Mount Evelyn DX Report

  Strong Signals, No Decodes:  Auroral Flutter and the Bouvet–Australia FT8 Puzzle When the 3Y0K DXpedition to Bouvet Island went on the air, many amateur radio operators across eastern Australia eagerly sought a contact. Bouvet is one of the rarest DX entities on Earth, and any activation naturally sparks strong interest on the HF bands. Yet something unusual happened. Some Australian operators reported seeing Bouvet signals clearly on their FT8 waterfalls. In some cases, the signals appeared reasonably strong. However, despite this, decodes were rare or nonexistent. That was the case at my QTH. This isn't a beams-and-high-power setup. My modest operation involves 50 W into an 80m long horizontal skyloop or a 30m vertical delta loop. I saw the 3Y0K signal numerous times, but there was only one decode. Talk about frustrating! This was quite baffling. After all, FT8 is known for its ability to decode signals well below the noise floor. If the signal was visible, why wasn't it d...

An early QSL from Radio Bangladesh, one month after the newly-formed country changed its name from East Pakistan. See the Logbook entry and QSLs in the Mailbox sections below. OPENING THE LOGBOOK - MARCH 1972 Each month, I open up the old records to see what I (and others) heard from decades past.  It has been fun looking back at old issues of the Australian DX News (ADXN - the newsletter of the Australian Radio DX Club), bringing back lots of memories. Here are some memories from  March 1972—54 years ago!  All frequencies in kHz; all times are UTC (or GMT, as we used to say in those days!). Shortwave News According to announcements heard on a March 25 broadcast from the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation , a new 500kW shortwave transmitter with a rotatable curtain antenna was to be introduced at Sottens. The shortwave transmitter began broadcasting in 1972 on the 9, 11, 15, 17, and 21 MHz bands. It was switched off on October 23rd, 2004. The transmitter and the antenna ...

  ARCHIVE RECORDING: DJIBOUTI RADIO ON MEDIUMWAVE IN 1972 Another recording (below) from my mediumwave archives. I'm digitising these before the original tapes deteriorate any further and are lost forever! This one was recorded on a DXpedition to Phillip Island, southeast Victoria, Australia, in September 1972. The folding QSL card shown in the video was received in four weeks by airmail. 1538 kHz at 1635 UTC,  September 16, 1972 Language: Afar.  Other languages used on 1538 kHz  were Somali and Arabic. Transmitter Power:  4 kW! The country is now called Djibouti.  Between 1967 and 1977 it was known as the  French Territory of Afars & Issas.  Prior to 1967,  it was called French Somaliland. In 1972, many Australian stations  (ABC and commercial broadcasters)  signed off around midnight,  leaving plenty of vacant channels in the  mediumwave band for exotic DX signals. Subscribe to my little YouTube channel if you ...

WHY ANTENNA SIZE MATTERS ON SHORTWAVE Portable Radios, SDRs, and Overload Recently, I've been thinking about antennas and receivers. Specifically, portable radios with their little built-in telescopic whip antennas. And why many inexperienced shortwave listeners seem to rely on using just the whip for all their listening pursuits. I often read in the online forums about how they become dispirited with shortwave. They find it hard to hear many stations, and the signals they stumble across are often weak. They are quickly disappointed with their shiny new radio and leave the hobby without really getting started. Of course, if you live in the northern hemisphere, there are still many international broadcasters targeting their transmissions to Europe, Asia and North America. So, compared with my location here in Australia, it can be somewhat easier to catch a broadcast with a stronger signal. Most broadcasters stopped beaming their signals to Australia years ago! There are both good an...