL for a transmission from Azores. Thankfully, the QSL signer acknowledged the broadcast was from Ponta Delgarda, Azores. |
Other News from the October 1971 ADXN
- News of a new relay station for Radio Nederland! Situated at Talata in the Malagasy Republic (now known as Madagascar since 1976). The first transmissions from 300 kW senders were planned for December 1971
- A new station, Voice of Hope, operated by Adventist World Radio, was heard on 9670 transmitting from Sines, Portugal. There was English at 0800, but with QRM from Radio Moscow Home Service on the same frequency.
- The National Hellenic Broadcasting Institute (NHBI) was heard using 9710 at 1345 from the VOA-owned Thessaloniki transmitter. When not used by VOA, the transmitter was used by NHBI for home service broadcasts to Europe.
- A clandestine station, Radio Payk-e-Iran was noted on 11415 at s/on 1430 with clear IDs in Farsi.
- Radio Mount Hagen, in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea had a significant increase in power for their 2450 kHz outlet. Formerly 250 watts, it now runs at 2 kW (as of September 23, 1971).
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© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2026
That is impressive record keeping, Rob. I began SWLing in December 1969. While I managed to retain some audio recordings and my QSL's from the first few years, my paper records somehow went missing a long time ago. I have logbooks from about 1972 and forward. I also wish I still had my old club bulletins and first WRTVH from 1970, though I recently acquired one from 1972 to use as a historical reference.
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