Trapped in a City of Noise

 Here you will read my story big problem of the recent years with first  as AI edited with the next part being the original polished with a grammar checker 

----------- the pompous IA version . I like it.

A DXer's Lament: Trapped in a City of Noise

For over 40 years, the airwaves have been my playground. As a DXer, I've chased distant signals, logging countless stations and sharing my discoveries with radio clubs worldwide. But now, my passion is trapped in a city of noise, a concrete jungle that stifles the whispers of the world.

My journey began in the mountains, where the air was clear and the only interference came from my trusty router, its high-pitched hum a constant companion. Then, we moved to a village nestled near the majestic Olympus, where the noise subsided and the world opened up.

With an external antenna reaching for the sky, I reveled in the symphony of the airwaves. From the Italian Marconi to the Ethiopian whispers on 7110, each signal was a treasure, a testament to the magic of radio. QSL cards, tangible proof of my connection to faraway lands, filled my collection.

But fate, it seems, had other plans. We returned to the city, where the walls closed in and the airwaves became a cacophony. My equipment, once a source of joy, now sits in a box, a silent reminder of lost opportunities.

The TV's incessant chatter drowns out the faint whispers of distant stations. The small space offers no room for my antennas, no haven for my ears to escape the urban din.

Yet, the DXer in me refuses to be silenced. I cling to the memories of clear skies and exotic voices, the thrill of the hunt, the joy of connection. I dream of open spaces and quiet nights, where the airwaves once again sing their siren song.

Perhaps, one day, I will break free from this concrete cage and return to the world of DXing. Until then, I will keep the flame alive, nurturing the hope that the whispers of the world will once again reach my ears.

Additions after Sept 2025  

And finally, in mid-September 2025, my wife left her parents’ home — the last familiar place that still carried an echo of our past — and stepped into what I now call the rabbit hole. It is a space barely 15 square meters, after subtracting the twenty more that furniture and boxes have already dominated . Inside this confined world, three and one souls must coexist for a time no one can yet define.

The flat itself is a modest 1+2-room unit, tucked in the middle floor of an eight-plus-three-storey building of sixty-five flats — a vertical hive where every wall hums with other people’s lives. Even something simple, like running a cable or raising an antenna to the terrace, has become a small odyssey. We know no one here — not a single person to ask for advice or to share a conversation aboiut on how to install a n antenna system in the terrace . The verandah is too narrow to stretch even a loop of wire, and there’s no corner near the room where I could dream of setting up a radio.

Meanwhile, the room our daughter once called her own in the old flat remains frozen in time. Her belongings still wait there, like witnesses of what was once a stable life. The DX gear, the antenna cables, the Large  literature — all of it scattered or packed away, impossible to restore to its rightful place. Those instruments were more than metal and wire; they were my connection to the world, my window into distant voices carried by the air.

Now, the only way to listen — to truly be a listener — is through the PC, through remote receivers that whisper signals from faraway lands. Yet, even in this new place, there are few new sounds to chase. Only the Greek pirates drift across the frequencies, their wild transmissions like ghosts of freedom defying the silence.

It’s strange — how the passion that once filled entire rooms now has to fit inside a single screen. Each move, each relocation, feels like a chapter closing — the world shrinking just a little more. Still, I tune in. Because DXing was never only about distance. It was about connection — proof that somewhere, beyond the static, someone is still transmitting.

So think well about what is written here before you reply. These are not just words; they are the echoes of a man who refuses to lose his frequency in the noise of change.

 

-------------ORIGINAL TEXT "trapped in the noise and a false fate"

Here is the original: full story to s sent to a DXer but finally stopped from forwarding it to him

I've been a DXer since the 70s and was much more active after the 90s, with my logs shared via email with many radio DX clubs since 1995.

For  than 50 years a DXer, and finally in the latest years I'm absolutely isolated from real DXing, i.e., meaning from using my radios or SDRs due to 'fatal' conditions of being restricted into …a small space of a PC a very fast router, and a TV jamming in the most dense part of the city, Thessaloniki.

What happened? The story is quite long, but let me make it as short as possible.

Until 4 years ago, I lived with my family in a mountain nearby the city. Reception was excellent due to the low level of noise, except for the router. Hope you know what damage it can do to the shortwaves. In short, it can add very strong noise in 3.8–5.2 and 8.5–12 MHz for 50 Mbps.

Regrettably, I rarely turn it off because my wife and daughter require constant connectivity.

4 years ago we moved to a village nearby the mountains of Olympus. The reception conditions remained unchanged due to the router and the significantly lower local noise compared to an external antenna at a distance of 25 metres. This router produced high noises in between 3.8–5.1 and 8.7–12.1 MHz, with the same thing happening as in the previous home. I again switched it for better reception. Fortunately, there were many cases of walking in a nearby place inside the village with the tecsun radio and doing a near noise-free reception.

I also had the opportunity to travel to the city for several days to care for my parents. I temporarily installed a Youloop and did some DXing between SDRs—typical shortwave radios—and remote kSDRs, as I call them. The main reason to listen via R-kSDRs is that it is much better to listen to stations that otherwise could not be heard locally as shortwave Australia , Wai FM, radio saturno BR, and many more to note here. The list is very gib.

The noise-free reception in the village offered near to excellent receptions in both LMHF and helped listening to the Italian Marconi, as also some stations from Jibuti on 1431 on MW , the Indian music Lyca from the UK in MW, and sometimes the Ethiopian on 7110 or Amhara on 6090, with the most difficult station being Wai FM on 11665 near the end of its transmission heard only on the beach. I had the opportunity to conduct some QSLs at that time, both in the city and in the village.

Finally, after three years, we returned to the city last September. I gave my daughter the room, but I kept the middle room for myself. She is now in her fourth year in high school.

This room is quite small and does not allow any PC or radio installation. Instead, I reserved my Tecsun radio for the primary news, storing the rest of the equipment in a box for later use. The only solution was to place the laptop, along with its standard external keyboard, headphones, and mouse, on the opposite side of the window in the salon where my mum resides. Sometimes the sound from the TV reaches 80-90 dB, making it quite difficult to listen to the SW or even YouTube.

The next family’s step is to move into a smaller house in a nearby building with 40 sqm and possibly ly NO ability to listen to FM!

Not working now at 63+. I have plenty of time for DXing, and sometimes I also do some QSLing and feel like a radio worker, whatever that can mean to you . From the 50+ stations logged for QSL, only 20 have replied with QSLs. I ALWAYS NOTE THE KSDR I USE. Note also that I prefer to provide them the information derived from the kSDR: audio recording, waterfall, spectrum and time signal analysis. Many stations know me as a signal analyst! I did the same the times I used RSP with SDR Console since 2019.