Tas Ultralight Broadcast Band DXing: Why I enjoy the Ultralight DX hobby in 617 words.
Why I enjoy the Ultralight DX hobby in 617 words.
For a number of years “hobbies” had been a bit of a problem for me, either I was involved in hobbies
which other people don’t like / don’t understand / don’t approve of or I did hobbies that other
people liked / agreed with / supported but didn’t excite me or bring me enjoyment like a hobby
should. Over the last year this has really been something I have been working on, both in finding a
hobby I was happy with and that I could settle in to and also something that other people could have
even a passing interest in.
When I first read about the “Ultralight DX” hobby something struck me and it sounded like
something I could get interested in for a number of reasons:
- Back when I first got interested in radio as a teenager one of the things I most enjoyed was
listening to distant stations on the AM and Shortwave bands. This was something I have not done as
much over the past few years and I have missed it.
- The cost of equipment is quite low and it is easy to source locally or via the internet. Where as a
scanner can start at $150 and go up in to the thousands, broadcast receivers are much cheaper and
unless you want to get very serious a basic $60 radio will do 95% of what you need. I have been very
happy with my AR1745 and how well it works.
- After 14 years the radio scanning hobby has to me lost some of the appeal, you can only hear so
many taxi drivers calling for jobs or Jones waste talking about bin pickups before you get sick of it.
As I work during the day my scanning time is limited to a night time during the week or of a
weekend, while you can sometimes hear interesting things during these times most of the radio
traffic I am interested in happens during the day, while I am at work. As shortwave and medium
wave broadcasting is a 24/7 business at any time of the day or night I can be comfortable that I will
be able to pick up something of interest. Of late I have been quite sick and this has seen me take
some time off work, even with having the whole day to myself for a couple of weeks on and off I still
was not happy with what I was able to hear on my scanners. If I was not happy in a situation like this
when I have the time to do it then I finally decided that I never really would be happy in that hobby.
- I have found the Ultralight DXing hobby to be a good match for my time, skills and equipment.
Whereas what you hear on a scanner can vary a lot based on your location, even 25km can make a
huge difference to what you can and can’t hear. On the other hand the Ultralight DXing hobby
means that you can almost always hear something of interest no matter where you are and going to
locations away from town actually improves what you can hear rather than with scanning where it
reduces what you can hear.
- A very active online community exists for the Ultralight DX hobby and this is something I have really
enjoyed becoming a part of. I also enjoy the data analysis aspect of this hobby; I have created a
database of the stations I hear and updating this plus looking at what I still need to log is quite
enjoyable for me.
Why I enjoy the Ultralight DX hobby in 617 words.
For a number of years “hobbies” had been a bit of a problem for me, either I was involved in hobbies
which other people don’t like / don’t understand / don’t approve of or I did hobbies that other
people liked / agreed with / supported but didn’t excite me or bring me enjoyment like a hobby
should. Over the last year this has really been something I have been working on, both in finding a
hobby I was happy with and that I could settle in to and also something that other people could have
even a passing interest in.
When I first read about the “Ultralight DX” hobby something struck me and it sounded like
something I could get interested in for a number of reasons:
- Back when I first got interested in radio as a teenager one of the things I most enjoyed was
listening to distant stations on the AM and Shortwave bands. This was something I have not done as
much over the past few years and I have missed it.
- The cost of equipment is quite low and it is easy to source locally or via the internet. Where as a
scanner can start at $150 and go up in to the thousands, broadcast receivers are much cheaper and
unless you want to get very serious a basic $60 radio will do 95% of what you need. I have been very
happy with my AR1745 and how well it works.
- After 14 years the radio scanning hobby has to me lost some of the appeal, you can only hear so
many taxi drivers calling for jobs or Jones waste talking about bin pickups before you get sick of it.
As I work during the day my scanning time is limited to a night time during the week or of a
weekend, while you can sometimes hear interesting things during these times most of the radio
traffic I am interested in happens during the day, while I am at work. As shortwave and medium
wave broadcasting is a 24/7 business at any time of the day or night I can be comfortable that I will
be able to pick up something of interest. Of late I have been quite sick and this has seen me take
some time off work, even with having the whole day to myself for a couple of weeks on and off I still
was not happy with what I was able to hear on my scanners. If I was not happy in a situation like this
when I have the time to do it then I finally decided that I never really would be happy in that hobby.
- I have found the Ultralight DXing hobby to be a good match for my time, skills and equipment.
Whereas what you hear on a scanner can vary a lot based on your location, even 25km can make a
huge difference to what you can and can’t hear. On the other hand the Ultralight DXing hobby
means that you can almost always hear something of interest no matter where you are and going to
locations away from town actually improves what you can hear rather than with scanning where it
reduces what you can hear.
- A very active online community exists for the Ultralight DX hobby and this is something I have really
enjoyed becoming a part of. I also enjoy the data analysis aspect of this hobby; I have created a
database of the stations I hear and updating this plus looking at what I still need to log is quite
enjoyable for me.
