This year I had again the privilege of spending some time on Curacao. Like last year I brought a radio with me: the Tecsun PL-368 I won in the SWL 2024 contest. I focused a little bit more on the upper side of the MW band this time. Below a list of the stations I received. Quite a few from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, more than a year ago. The most distant stations I heard were ZSN1 Nassau and Radio Monumental from Quito (both 1700 km), WFED with a WTOP program from Washington (3100 km) and LS6 Radio Buenos Aires (5300 km). I was pleased to receive ZBVI from the British Virgin Islands as well as the Voice of St. Maarten, two new DX countries for me. I am still waiting for a reply from the latter station.
During my holiday on Curacao I was able to receive ZBVI from Tortola, the largest island of the British Virgin Islands. A distance of about 840 km. Sandra Potter, Operations Manager at ZBVI was so kind to confirm my reception report. This QSL ZBVI Tortola, British Virgin Islands on 780 kHz is my 198th country confirmed!
The official call sign of the station in the FCC data base is ZBV, but the station identifies as ZBVI after the Virgin Islands. It is also not clear why this station has a FCC license in the USA and seems to have to adhere to US law (no tobacco commercials allowed). Anyone?
Is this the end of Radio Free Asia? Following the announcement of the Trump administration to cut funding of the USAGM department VoA, Radio Marti, RFE/RL, RFA and possibly other USAGM sponsored stations will discontinue broadcasting.
Last week I received this email from RFA:
Dear friends,
Last weekend Radio Free Asia lost its grant and funding. Unfortunately, we are unable to confirm any more reception reports.
If this situation changes, we will let you know.
As our relay sites stop transmitting our broadcasts, currently, we’re still airing evergreen programming on limited frequencies but it’s unclear how long this will continue.
Thank you for listening and also for your years of support and friendship.
RFA’s QSL Team
Personally I have mixed views on all of this. I saw an interview with Cubans on the closure of Radio Marti. An eldery man was truly disappointed. But a younger man said “I’ve heard of it, my granddad listens to it, but I never do”. I don’t know how many people still use short wave radio for their news. The younger generation typically relies on the internet. So with that in mind maintaining a shortwave radiostation is expensive and outdated.
That said: internet can be filtered or even blocked. Which is much more difficult for radio waves. Nevertheless the demolition of LW, MW and SW transmitters and antenna facilities continues in Europe. At the same time the Israel army resumed MW broadcasts of Galei Zahal, their army radio,ahead of their operations is Gaza and Lebanon. It might be that we will regret that we didn’t use some of the 800 billion to “rearm Europe” to maintain some of the legacy radio facilities. Time will tell.
For the SWL contest 2025 that ran during the months of January and February 2025 there was the possibility to do MW only. After I had spent the summer months scanning the SW bands for the SWL Contest 2024 I decided to go for this MW only version. My goal was to log 250+ stations to obtain the Diamond Certificate.
There are 121 European frequencies (spaced 9 kHz) between 530 and 1610 kHz. So an average of two stations per frequency would bring me to 242. Now the problem is that some frequencies don’t carry a single European MW station. Who would have believed that 40 years ago. And there are some frequencies that are dominated by a strong local station.
So it was immediately obvious that I needed to catch at least 3 European stations on some frequencies. An whatever I fell short had to be compensated for by non European stations, particularly Transatlantic ones on a 10 kHz spacing.
In total I received 258 stations from 43 ITU countries. Listening on the right moment helped me to identify individual Spanish stations on the same frequency which run network programs (RNE, COPE, SER) most part of the day. To a certain extent this applied to local Romanian stations as well.
Conditions to Canada and the northern states of the US were quite poor given high solar activity. But to my big suprise I was able to receive quite a few stations from Central and South America. Radio Santa Rosa from Lima, Peru at 10525 kms from my QTH was the most distant station. But I also managed to receive TWR Benin, Akashvani from India, the Russian Service “Radio Kitaya” of China Radio International and the VOA from Thailand (which probably is no longer given cost cuttings by the Trump administration). The map below gives an idea of the stations I heard from outside Europe:
Stations I received in the first months of the year from outside Europe
Below you can download the full list (PDF) of all the logs I received. It might be a useful guide for those who are starting with Medium Wave DX, particularly if you live in or close to the Netherlands. And in a few years from now one might wonder what happened to all these medium wave stations. All receptions made with ICOM R8600, SDR Console, and NTi Megaloop FX antenna. A big thank you to Frank F0DUW for organizing!
My radio friend Joé Leyder couldn’t match a station he heard on Twente WebSDR with any of the webstreams he was familiar with. I gave it a try and found out that LPAM Twents Gejengel was back in the air. I heard mainly non stop Dutch music, but at 16:05 LT there was this ID:
“Hit na hit na hit, zo hoort radio te klinken. Jij vraagt en wij draaien ze. U luistert naar station Twents Gejengel vanuit Westerhaar”
As in the clip below:
No idea when they resumed broadcasting, but they were still listed as “inactive” on the MW list. So I contacted the MW list and within an hour they changed it to “active”. Thank you Mauno! So nice that I can contribute to a community of fellow radio lovers!
The name of the station “Twents Gejengel” refers to Twente (the region in the east of the Netherlands from which they are broadcasting), while “Gejengel” would translate as “whining” when a little kid does it, but in this context the translation would be more like “loud irritating music”. Ah well….. it is definitely something different.
I’m not sure if I can receive this station at my own QTH, as LPAM Unique Gold from Wijchen seems to dominate the frequency at my location. And I’ve no clue whether they QSL as well… they seem to have a website Twents Gejengel, but the only thing it shows are a few reports.
Every month the NDBlist group organizes a so-called Coordinated Listening Event. For the Christmas Holiday season they had something special in mind. Between December 25th and January 3rd participants had to build a Size 10 “Pyramid” with a size 10 aerial on top! In order to do that you needed to log beacons from 19 different radio countries of your own choice as follows:
Log just TEN NDBs from any one radio country, just NINE NDBs from a second, just EIGHT NDBs from a third,… down to just TWO NDBs from a ninth radio country.
10 extra loggings from 10 other different countries to make the antenna on top.
So the end result should look like this:
The Pyramid Challenge in CLE 311 of the NDBList group
Smaller and bigger pyramids were OK provided that all its levels were filled and the height of the aerial matched the base level. The NDBlist group uses a slightly different country definition than in use by ITU or EDXC: the UK is split up in ENG, SCT, WLS, NIR. Remote islands like Shetland or Svalbard, offshore and the Canadian provinces and US states count as individual countries.
Now we had planned to spend the week after Christmas on a farm lodge on the island of Ameland. While the lodge was in a nice rural location I knew I had no opportunities to install a proper outdoor antenna. That’s why I decided to use the BDMR Kiwi of the Medium Wave Circle in Clashmore (IO78hf) for this event. The Kiwi switches between two beverages: between 1350-1950 UTC: 420m at 46° (Asia); 1950-1350 UTC: 920m at 305° (North America)
Clashmore in Scotland… close to the sea and with plenty of space for a Beverage
At home I make SDR recordings to be processed by Pskov software to cut through the noise. Using the BDMR Kiwi meant that I had to listen by ear again, which is the nicer “old school” way of listening to beacons. The additional advantage was that I could just sit in the living room with my laptop scanning the band, while the rest of the family was watching TV or reading a book as outdoor activities were a bit compromised given an 8-10 Beaufort storm hitting the Island.
Below you can find my logbook:
December 27th-28th: broad band scan
As most family members will two days later I have some time to scan the band between 250-450 kHz. The result is 164 NDBs, from 31 countries. And it becomes clear how this challenge will unfold itself. Nearby countries with lots of active beacons like SWE, ISL, NOR, ENG, SCT, FRA, DEU easily deliver more than 10 logs. And I have plenty of countries with 1 to 4 beacons. But the midfield is underpopulated: I have no countries with 6,7,9 or 10 beacons. Without those I have to “downgrade” a few countries resulting in a Size 13 Pyramid. That is already above the target of 10, which is good, but I want to see how far i can push it. It is time to focus on what I need rather than just logging what I hear.
December 29th: midfield focus and Russia
So the challenge for the next days is now to raise the number of logs in my bottom half countries. But many of those are islands that simply don’t have more than 1 or 2 beacons. And with 4 logs I have logged all that CAN-Newfoundland can offer. So it is clear that I need to elevate my results for POL(1), DNK (1), CAN-Nunavut (4), ESP (4), GRL (5), numbers in brackets being the logging count after the first two days. And where are the Balkan countries?
But there is some low hanging fruit I didn’t pick yet as I didn’t scan above 450 kHz: Russia. So I put some effort in scanning Russian frequencies. In less than two hours I log 12 signals, securing a Size 14 Pyramid. I try to do the same for UKR, but without success.
Improved conditions to the Gulf of Biscaye late afternoon help to increase ESP to 9. Good for a Size 15 Pyramid. Can’t get POL further than 3. CZE remains stuck at 2. And while Sweden is booming in, the Danes (DNK) remain silent. Funny thing is that I also don’t hear much signals from nearby northern Germany either, while signals from Bavaria in the south are an easy catch. Long wave propagation sometimes behaves in mysterious ways.
December 30th: going offshore
I forgot that off shore counts as a country as well! Throughout the day I scan the various frequencies searching for oil platforms like Ekofisk or Statoil. Including the less often heard 375-SNR Snorre it is good for 7 logs. Size .
Tried DNK, AUT, CZE, Balkan again… nothing. And from GRL I hear only 4 of the 5 I already received, so I call it a day.
Helicopter landing on the Snorre Platform
December 31st: doubts, Denmark and Nunavut
Bad news… just read that a new CME (solar storm) will reach earth the coming night which will most likely ruin propagation. More bad news… I start to doubt my reception of 336-AA from GRL as it hasn’t been reported for a year in REU. And unlike the other 4 GRL beacons I haven’t been able to receive it a second time. Revisiting the frequency it looks like the mix of RS and LT sometimes produces something that easily can be mistaken for AA… if I discard AA it sets me back to BASE 15. Why didn’t I make a recording to double check???
Good news in the early evening run: finally some success with the Danes as I picked up 5 signals moving DNK to 7 in total! Size 17 Pyramid is in the pocket, if my AA log is valid.
One hour left in 2024. Everyone has had enough beer and “oliebollen”, the elderly family members have given up and already went to bed, the rest is watching the final songs of the Top 2000. I decide to go for a quick check: and yes there it is: 336-AA… clearly audible, and yes I did make a recording this time, just for ease of mind.
With no other beacons from GRL audible other than the ones I already heard I browse through CAN-NU frequencies. Standing on par with CAN-NL at 4 logs it would be nice if I could raise this one to the 6 I’m still missing. And I hit the jackpot: within 20 minutes I had 6 Nunavut stations added to the list: Size 18 Pyramid in the pocket. The most And I heard my first CAN-ON signal: 334-YER. The final log for 2024. Time for champagne and New Year celebrations!
NDB LT at 305 kHz located at Canadian Forces Station Alert… world’s most northern station!
January 1st: Pyramiden
Can I move it to BASE 19 Pyramid? I have 3 countries that I can add to the antenna, that’s not the problem. But I need a new country at at least 6, and even then I have to move 4 other countries up the list as well. That’s only going to happen if I can get something from the Balkan. But the powerful Beverage antennas of the BDMR put me at a disadvantage here, as this really is their blind spot. So no luck.
I try the Arctic once more… and to my surprise I receive 295-EN from Svalbard. It hasn’t been reported by any of the group members for more than 3 years! This is a navigational beacon for the Russian coalmine Artikugol at Barentsburg. They used to operate from another town nearby as well, called Pyramiden !!! For me the perfect final of a fantastic Pyramide building event!
Recording of EN at 295 kHz, Cape Heer (Barentsburg Mine) at Svalbard/Spitsbergen. It mixes with RS (Roros, Norway), and in the background you hear LT (Halmstad, Sweden)
End results
What you can hear pretty much depends on your location. Aside from noise levels the number of countries and active beacons play a role. The members in the US and Canada are a bit at a disadvantage with the best of them reaching a 14 size pyramid. In Europe 4 participants went over 20! With 30 being the tallest pyramid consisting of 494 NDBs from 59 different radio countries!
My logs for the Pyramid event: note the huge blind spot in the direction of the Balkan
This morning I noticed that Radio Monique, a LPAM from Velsen-Noord, The Netherlands, was missing on 1332 kHz. According to their website the New Year Storm hit the antenna with 10 Beaufort, causing significant damage. Moreover, as some fuses blew out as well, there might be electrical damage requiring the installation to be inspected.
While I wish them a speedy return to the airwaves it might be an opportunity to tune in to other stations on this frequency.
QSL LPAM station Radio Monique Velsen on their old 918 kHz frequency
A Happy New Year to you all. Hopefully in good health and with good DX! For me personally it will be a busy year as, if all goes well, we will start building our new house in spring.
Below some seasonal greetings I received from Radio Thailand, Radio Taiwan International, Atlantic 2000 International, Radio Slovakia International.
This year I switched from HDSDR to SDR console. I have to admit that I wasn’t immediately a big fan of it as SDR console is definitely a bit more complex interface. But HDSDR didn’t support my Elad FDM S3 which forced me to adapt.
A few months down the road I don’t want anything else than SDR Console for my medium-wave DX activities. The three biggest advantages of SDR Console over HDSDR are:
SDR console allows you to adjust lower and upper bandwidth indepently. This allows you to optimize the amount of modulation needed to get an audible ID.
SDR console offers a variety of highly tuneable filters. I particularly like the NR4 filter which might distort music a bit, but is a great help to improve voice.
The navigator functionality is so helpful to search your overnight recording for signals. I use 2 minute slots, and when a proper carrier is detect move forward (or backward) in 10 second steps.
Are there some disadvantages? Yes there are. There are more options, more functionality, but that also adds a bit of complexity. Scheduling a recording with HDSDR is a bit easier when you want to set both your center and tuning frequency: for example when you want to run an overnight DSC watch on 2187.5 while recording the entire medium-wave band. Starting an audio recording is a bit easier in HDSDR as well. But all in all, SDR console did help me to improve my medium-wave DX.
As an example, attached is a recording of Radio Santa Fé, Bogotá. I heard this station while staying on Curacao last year and even got a QSL. But I never expected to be able to pick up their ID in my noisy suburb location: “Eschucha Radio Santa Fe, 10-70..”. And of course I sent a report and applied for a confirmation.
Merry Christmas to all my friends in radio land. And like last year there is only one picture I can actually post here, that of the tallest christmas tree of the world.
This christmas tree is almost 370 m tall. Located in IJsselstein, 13 kilometer away from my house I can easily spot if from the roof terrace. When you are in the open fields you can spot if from over 50 kilometers away I’m told. This YouTube clip offers some nice drone shots and gives a nice impression of the scenery here.
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