Martin Butera (left) and Ivan Dias (right) at the Marajó Island DX Camp
Many thanks to Martin Butera and Ivan Dias who inform us that their first logs from the Marajó Island DXpedition have been posted.
They provided a link to both a full story (click here) and a direct link for the logs (click here). They note that the logs will be updated monthly. They expect the process of processing the logs to be complete by August 2020. Click here to view their website.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who recently took advantage of a rainy Sunday in Maryland to put together the following video.
Dan notes that the video/screencast demonstrates, “reception of the low power Radio Kahuzi, the religious station in Democratic Republic of Congo, via two of the best KIWI SDR sites, in Sweden and Switzerland. The video shows how the signal of Radio Kahuzi propagates the 9,000 + kilometers from DRC into Europe.”
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this, Dan!
Photo: Ivan Dias & Martin Butera, during the first Dx-Camp 15.61 Crew Radio Listeners’ Marajó Island – Amazon Rainforest, North of Brazil – November 2019
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Martin Butera, founding member of the 15.61 Crew, for the following guest post:
The 15.61 Crew Radio Listeners, Martin Butera and Ivan Dias, give us a small video preview made in the first Dx-Camp on Marajó Island in the Amazon Rainforest, North of Brazil on November 2019.
There are more than 11 hours of SDR recordings and videos of the Ultralight radios, which will take much additional time to process, of course.
Crew is working on the report with a complete story that includes videos and photos of everything experienced during the DX-Camp–this will be published in several languages and the first LOG, which we estimate will be the first months of the South American summer 2020.
We recommend not forgetting to periodically visit the official site of the DX-Camp, to find updated information: https://dxcamp-marajo2019.blogspot.com/
Above, you’ll see a short stretch of the medium wave band with plenty of interesting content: 585 kHz, alternating between National Radio of Spain (Madrid), BSKSA (Saudi Arabia), 590 kHz, alternating with Poty Radio (Crateús / CE), Radio Diffuser (Boa Vista / RR) and Radio Continental (Buenos Aires), 594 kHz BSKSA (Saudi Arabia), 595.9 kHz SNRT (Morocco – operating off-frequency for years), 600 kHz Mirante Radio (São Luís / MA), Vale Radio (Barreiras) / BA) and Radio Gaucha (Porto Alegre / RS) and 603 kHz National Radio of Spain (Sevilla).
All of the following videos were captured during the November 2019 Dx-Camp:
Brazil is a country with vast continental distances. The following three videos showcase Brazilian radio from across the country.
Radio Diffuser Boa Vista (1408 km distance)
Radio Itatiaia 2191 (km distance)
Radio Band B (2747 km distance)
Photo: Ivan Dias & Martin Butera, during the first Dx-Camp 15.61 Crew Radio Listeners’ Marajó Island – Amazon Rainforest, North of Brazil – November 2019
More photos of the DX-Camp from the official site:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Ladd with SDRplay, who shares the following videos comparing the new RSPdx with a number of benchmark SDRs:
https://youtu.be/ah5Zu8qgvp8
Photo by Alan Pennington
(Source: EDXC)
After an EDXC vote, by organisation members and individual members, Bucharest in Romania has been chosen as the destination for the 2020 EDXC Conference. It will take place in September 2020, dates and details are at the planning stages.
The two other contenders put forward by EDXC members were Skopje and Ohrid in North Macedonia and Malta.
Looking back a couple of months to September 2019, a report on the EDXC Conference in Andorra is online at the British DX Club website [PDF]. Written by Alan Pennington of the British DX Club, it captures the great atmosphere that these conferences always engender: travel, sightseeing, radio station visits, DX talk, interesting presentations, and socialising.
Crew 15.61 announces its first DXcamp in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and launches its exclusive event site.
From today you can visit https://dxcamp-marajo2019.blogspot.com/ and find all the information about the first DXcamps of the 15.61 Crew.
The DXcamp, will be held between November 15-18 on Marajó island. It’s the first time that an event with these dimensions and characteristics is held in Brazil and maybe in South America.
This DXcamp got the attention of several sponsors who helped the 15.61 Crew, including: C.Crane, SDRplay, DS Antennas (Brazil), Heil Sound, COMPACtenna, Cross Country Wireless, Antennas4Less, NI4L Antennas, Radiwow, RTL-SDR, ELAD, SSB, RadioShack, Antennas Loop DZ by Denis Zoqbi (Brazil), Arrow Antennas and the SWLing Post blog.
“When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money ” (Native American saying).
Vital to the planet weather, the Amazon region has suffered fires for several weeks and several organizations have denounced the silence of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about what they consider a devastating environmental crime against Earth. Such disaster has caused worldwide shock and must be remembered, because as something that happened during September, unfortunately the media coverage is focusing probably another disaster.
Marajó is the largest island in Brazil and the largest river island in the world, where the Amazon and Tocantins rivers and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It’s located about three hours by boat from Belém, capital of Pará state.
The 15.61 Crew founders are Martín Butera, correspondent journalist in South America for the British DX Club and Ivan Dias da Silva Júnior, founder of the Regional DX group of Sorocaba/São Paulo.
The objective of 15.61 Crew is not just DX. We will take a direct and committed action to help the planet and raise awareness about the climate change that we are sadly living.
We will plant a tree on behalf of the European DX Council (EDXC). Planting a tree amid the flames that are killing the Amazon rainforest today will certainly not be your salvation, but it will leave a legacy and our contribution for a better world.
We will raise awareness that together we can change this situation with actions such like waste sorting, buying products that can be reused, lowering electricity consumption, eating more organic fruits and vegetables, moving on public transport and so on.
Martin Butera lives in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, about 27 hours from Belém or 1982 km. Ivan, lives in Sorocaba,São Paulo state, 38 hours from Belém or 2893 km. Both will meet in Belém and then go by boat to the island.
A trip like this requires a lot of preparation. It’s not something cheap or easy to be done. It takes a lot of time, effort and personal expenses to go to these remote places in South America and then share our catches with you. Those who would like to collaborate with us can do by Paypal account, from our website.
Why do we ask your financial support? Airline weight limits and luggage size are a problem in South America and are increasing the costs for us. We also have a long boat trip of more than 3 hours and will rent a house in the island.
Everything is already paid, but your help can made everything easier on the next DXcamps of 15.61 Crew. All donations will be reported on our site, but whoever makes an anonymous donation will be kept anonymous, and we will report only the value. Please consider support our DXcamp camp in Marajó island!
Your contribution will help us take the best listening station we can gather and have more and better chances of getting good results.
The 15.61 Crew founders, have extensive experience in the hobby, both Martin, 29 years as a ham radio operator (LU9EFO-PT2ZDX), with many DXpeditions in several South American islands, as Ivan, started DXing 26 years ago, including contributions to several clubs and as utility stations professional monitor.
Everything we do during this DXcamp will be shared by texts, photos and videos of our correspondent Martín Butera and will be published as son as possible on the BDXC bulletin and SWLing Post blog.
This will be the first of many DXcamps in exotic places that we plan to carry out, always with a message and a proposal for direct action. We are living in a world in danger and our roles as a society can’t be limited only to be only radio listeners.
Thank you!
Martin Butera & Ivan Dias
15.61 Crew Radio Listeners founders
To know more about CREW 15.61 Radio Listeners’ please click here.
Martín Butera is a correspondent journalist in South America for the British DX Club.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Giuseppe Morlè, who writes:
Ciao Thomas,
I’m Giuseppe Morlè, iz0gzw, from Formia, central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea … this is what I managed to hear about the 40 years of transmission of LRA 36 from the Antarctic Argentina to 15,476 …I took two receivers and two different antennas to the sea … the Kenwood R1000 was connected to my tested “Simil beverage on salt Ground” with salt water tip and the Tecsun PL-660 to my Loop Mea Casali self-built …
Both antennas are directed to SSW where we find the LRA36 station …
The main problem was the boring and tragic Chinese Jammer that strongly raged on 15.470 until 15.00 UTC and then calmed down a bit so I could hear the last part of the transmission with fading and spoken female and male in Spanish …
On the Tecsun and the loop I have not found the station …but on my Kenwood R1000 and my similar beverage on salt grond I listened to about 13 minutes of final transmission.
You can watch the video on my YouTube channel at the link:
Thanks to you and a warm greeting from Italy.
Giuseppe Morlè iz0gzw.
Wow! Great catch, Giuseppe! I understand the Chinese jammer made it difficult, but obviously your antennas did the trick. I tried to catch the same broadcast from home, but only received a very faint signal. Most of the audio was lost in the noise.
Thank you for sharing.