Simon Guettier’s Shortwave (B)Log

What does DX mean?

The word ‘DX‘ comes from the old language and codes used in the days when people communicated by telegraph – by tapping on a key which was connected via a huge length of copper wire to someone else! Ages before we had radio, this was the normal method of communication over long distance. Telegraphy appeared around 1840 – you often see a telegraph operator in old Western movies.

In those days they had many codes – as a short way of tapping out words, exactly like when people abbreviate words when sending a text today.

So, ‘TX’ stood for transmit, ‘RX’ stood for receive and ‘Dx’ stood for distance or long distance. DX’ing, then is all about hearing radio or TV signals from long distance.

So you’re a radio ham then …

No. Although radio hams also talk about DX’ing (communicating over long distance), that’s not what Broadcast Band (BCB) DX’ers are all about.

BCB DX’ers are into listening to radio stations from long distance, not to radio hams. This can be done by listening to stations on FM or AM (medium wave) which you’ll be familiar with: and some DX’ers even try to pick up TV Stations from long distance!

But the area of the DX hobby that interests me is listening on shortwave (where you can fairly easily listen to stations from the other side of the world) and medium wave (AM) – the same medium wave band that a lot of ‘gold’ and talk stations still use in the UK.

So what kind of stations can you hear?

Broadly speaking, two kinds.

International Broadcasters

Firstly there are the international broadcasters – these stations intend their listeners to hear them from far away and use high powered transmitters to deliver the best quality shortwave signal they can.

They want you to listen to the news about their country, about their culture and probably their music too. These stations deliberately broadcast long distance.

The best known of these is without doubt, BBC World Service. You may have heard them broadcasting from far away when you’ve been on holiday. The Voice of America is another well known international shortwave broadcaster, but there are many many others. In fact, most countries in the world have an international shortwave service and most broadcast programmes in English too.

So, international broadcasters are a great way of getting a different perspective on world news and finding out about countries you might never get the chance to visit.

And, it must be said too, that many stations use their transmissions for propaganda or religious purposes. It would be wrong to name examples – but once you start DX’ing you’ll spot them easily! Many DX’ers find this mix of politics and radio particularly interesting.

Domestic Broadcasters

For many DX’ers this is the point of the hobby – managing to pick up and listen to stations that aren’t intended to be heard outside of the country they’re broadcasting in. Unlike the international broadcasters these stations are nearly always low power and broadcast in local languages – sometimes this is English, but more often it is not.

They are often difficult to receive through static, noise and fading – but shortwave radio reception varies tremendously with atmospheric conditions (a bit like a radio ‘weather’) and so whereas one day on a particular frequency you’ll hear nothing, the next day these little stations come bursting through.

And that, I guess, is the essence of DX’ing!

These small stations are found all over the world, but shortwave DX’ers in Europe concentrate mostly on Central and South America, Africa, Indonesia and the Far East – mainly because in those areas domestic shortwave broadcasting is used extensively, so there are many different stations to try to pick up.

For me, my favourites are the stations of Latin America and particularly Brazil. Their music is amazing and the stations themselves are lively and exciting.

If you like the sound of DX’ing – and maybe I’ve whetted your appetite – just Google ‘DX’ing’ and you’ll find masses of stuff to get you started. You’ll find out about receiving equipment (it needn’t cost much) and about other essentials like antennas, QSL cards, loggings and shortwave schedules.

You could do worse than start here.

Right. Time for me to see if I can find one of those amazing Brazilian stations. Perhaps I’ll be listening at the same time as a woman in Rio de Janeiro cooking her evening meal. Or as a guy who’s just jumped in a taxi and is listening to the same tune as me.

That’s the magic of DX’ing ….