ABC Newsradio from Busselton on the Australian west coast, 13,547 km away – about 220 kilometres south of Perth – could be heard again yesterday evening at around 22:00 UT on medium wave 1152 kHz in Salzburg. Caution is advised when receiving the signal, as a small station from Taipei, Taiwan, can usually be heard on exactly the same frequency (1151.994) from 20:00 UT onwards.
The new AziLoop system is now fully installed. Mast height 7.5 metres, loop circumference 26 metres each. The antenna not only receives excellent medium wave signals from all directions, it is also perfectly remote-controllable and the best antenna I have at my location.
The annual TOP 10 DX OF THE YEAR contest has now been evaluated for 2025. István Biliczky writes to me on behalf of the organiser: Congratulations to Christoph Ratzer (Austria) who not only won the contest, but also set a new record in the “Total score” and the “Best DX” category. Thank you very much, the contest is always a good excursion into the shortwave bands, and despite the smaller number of stations, it is a challenge to receive the most distant stations with low transmission power. Thanks also to all participants in the event. And as always: “see you in the next contest”.
The new Shortwave Bulletin is available for free download.
Thomas Nilsson writes:
“With this issue, we have produced a total of 2,100 issues since we began in 1961. In the 1960s, there were many rare stations to hunt, especially in the tropical bands.”
Congratulations on this achievement. It is special to still have such a good magazine in 2026, a great and always high-quality summary of shortwave activity!
A very nice QSL card from ZoomRock’s first official broadcast day from Finland on medium wave 1242 kHz. The transmitter is located in Naantali, one of Finland’s oldest cities, and has a licence for three months, until the end of April.
Today, I was finally able to replace the Spiderbeam mast that broke during the ice storm on 24 December. Now, another Spiderbeam mast is back in use, again 7.5 metres high, but with even more solid elements and now double guying. Furthermore, I am dispensing with the outriggers; the loops are tensioned to the ground, so the loops of the AziLoop system are even better at 2x 26 metres.
I have been using my “SWL BOX” for 10 years now. It is an antenna distributor/filter/preamplifier combination that was custom-built for me, can be remotely controlled via the network and also uses protection filters. A perfect product from Jan Šustr’s Hamparts_shop. Good quality simply pays off! Thank you, Jan Šustr, for this important control unit for my station.
Yesterday evening, February 19, 2026, I was able to receive 45 stations from Japan on the 160-meter amateurradio band, i.e. on 1.8 MHz in FT8 mode here in Salzburg. I used my AziLoop antenna, direction 60°, and a fully automatic Web-888 SDR from Hamparts_shop as the receiver, which forwards the logs directly to PSK Reporter.
On 16 February 2026, at around 21 UT, I was able to receive DXGM Super Radyo from Davao, one of the world’s largest cities in terms of area, located in Mindanao, for a few minutes in Salzburg on 1125 kHz. The station confirmed reception very friendly a few hours later.
After the ice storm and the broken Spiderbeam mast on 24 December, the AziLoop antenna has now been provisionally set up so that I can hear something over the next few weeks until the snow and ice have melted. I am continuing to use the 20-metre loops, but these are far from optimally tensioned, although they do pick up some signals. I hope to erect the new mast, which is already pre-assembled at the station, by the beginning of March.
remotedx 