DX is old telegraph shorthand for distance, and DXing is the hobby of hearing distant stations. The heart of it is the log: a record of what you heard, where and when. It turns lucky moments into a collection, and over time it shows you which bands open to which parts of the world.
What to record
- Date and time in UTC. Radio runs on Coordinated Universal Time, so schedules and other listeners’ logs line up with yours.
- Frequency in kHz, and the mode (AM, USB, LSB).
- Station and what you heard: language, programme, a song, an identification.
- Where you heard it from. Your location, or the receiver’s if you listened online, and the distance to the transmitter.
- A signal report. See SINPO below.
SINPO in one minute
SINPO is the standard way to rate reception, five scores from 1 (worst) to 5 (best):
- Signal strength
- Interference from other stations
- Noise: static and electrical noise
- Propagation: how much it fades
- Overall: how listenable it is
A strong, clean signal is 55555; a faint one fighting static and another station might be 23232. Be honest: an accurate 2 is more useful than a hopeful 4.
Reception reports and QSLs
Many listeners send their log entry to the station as a reception report. Some broadcasters still reply with a confirmation, traditionally a postcard called a QSL card, and now often by email. Include enough detail (times, programme content) for the station to check that you really heard them.
Let the app keep it
When you listen to shortwave on Skywave DX, every station you catch goes into your DX log automatically, with the time, frequency, receiver and distance. You can turn a catch into a shareable card and compare your farthest one week to week.
Not sure where to start? Listening to shortwave online covers the basics, and grey line DX is how to catch the far ones.