Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW), who shares the following guest post:

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Report from Ponza Island: May 6-9, 2022

by Giuseppe Morlè (IZ0GZW)

Ciao Thomas and Friends at the SWLing Post!

This is the summary of 3 days of testing of my Icom IC-705 just purchased and immediately taken to Ponza Island, my hometown, for a full immersion DXpedition only listening to amateur radio bands especially on 20 m.

Day 1

I left Formia on the ship that went to Ponza and it was not a good start given the adverse sea weather conditions. After 3 hours of crossing in the rain and the strong sirocco wind, I arrived on the island at my father’s house.

In the early afternoon in the rain, I hoisted a 20 meter row on the “sloper” type roof not so high from the ground and connected directly to the Icom 705 without any counterweight given the place without electrical noise.

The position of my father’s house is open from West to North but totally covered to the South by a hill of 200 meters …

In this video you can see all of this:

During the first night, 20 meters was full of signals especially from the USA; it was, in fact, what I had hoped for given the position open to the West.

Really good overseas signals despite bad weather … below is a series of mixes of North American stations:

Day 2

On the morning of the second day it seemed that the sun could last and I was already preparing to listen to the LRA 36 Base S. Arcangel Antartica Argentina by preparing the receiver in its box and the antennas to be taken to the “Montagnella” hill with a height of 230 meters on the open sea towards the South. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated. From the early afternoon the rain and the wind swept the soil of the island making it impossible to transfer the station on that side.

I quickly changed the wire antenna from “sloper monopole” to vertical monopole with the help of a fishing rod to try to get as much signal as possible from the South.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of the broadcast I didn’t hear a thing. I had imagined this given my position under the hill that covers the South.

In this video you can see all this:

During the second night the United States was always present with strong signals … I also did some listening on 40 meters to check how this “vertical monopole” worked.

Below is a series of mixes of North American stations.

Day 3

Finally, the rain had stopped falling and I perfected the “vertical monopole” by moving it more towards the street below the roof.

This variation proved successful in the last night following. In addition to the USA and Bermuda Isl. in the early morning I could hear very clearly the signals of ZL3TT from New Zealand and FK4QX from New Caledonia as the cherry on the cake at the end of this session. I listen with my Icom IC-705–fantastic radio, truly exceptional sensitivity and clear audio. I must say it was money well spent.

Below the are my recordings:

I have omitted many other videos that I will keep in memory of my DXpedition to Ponza Island.

I hope I have not bored you with this summary of my expedition and I apologize for the quality of the images shot only with my smartphone; I am not a good videographer but only a good listener.

Thanks to all of you dear friends and I hope for a more profitable next expedition hoping for a better weather.

Greetings from Ponza Island.

73. Giuseppe Morlè IZ0GZW