Point Ricardo - Marlo, Victoria, Australia
Our Latin locationMarlo was one of the very few dx spots in Australia where you could hear Latin American's on Mediumwave. Every year (Queens Birthday weekend) around June 6 a few of us would make the journey to this location.
Dx was all 12 volt from cars and most of the time we would either camp or stay at a house in Marlo itself. Dx on the tropical bands was beautiful but for 45 minutes or so close to sunset we would get stations from Latin America on Mediumwave. Every year was different and there was no pattern. One year we would have Peru and the next year Colombia or Bolivia. This was the location where I heard my best ever dx catch from Jamaica on 850 khz (JBC Radio One) Sadly this no longer exists. It was one of those rare dx moments where the signal jumped out of nowhere for 2 minutes and was never heard of again. If you look at the map on the left it was also a have for New Zealand stations. Caribbean Beacon on 1610 was often heard from 2:30pm local time. Amazing conditions. The secret to this location was the coastal effect. Our beverages were very close to the waters edge. We would sit in on a hill overlooking the ocean, that fishermen would use as a lookout. It was a haven in summer for FM dx. Dave Headland would pull in hundreds of FM stations from around the pacific and Australia via Sporadic E. |