About my DX hobby
I got the first sparkle to my DX-listening hobby by checking my grandfather’s portable world band radio, and I heard some shortwave stations. I tried to recognise the different languages and I wondered how is it possible, that Asian radio stations can be heard so far away. It was 5 years ago when I was 12 years old. Soon I got more interested and bought and an FM radio. At first it had only a random wire as antenna. In summer 2021 I was surprised by strong sporadic E propagation; tuning along the FM band in car radio I heard Romanian stations. That kind of propagation was still a complete mystery to me at that time.
When checking national TV’s text TV pages I found the page for Finnish DX Association with contact details. From there I got more information and contact details how to purchase an effective FM antenna: a Yagi. So I was well prepared for summer 2022. Later I also purchased NAD’s FM tuner and soon after that Körner 9.3 antenna. The first proper week for sporadic E propagation in 2023 was the one starting on 6th June, when I caught stations from Libya and Tunisia. On 13th June I heard my record distant station so far: Jeddah FM on 93.4&94.6 MHz from Saudi Arabia. Otherwise, summer 2023 war rather modest for sporadic E.
Early in the summer I got information, that there are still some analogue TV transmitters in operation. During Es skip I tried, if something could be seen, and in my LED TV I could see colour images from Russia and Kazakhstan. The best TV catch for me was Afghanistan on channel E2.
In winter 2021-22 I got interested also in medium wave DXing and I rolled out a 600 metre long wire. A bit later I put up a 700 metre Beverage to direction 300°. It was very good for North American stations and with the back lobe I could also hear a lot of Asia. About the same I time also purchased my first SDR: RSPDX. It opened virtually another new world: I was no more forced to stay up in the deepest night to hear Transatlantic meidum wave stations. Then I heard, that Airspy is also good and bought Airspy HF+. I noticed it to be even better for medium wave reception.
I am also interested in DRM and DAB+ transmissions. I have received DRM transmissions with audio on MW from India among others. DAB+ stations I have managed to catch from Norway, Poland, Denmark, Germany etc.
At this point DX-listening has become hobby. Through it I have learned to understand the world better and learned also a lot about various technical matters.
Joakim Weckström
Kaarina, Finland
(Published in WRTH 2024)