From the November 2008 DX Times “Who’s Who”.
This month we profile some of our members, starting with our newly elected national Vice President MIKE BUTLER of Auckland. Mike will be best known to
members for his Shortwave Reception Forecasts that have appeared monthly in the DX Times since March 2004. This month’s column is the 57th he has produced for us!
Mike’s interest in shortwave began in 1939 when his Dad bought the family a Courtney radio with 4 shortwave bandspread ranges, to listen to the BBC wartime broadcasts. In 1941 Mike constructed his first Shortwave Hikers 2 valve set and he was amazed to receive Australia on 13 metres, using his wire mattress as an antenna! He eventually made a 13 tube communications receiver of his own design, including SSB capability, and logged many stations with it. These were duly reported in the Radio and Electrical Review, the monthly NZ Electronics Industry magazine of the time, between June 1961 and December 1963. Mike’s articles were called “Shortwave Survey” and dealt with only English speaking broadcasts of which there were plenty.
Mike joined the NZ DX Radio Association in February 1962 (member RA3020, and he still has the certificate signed by Messrs Irwin and Singleton) and the NZ Radio DX League in December 1997. Between 1972 and 1976 he produced his first comprehensive shortwave propagation charts using all the data accumulated to that time. Upon joining the DX League, Mike began adding data from the Bandwatch columns to enhance his propagation surveys.
In May 1998, Mike began contributing a shortwave column to the bi-monthly “Break In” magazine of the NZ Association of Radio Transmitters on behalf of the League. This continued until August 2002. Between 1975 and 2004 Mike was a very active CB operator holding NZ and Australian licences. He made contact with about 1800 stations in each country, as he was a regular visitor to Australia.
Mike joined the League’s Administration Committee in October 2006.
