By Brenna Eller
IVALO, North Fin. — Tuomo Vesala, a 59-year-old carpenter, recently reached out to Ad Astra Radio to confirm an audio recording he caught of 1370 AM at 7:00 a.m. (Central Standard Time) on Jan. 4, 2021.
“I was happy and lucky to hear your AM Radio station here in Finland,” Vesala said.
Vesala is an AM radio hobbyist, also known as a DXer. He has been DX listening since 1981.
“I use good receivers and long beverage antennas so that I can hear stations from far away,” Vesala said.
Vesala is Finnish by birth, and from Kauhajoki, a town with a population of 13,000. Every winter, for about a week or two, he travels 600 miles to a smaller town in North Finland, called Ivalo. There, he listens and tries to catch USA radio stations.
“Wave propagation has always fascinated me, and it is amazing that I could pick up your station so far away across the Atlantic on the other side of the world,” Vesala shared.
In order to capture the signal, Vesala used a Perseus SDR-radio receiver, and a 2,800-foot-long copper wire Beverage antenna directed towards North America.
The signal, although not perfect, was nonetheless impressive considering the 4,500-mile distance from Iola, where KIOL is located.
“I really enjoyed this listening to your station from large distance,” Vesala said, “AM Radio is amazing!”
