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British DX Club

Contributing Your Reception Logs

The Sections

The separate loggings sections of Communication each deal with a different band or aspect of the broadcast radio hobby. Most of the requirements for submitting logs to the magazine are the same for each one and are listed below. Each section does have its own individual requirements though and these are detailed further down the page.

The Common Requirements

When submitting your logs, please:

Here are some examples of well written logs:

4060v 1700 UNID possible Kurdish station, anthem, music, talk in presumed Kurdish. Bubble jamming 222j 20/8 AB
9790 1704 CLAND R Homeland. Persian mx, ID "Inja R Vatan", jammed immediately after ID 343j 15/8 AB
9660 0859+ R Rumbos, Venezuela. NA & s/on, full ID in SS, light mx 232 14/8 AB

Beyond the Horizon

This section contains loggings of stations heard on the VHF and UHF bands. The main broadcast services in those bands are:

In addition to the requirements above additional abbreviations may be used to describe the mode of reception:

Reception may be described in words - eg very weak; weak; fair; good peak; strong - rather than by SIO code.

Alternative Airwaves

This section reports on the ever changing pirate radio scene and each month includes a comprehensive log of FM, mediumwave and shortwave pirates heard by members.

Station addresses announced over the air should be noted as these are useful to other members. An accurate check of the frequency is helpful as these stations are often not on standard channels or exactly the frequency that they announce.

Up-to-date news items on landbased or offshore stations (including press cuttings), new pirate publications or recordings are also welcome and good quality copies of pirate QSLs, stickers etc are appreciated.

Please note: Political clandestine station logs or news items should be included with HF or Tropical Band logs or DX News contributions as appropriate not with Alternative Airwaves contributions.

QSL Report

The term QSL comes from an old telegraph abbreviation meaning "confirm reception". QSLs often take the form of pictorial cards (verifications) which some radio stations send listeners in response to reception reports. QSL Report lists such verifications received by members. It also includes tips and advice on how to obtain them, particularly if from rare or "difficult" stations.

  • When contributing QSLs, please list the country, station name, frequency, whether you sent any return postage (such as International Reply Coupons, mint stamps, US dollars); what sort of reply you received (personal letter, form letter, QSL card, email etc); the verification signer's name (if known); the length of time in days or months that the reply took.
  • Type of report. If your report was sent via e-mail or an online web form rather than by ordinary post please mention this.
  • Follow ups: If you had to send a follow-up reception report please state this and give the time it took both since the original report and since the follow up report.
  • The Forms

    There are two prepared forms available for you to use when submitting your logs. Click on a link below to go to the relevant one for printing:

    More Abbreviations

    A complete list, in Rich Text Format, of the abbreviations that you may use in the context of contributions for Communication can be found by clicking here.


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    This page updated 26 Mar 2020