Mediumwave dxing with a vintage radio

Siera 1298A (our family table top radio during the early 1960's).

One evening back in 1973, I decided to tune across the mediumwave band on our family table top vintage radio, a Siera SZ1298A. The sensitivity of the set proved to be quite good on mediumwave and I was pleasantly surprised to hear and identify Radio Botswana (50 kw) on 971 kHz for the first time. The signal was remarkably clear and marked the beginning of a search for other stations operating in the mediumwave band.

  

During the following few evenings I managed to hear and identify Radio Mozambique on 737 kHz (50 kw), Radio Swaziland on 881 khz (10 kw) and Radio Lesotho on 899 kHz (10 kw). Part of the fascination of listening to stations on the mediumwave band was the content of the programming which included local news and announcements - an interesting change from the external service shortwave broadcasting of the day.

THE LISTENING POST AT PINELANDS IN 1974

Top Shelf L to R : Hitachi Cassette Recorder and Toshiba Reel to Reel Recorder. Bottom Shelf L to R : Akai Headphones, Sony Microphone, Siera SZ1298A Radio (MW Reception) and Realistic DX150A Receiver (SW Reception).

TRANS ATLANTIC MEDIUMWAVE RECEPTION 

Encouraged by the 1974 SADXC reports of trans Atlantic reception of mediumwave stations from the U.S., I decided to try listening out for signals from that part of the world. The length of a basic outdoor longwire antenna was increased to 20 metres. I also managed to increase the height of the antenna by another metre or two.

U.S.A.

A few mornings later while tuning across the mediumwave band with the Siera receiver, I stumbled across a station broadcasting news reports from an announcer with an American accent. The station turned out to be WINS New York NY on 1010 kHz at over 12 558 kilometres away !

The excitement of hearing my first trans Atlantic mediumwave station from the U.S.A. was repeated with the reception of WRVA Richmond, Virginia on 1140 kHz soon afterwards ! 1010 WINS and 1140 WRVA became good indicators for trans Atlantic reception from the U.S. 

WRVA made it through with a huge signal peak on the 6th August 1974 via the Siera and 20 metre longwire antenna. It sounded more like a local broadcast from downtown Richmond instead of over 12 647 kilometres away !

Two mp3 clips of the remarkable reception are available by clicking onto the play icon.

ASCENSION ISLAND

ZD8VR Volcano Radio made it through on the 5th May '79 via the Siera SZ1298A and a modest 20 metre longwire antenna. It was a surprise to receive the 500 watt station with a remarkable peak from across the South Atlantic, over 4 430 km / 2 754 miles away !

An audio clip of the reception is available by clicking onto the play icon.

ST. VINCENT

It was also pleasant surprise to receive Radio St. Vincent on 705 khz for the first time back in 1979 via the Siera SZ1298A and a 20 metre longwire antenna.  

An audio clip of the reception is available by clicking onto the play icon.

Yours truly (photograph 1980) with the Siera SZ1298A (right) and a new FRG7 (left) which eventually took over as the receiver of choice for mediumwave dxing.

For those interested, many exotic mediumwave dx 'catches' and rare QSLs are  available at my dx website http://capedx.blogspot.com/