OPENING THE LOGBOOK - DECEMBER 1971
OPENING THE LOGBOOK - DECEMBER 1971
In October, we launched a new series on our MEDXR blog, which received strong positive reactions from our regular readers. Each month, I open up the old records to see what I (and others) heard during that month. 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. Here are some memories from December 1971—54 years ago!
All frequencies in kHz; all times are UTC (or GMT, as we used to say in those days!).
The Logbook
The big highlight during December was the inaugural test transmissions from Radio Nederland's relay station in Talata, Madagascar. Initially, three frequencies were heard: 6020, 15260, and 15330 kHz.
Another interesting new service was Colombo, Ceylon, on 21445 kHz. Test transmissions were noted by some ARDXC members, beamed to Europe in German and English. The tests were scheduled between 0700 and 1130 UTC on this frequency, and between 1200 and 1600 UTC on 17830. The tests were not operating every day. Remember, at this time, the country's name was Ceylon, which changed to Sri Lanka on May 22, 1972.
Perhaps because of variable sunspot activity, there was some rather strange reception - on one day only - from Europe and Africa on 41 metres at 0345 UTC (1:45 pm in the southern hemisphere's summer!), that included VOA-Monrovia 7195 and 7280, BBC-UK 7260, and SABC (South Africa) on 7270.
The following are from my logbook during December:
3380 Blantyre, Malawi. Heard on Dec 23 at 1932 with a talk in English on Australia and its people! I wasn't expecting that! 😮 |
| Red Cross Broadcasting Service - Back of the QSL card |
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| Emissora Oficial de Angola (a.k.a. Radio Angola) - Luanda on 4820. This card took ELEVEN MONTHS to arrive in the mail! Not uncommon in those days! And these days, I've seen people complain if the haven't received their eQSL inside 48 hours! |
Reception Reports
As December was the start of the long summer school holidays, my typewriter was kept very busy with 54 reception reports! Talk about giving the fingers a workout! Of course, there was no Internet, no social media, no smartphone and no texting to distract the young Rob! Highlights included:
Hanoi 12025, Aden 5060, Omdurman 11835, R. Nederland-Talata 15330, Mexico 21705, Abidjan 11920, Brazzaville 9715, Voice of Hope - Sines 9670, R. Sutatenza 6075, RTV Morocco 6170, R. Republik Indonesia-Sorong 4872, Brussels 21450, Cairo 17640, and many of the big international broadcasters (too many to list here)
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| All images can be clicked on to enlarge for a closer look. |
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| The Colombian station, Transmisora Caldas, was a 1 kW broadcaster on 5017 kHz. I wrote my reception report in Spanish and the verification letter arrived after four months. |
QSLs in the Mailbox
The family's letterbox received around 22 QSLs that month. Some of the highlights were
Accra, Ghana 6130
Hanoi, Nth Vietnam 10038
Transmisora Caldas, Colombia 5017
Brazzaville, Rep of Congo 4765
Cairo, Egypt 9475 and 9805
Red Cross 9590, 11775 and 21520
Luanda, Angola 4820
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| Radio Brazzaville, Republic of Congo on 4765 kHz. This station was a good verifier although sometimes it took a long time to get to Australia - this one took six months. |
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| The Vietnam War was still raging away but gradually drawing to a close. Australia began withdrawing troops in April 1970. But the last group of Aussie troops did not leave until 1973, around the same time as U.S. soldiers. This Voice of Vietnam paper QSL is for a reception report sent in October 1971. Along with the verifications, the station would often include an English language newspaper, written and printed in Hanoi, filled with plenty of propaganda. |
"From the Verifications" section of ADXN, I reported receiving the following cards and letters in the previous few months:
- Indonesia: R. Republik Indonesia - Jogjakarta 5047 - A card with an Indonesian design, signed by "Tjipto".
- Rhodesia: Salisbury 3306 - Antelope card, signed by E. McKenzie and received in 7 weeks.
- Saudi Arabia: 9670 - The elegant white card, always signed by the Chief Engineer, Werner Storg, received in 7 weeks via air. He must have signed hundreds of cards during his time at the station!
- Sarawak: RTV Malaysia - Sarawak 7160. A card received in three weeks by airmail, showing the station's broadcasting building.
- Canada: CBC 11945. Card showing the new 250 kW transmitter, received in three weeks.
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| Radio Cairo was a good verifier and an easy DX catch here in Australia. |
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Other News in December 1971
- Adrian Peterson reported that the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Singapore on 5010 had recently closed down. However, Radio Singapore was then heard on that frequency with its usual English service. Adrian speculated that this indicated the complete installation had been handed over to the Singapore government.
- Queensland members Mervyn Joyce and Sam Dellit reported good mediumwave reception from North America. They found that some correlation appeared to be observed between good NAm nights and geomagnetic indices of 5 or less. During December, other members in Melbourne and Sydney reported hearing KUAM 610, CFCN 1060, KNX 1070, King 1090, KEX 1190, KOMA 1520 and KPOL 1540.
- Mr Jens Frost, publisher of the World Radio TV Handbook, advised that the Summer Edition would no longer be published. Average sales were well down, about 1/12th of the total sales of the main handbook itself.
- Finally, on December 18, 1971, ten Victorian ARDXC members (including myself!) went on a hike into the bush at Starling Gap, some 45 miles from Melbourne. The hike was 10 miles (I couldn't do that these days!). Apparently, this proved that DXers weren't just a bunch of indoor-loving weaklings!!
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© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2026
Yes, Rob. I have very much enjoyed these walks down memory lane from 1971. Sadly, the logbooks from my early years of DXing were lost over time, however, many of my early recordings did make it, along with the albums of QSL's. Just to mention a few, my reception of PNG stations on 90 metres in October (never heard again at that strength), La Voix du Zaire's booming signal on 15245 kHz in November, as well as the banana cutting notices heard from the Windward Islands Broadcasting Service. Action Radio from Guyana on 3290 kHz heard for the first time in November, and my logging of TWR in Monte Carlo on 7290 during the wee hours of the morning here in Canada on December 30. Keep up the good work and I will look forward to another trip back in January.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, Dan! Always good to hear from you. Some great catches from you around that time in '71. Windward Islands and Guyana were difficult for us to hear. But the others were all regulars. I really enjoyed my teenage years, around 16-19 yo, sitting up between 3 and 5 am (1700-1900 UTC) listening to the evening African services. Especially on Saturday nights (my Sunday mornings) when fabulous Afro dance music was the fare. I had occasional visits from my father telling me to turn down the radio because everyone else was sleeping!! All the best, mate!
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