Listening in on the 2008 CQ WW DX RTTY Contest

Wearing my radio amateur hat, I spent a few hours this weekend participating in the 2008 edition of the annual CQ WW DX RTTY Contest, one of the big yearly amateur radio contests sponsored by CQ Magazine. You can read about this on my amateur station blog. But in addition to the stations I worked, there were also some good ones that got away - ones that I was unable to work because they could not hear my signal. So I logged some of these in my radio DXing logbook as stations heard. These were:

• SV9CVY, Rethymno, Crete, Greece. 14119.5 kHz, 1905 UTC.
• S53EO, Portoroz, Slovenia. 14106 kHz, 1917 UTC.
• 4O3A, Herceg Novi, Montenegro. 14073 kHz, 1930 UTC.
• YU1AU, Pozaverac, Serbia. 14082 kHz, 1945 UTC.
• OA4O, Lima, Peru. 14133 kHz, 2147 UTC.
• CS7A, Portugal, 14119 kHz, 2210 UTC.

All of these were in RTTY on the 20 metre amateur band on Sat, Sept. 27, 2008. As it happened, I actually did work YU1AU in Serbia on 20 metres the next day.

Most shortwave listeners don't DX the amateur bands. But at a time when one shortwave broadcaster after another is shutting down or cutting back on operations, maybe shortwave listeners should give DXing the amateur bands a try. There are still tons of stations to hear from all around the world, especially during major contest weekends, and it gives you an opportunity to hear countries that you otherwise not be able to. For example, during this contest I worked stations in Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Liechtenstein and other countries that have no shortwave broadcasters operating from them. It also gives you the chance to hear modes like Morse code, RTTY, and others that have largely disappeared from the world of commercial and utility radio.