Mediumwave from the Baltic coast Torsås · Karlskrona · Sweden På svenska
I'm Mats, and I listen for distant radio stations on mediumwave. At weekends from a long loop in the grass at Skeppevik on the Swedish Baltic coast; on weekdays from a balcony high up in Karlskrona.
Counted from the log since September 2026. The dial shows identified stations; tentative and unconfirmed loggings are left out.
Skeppevik DX in half a minute
Night rolls across the globe, and the stations light up where they were heard. Sound on.
Teaser · 38 s · with sound
The film opens with the MegaLoop at Skeppevik as it gets dark, on the night to 4 October. That shot is edited: the sky is darkened, and the stars and the aircraft were added afterwards.
The sites and the antennas
Two listening sites with very different conditions. By the sea the noise is low and almost anything I tune to can be heard. In town, the neighbours' electronics set the limit.
Skeppevik
The coast of Torsås · weekends
The KAZ, a 20-metre terminated loop aimed at North America, 285°. The feed is at the west end and the 820 Ω termination at the east end.
The lower wire runs 50 cm above the grass.
The noise floor sits around 20–22 on a quiet evening, and after dark the KAZ gives roughly 11 dB better signal-to-noise towards the west than the radio's own ferrite antenna.
The antenna hears in one direction and nulls to the rear. Radio Lenta on 1557 kHz, at 104° in Lithuania, lands right in the null. VOCM at 288° sat in the middle of the lobe.
Karlskrona
High-rise flat · weekdays
MegaLoop (Bonito ML-FX) on the balcony, aimed at 270° where the view west is open.
Noise floor 22–24 on a good evening. When the neighbour's heater switches on, it rises to 28–40.
Indoors, in a walk-in closet with no electronics, the floor is 45–49. Even there the MegaLoop gains about 5 dB over the ferrite antenna.
On the drawing board: a cardioid on the balcony that nulls the neighbour to the east.
ReceiverSangean ATS-909X2
Portable loopTecsun AN-200
Active loopBonito ML-FX
OutdoorKAZ, home-built
RecordingZoom H1e
Coming soonSDRplay RSPdx-R2
Catches
The first North American came on a Saturday night in September, in the middle of a music show from Newfoundland. The verification arrived four days later.
QSL · 1 OCT 2026
VOCM590 kHz
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Heard27 Sep 2026 02:11 UTC
SiteSkeppevik KAZ at 285°
Distance4,608 km at 288°
Verifiedby e-mail 1 Oct 2026
“Jingle for VOCM” – and right after, “This is VOCM”.
Farthest
Station
kHz
km
Heard from
WFED WashingtonUnited States
1500
6,677
Skeppevik
WINS New YorkUnited States
1010
6,355
Skeppevik
WBBR Bloomberg RadioNew York, USA
1130
6,355
Skeppevik
VOCM St. John'sCanada
590
4,608
Skeppevik
SBA Quran RadioSaudi Arabia
855
4,150
Skeppevik
SER Radio Club TenerifeCanary Islands
1179
4,013
Skeppevik
Radio KuwaitKuwait
1134
3,920
Karlskrona
Iran Internationaltransmitter in Armenia
864
2,751
Skeppevik
Distances are from the listening site to the transmitter. Also verified this autumn: Radio Balconia and Radio Paradijs, two free radio stations in the Netherlands.
Listening notes
Evenings at the radio, latest first.
Skeppevik · KAZ and MegaLoop, both 285°
Washington on 1500
For the first time both antennas stood side by side: the MegaLoop on a wooden frame 15 metres north of the KAZ, facing the same way. At dusk the loop won to the east, with Moldova on 873 and Radio Eli on 1035, which the KAZ barely heard. To the west it was the other way round. Just after three in the morning the Atlantic opened: 1010 WINS and Bloomberg 1130 from New York, and finally “1500 AM … Washington” followed by ABC News. That was WFED, 6,677 km away and the farthest station so far. Everything from America came in best on the KAZ.
Karlskrona · MegaLoop 270°
The Atlantic open, but the neighbour's heater was on
The noise floor started at 22–24, level with Skeppevik. Around nine something switched on next door and the whole band rose to 28–30. Remote receivers showed the path to North America open from 22:41 until after four; at home there were only traces on 590, 1010 and 1600 under the noise.
The inbox
VOCM replies
An e-mail from St. John's verifies the reception of 27 September – the first verification from North America.
Karlskrona · walk-in closet
The loop indoors
The MegaLoop hung from the ceiling on a string and was turned by hand. The floor was high, 45–49, but on SER Radio Club Tenerife 1179 the loop gave about 5 dB better signal-to-noise than the ferrite antenna. The best angle towards North America was around 300°.
Skeppevik · KAZ 285°
The first North American
The evening brought Kossuth on 540, BBC Asian Network on 1449 and Tenerife on 1179. At 02:11 UTC a jingle on 590: VOCM in St. John's, 4,608 km away at 288°, right in the KAZ lobe – a Saturday-night country music show in Newfoundland.
Back at the dial
I started as a teenager on Hasslö, an island outside Karlskrona, in 1978–82, with reception reports on writing paper and QSL cards in a binder. The binder is still here. In autumn 2026 I took up listening again, now recording whole nights, with an app of my own that keeps the log in order.
16 Jan 1979 · 9,670 kHzIBRA Radio. The card came from Stockholm, but the broadcast went out from Radio Trans Europe in Sines, Portugal.
28 Jan 1980 · 96.0 MHzRadio Kalmar. A real QSL card with four stamps, sent to a fourteen-year-old 100 km away.