mike.chambers

Antenna Getting Better

Well, I am slowly but surely making progress with my antenna. I have been having a lot of trouble with RF interference from my random wire antenna. I ran a shielded COAX feed to it, which I grounded, but reception was horrible.

Well, this weekend, I went back up the hill, and made some modifications to try and get a better ground. I also grounded the end of the COAX going into the radio. This second step seemed to make a noticeable improvement to the signal quality (although there is still a lot of interference). I was able to pick up some broadcasts I hadn't picked up before:

• 11735 kHz 0118 - 0122 UTC (Jan 14, 2007). Voice of Korea. SIO 222. This is the first time I have picked it up this early in the night
• 9675 kHz 0456 - 0505 UTC Radio Exterior de Espana. SIO 433. (via Costa Rica). News in Spanish.

My next step is to try to get a copper bar for the antenna ground (just have a small metal nail right now), as well as use a balum (need to read up on these some more).

Too much interference? Get in the car

Well, I have been pretty frustrated for the past week or so, as I have realized that there is just too much RF and electrical interference in my house. It is making shortwave listening difficult. Some of the interference is from my house (electrical system is really noisy), and some is from the neighbors.

As I posted earlier, I put up a long wire antenna, and this drastically improved my signal strength. However, it lead to two problems. First, the increased antenna power is overloading my receiver, and I am receiving AM stations all through the shortwave bands. Second, the antenna I currently have up comes directly into the house, and thus picks up all of the RF noise from the house. I put up a test antenna that comes into the house via a shielded cable, but reception was very bad with a lot of noise (I am guessing I did something wrong).

Anyways, I have been pretty frustrated, so I decided to hop in the car, and head up to the top of the hill (Walter Hass Park which overlooks San Francisco) to see if it was my location, or maybe all shortwave reception is bad. I planned on just checking for 5 minutes, but ended up staying over an hour because the reception was so good.

Here is what I picked up (January 11, 2007 UTC):

• 0653 Khz (probably should be 6055 but lots of interference from Radio Havana at 6060) 0617 UTC - 0629 UTC : SIO 433 : French language. Mention the Congo. News, Bush / Putin / Irag, and sports scores. I think I caught a BBC mention, and the frequency charts say this is BBC (which would be my first BBC hit since I started back in shortwave). Broadcast from Ascension Islands
• 6080 Khz : 0633 - 0636 : VOA News. Very strong signal. Originated from Sao Tome, which mean this was my first African reception.
• 6120 Khz : 0636 UTC - 0642 UTC : SIO : 555 : China Radio International, Voices from Other Lands program with Roy Kiehe. Discussion with an author of a book on the Balkans.
• 9580 Khz : 0650 UTC : SIO 232 : Very faint music. Sound Africa, and I think I also picked up some French. This was a very weak signal, and the only reason I am posting because according to the schedules, it might have been a broadcast from Gabon.
• 9765 Khz 0655 - 0700 UTC : Strong Signal. Radio New Zealand. Playing some music.

I would have actually stayed much longer, but 1) I was freezing. It was about 40 degrees F, and I was in shorts and slippers, and 2), I half expected the cops to come by and check out what I was doing in a car with a long wire hanging out, occasionally blinking a Flash light (which I needed to take notes).

It was a ton of fun though, and reminded me how much fun the shortwave can be. I am still going to try to figure out how to fix some of the noise issues at my house, and am planning some shortwave camping trips.

Clip of Cuban Jamming of Radio Marti

I have had really good reception tonight, and scanning around I came across a Radio Marti broadcast being jammed by Cuba (I am assuming it is Cuban). First, the details:

Radio Marti :0738 UTC - 0745 UTC, 6030 Khz. SIO 312. Male and Female have a conversation in Spanish. Jamming being broadcast over program (sounds like running water / brook).

Checking Passport to World Band Radio, it confirms Radio Marti at that time and frequency, and that the broadcast is jammed.

Listen to sample of Radio Marti Broadcast being Jammed

The jamming is not as clear on the recording, but you can hear it. It sounds like a babbling brook being broadcast over the Radio Marti broadcast.

You can find another report / example of the jamming here, and an analysis of the jamming here.

More information on Radio Marti at wikipedia.

Chinese Jamming Reception of Radio Free Asia Broadcasts

As I mentioned the other day, I have been receiving what I believe to be a grayline propagation broadcast of Radio Free Asia (RFA) programing to the Uyghur region of China from Tajikistan every evening around dusk. However, I had not been able to positively ID it, as the programing was just music.

Well, I spent quite a bit of time researching this to try to confirm the original. I download Uyghur music to see if it sounded similar to the music programing I was getting (it did), I searched for and listened to the RFA Uyghur broadcasts to see if they matched (they didn't), and I contacted Radio Free Asia to ask them about their Uyghur programing.

In particular, I asked RFA if their Uyghur included any musical programing, or if it was just news (all I could find on their website was news archives). They responded very quickly that they only program news in their Uyghur broadcasts . When I replied to thank them, and mentioned that I was receiving musical programing on that frequency, they responded that I was most likely picking up the Chinese jamming the signal (they have a new jamming station in Kashgar), to block the RFA broadcasts into the Uyghur region.

Once they mentioned that, it made sense. I had noticed the night before that the musical programing was the same every day. The programing was also just an hour of music, with no news or station identification.. It looks like the Chinese just play the same hour of music at the same time and frequency as the RFA broadcasts into the Uyghur region.

Anyways, if you are interested in listening I am picking it up in San Francisco from about 0120 UTC to 0150 UTC on 7480 Khz.

I have also uploaded a snippet of the Chinese jamming of the Radio Free Asia broadcast from January 2, 2007.

Finally, here is a map showing the gray line through San Francisco at dusk (notice it goes right through Tajikistan. (click image for larger version). The map was created with DX Atlas.

While I am a little disappointed that it was not the RFA broadcast (which I could have received a QSL card for), it was actually a lot of fun trying to figure out where the signal originated from, and is one of the reasons I am getting hooked on DXing with my shortwave.

Btw, if you are interested, the RFA website has a cool do it yourself tutorial on how to make an anti-jamming antenna.

Images of new International Airmail Reply Coupons

I picked up some International Airmail Reply coupons the other day to include with QSL requests. Since these are the new versions, I figured I would post the images here in case anyone was interested.

Click images for larger versions.

You can read up on International Reply Coupons here and here.

VoiceOfKorea.org down? COUP D'ETAT? (Updated)

I checked out voiceofkorea.org tonight (the website for the Voice of Korea shortwave broadcast from North Korea), and found the following on their website:

COUP D'ETAT

CONSCIENCE AGAINST REASONS OF STATE

VOICE OF KOREA IS TEMPORALLY NOT IN OPERATION

Further information will be given on Tuesday 02/01/07

info@voiceofkorea.org
0044.(0)79.0880.8552
Jean-Baptiste Kim

I archived the page in HTML and PNG.

Anyone know what is going on?

Updated January 1, 2007 : The website has been updated with a repudiation of the North Korean regime:

The current regime is not the leader of people but the royal family rules over the people. This should changed into democratic elections and extended freedom of speech. People's lives must be chosen by people's favours, not by the dictatorial system. ... I regret my life with DPRK government for last 10 years but will not repeat the same mistake again in future.

voiceofkorea.org was a volunteer ran website for the North Korean government (with North Korean approval).

I have archived the page here.

New Antenna : Good Night of DXing

Well, I finally got around to putting up a new antenna. I had been using about a 40 foot wire that ran out my window and up the hill along the group. I had been picking up a lot of interference, and not really able to pull in that many stations.

Well, today, I ran about 60 feet of wire, but elevated it from a pole on the hill to the side of my house. Pretty simple, but the difference in reception tonight has been amazing. I have been getting tons of stations, but the best two of the night were:

• Radio Free Asia : 7480 Khz. 0115z - 0158z. SIO : 343 initially, ending at 111. Broadcast from Dushanbe, Tajikistan in Uyghur into Eastern China. Music played for the entire time. Oriental Music.
• Radio New Zealand : 9765. 0721z - 0800z. SIO: 444. Broadcasting to South Pacific. National Radio Show (Interviews), and news at the top of the hour.

I was most excited by the Radio Free Asia catch. I was scanning and picked up the music which was interesting (sounded exotic / Chinese). I started researching the frequency and time, and the only thing that matched was Radio Free Asia broadcasting in Uyghur out of Dushanbe, Tajikistan (which is on the opposite side of the earth from San Francisco). Over the hour, the signal got progressively worse. It was just after sunset here, so I was guessing that I was getting a grayline effect, which was allowing me to pull in the broadcast. Sure enough, I checked a grayline map, and San Francisco was at dusk, just as Dushanbe was at dawn. Music was playing the entire time, and by the end of the hour, I had pretty much lost the signal, so I was not able to get an on air ID. I am going to try again tomorrow night and try to get a 100% positive ID.

Also, I sent in a report about the broken street light that was causing so much interference on my Radio, and it looks like they already turned off power to the light. I am not getting interference from it anymore, and when I checked it, it no longer seems to be trying to turn on (which was causing the interference).

I was going to try and get some sleep tonight, but I think I am going to try and see if I can pull in a decent signal from North Korea. I wonder if they send out QSL cards?

Man, I am getting hooked on my shortwave.

My First Numbers Station

Shortwave reception has been very poor lately, mostly due to a broken streetlight that is causing massive interference with my receiver, so I have really only been able to listen to major stations, and haven't been able to try to find any far off stations or other stuff. However, last night when I was doing a scan of the frequencies, I came across a very strong numbers station broadcast. This is my first numbers station since I have gotten back into Shortwave.

Here are the details:

December 30, 2006 - 0941 UTC - 0945z 9040z Khz. Female repeating a set of numbers in Spanish. SIO : 434

Luckily, I had just set up an old mac to record audio from my shortwave, so I was able to record everything I heard.

Listen to Numbers station, Female in Spanish

I haven't had a chance to write down the number sequence just yet, but will try to a little later and update the post. If anyone does it before then, or has any more infor on the broadcast, please post in the comments.

No Success at First try at Voice of Korea

Well, after receiving my new receiver Eton E5, I finally decided that this morning would be my first attempt to pick up the Voice of Korea (a broadcast from North Korea). Unfortunately, that meant getting up at 5 AM (1300 UTC), but I didn't mind too much, as I really want to hear some heavy duty, old school communist propaganda.

Anyways, the only signal I could pick up here in San Francisco was at 9335. I was able to pick it up (faint and muffled), but it was completely unlistenable due to some interfence from something (another frequency? eletrical?). Basically, it was a periodic tone of increasing static, that would repeat ever couple of seconds. Here is a clip of it:

Listen to clip of Voice of Korea broadcast with interference

When I tuned around on my receiver, it seems to be the strongest on 9339. I am not sure if this is some interference from my house (I am in a very electrically noisy area), or if this is something being broadcast.

Tonight / tomorrow morning I am going to head up to the top of the hill to a park, and see if I have any more luck.

Anyways, here is the report:

Voice of Korea North Korea. (English) 9335 1300 - 1349 UTC. SIO 211. Assorted Male and Female speakers. Some references to the Great Leader, and patriotic / communist music.

If any one has any idea what the source of the interference is, post it in the comments.

Update : Well, based on a tip from rec.radio.shortwave, I found the source of the interference. The street light on the corner is burned out, and everytime it tries to come on, it generates the interference. Now, instead of DXing, I get to figure out how to get a street light fixed in San Francisco.

Eton E5 Shortwave Receiver Pictures

I received my Eton E5 shortwave receiver today (woot!). I took some pictures of the unboxing, and posted them on my Flickr account.

View my Eton E5 Picture Set

Sorry about the quality. It looks like my white balance was off on my camera.

Cuban Catches

Since I started back with my Shortwave my amount of sleep has gone decidedly down. Thus, last night, after a quick nap, I didn't have too much time to listen to the radio, but did have a chance to pick up a pair of Cuban stations.

• Radio Habana Cuba (English)- 0605 UTC - 0700 UTC. 6000 Mhz. SIO 434 (US / Cuban / Latin American News, and then Music
• Radio Rebelde Cuba (Spanish)- 0740 UTC - 0801 UTC. 5025 Mhz. SIO 322. Mostly Cuban Music. Woman speaking at top of the hour.

The first was really good, because it was a pretty strong signal, and I didn't have to strain to hear it. I was really excited about the second, Radio Rebelde. The signal was really weak at first, but after adjusting the antena and fine tuning it, I was finally able to hear it. It took me a while to confirm the station (because it was in Spanish), but I was finally able to near the top of the hour. The cool thing was that according to the EIBI frequency charts, this was a broadcast targeting the Caribbean (and not the Western Coast of the US. Btw, apparently Radio Rebelde was founded by Che Guevara.

Anyways, I just got my new Eton E5, and tonight I plan on getting up really early to try and catch my first North Korean broadcast. If the signal is strong enough, Ill record it and post it here.

QSL Logging Templates

I have been trying to find a good template of a QSL Log page, that I could print out to make it easier to keep track of logging the stations that I pick up on shortwave. I know that there are plenty of good computer programs that handle this, but 1) my receiver is not near my computer, so I have to use pen and paper, 2) one of the reasons I am playing around with shortwave is to get away from my computer.

After much searching on google, I wasn't able to find any templates that I cared for (in fact, I only found one with some help from rec.radio.shortwave). I did find one brand of log books for sale, but didn't feel like waiting for them to get delivered. So, I just ended up making my own, which I can print double sided and put in a three ring binder.

I am posting them here in case anyone else has a use for them.

Multiple Logs Per Page

Download PDF of QSL Log sheet Template (multiple)
Download Excel Source of QSL Log Sheet Template (multiple)

One Log Per Page

Download PDF of QSL Log sheet Template (single)
Download Excel Source of QSL Log Sheet Template (single)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions post them here.

Wow! An Antenna does help reception (duh)

I have been playing around with my Shortwave receiver the past couple of days, and have been having fun finding and listening to stations. However, I haven't been able to get any real strong signals in, except for gospel broadcasts from the U.S. So today, I built a simple antenna consisting of about 25 Feet of single stand wire soldered to an alligator clip. I laid the wired out my window, across my deck, and up the hill, and then clipped it to the whip antenna of my receiver. Wow! I was blown away with how much such a simple antenna improved my reception. I am getting a lot more stations tonight, at much stronger signals (I have been listening to Radio Netherlands all night, and it sounds like a local AM station).

Anyways, this falls under the "Duh" category, but wanted to post it in case anyone else was having similar problems, and was unsure about getting results from such a simple solution.

Ill try and post some pictures later.

First Night of DXing

Before I first went to Europe about 10 years ago, I got my first shortwave radio (a SONY ICF-SW7600). I used it to keep up with the news (mostly BBC), and listen to broadcasts from countries with in Europe. Well, I haven't really messed around with it since then, but over the past couple of days I have been on holiday, and getting a little bored (there is only so much XBOX 360 one can play). So, I started looking into Shortwave radios again, and pulled out my trusty old Sony to see what I could pick up in San Francisco.

Well, things didn't go too well at first. I tried to pick up some stations in the middle of the day, and had absolutely no luck at all. I could not pick up a single shortwave station. Once it started to get dark, I began to pick up a couple of stations (Voice of the Andes from Ecuador, and Radio Havana). However, reception was still very poor.

So, getting a little frustrate, I started doing some research, and asked for some help on the rec.radio.shortwave group. After some trial and error, I finally figured out that 1). there is a lot of RF noise and electrical interference in my house. This was mostly from some low voltage lights, light dimmers, and my plasma TV. 2). if I string up a simple portable antenna outside and sit near the window, my reception gets much, much better. Seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but I hadn't played around with this stuff in a long time.

So, once I turned out the lights and TV, move away from the computer to the Window, and ran a simple antenna outside, I started to get some pretty decent reception. I was able to confirm the following:

• Voice of the Andes in Ecuador (Spanish) 0450 UTC 9745 SIO 433
• Radio Netherlands (English) 0500 UTC 6165 SIO 444
• Radio Havana (English) 0500 UTC 6180 SIO 232 (also on 6000 at SIO 333)

(I was able to confirm these either through the station confirming, and / or by cross referencing the frequency schedule here.

Hopefully I can find a strong broadcast of Radio Havana over the next couple of nights.

I also pulled up these that I wasn't able to 100% confirm (mostly because I think they were in Chinese:

• Radio Taiwan 0500 UTC 5950 SIO 545 - Woman Speaking in Chinese (also 9680 at SIO 233)
• China Radio International 0500 UTC SIO 434 - Man Speaking Chinese

I even listened to some HAM radio broadcasts on SSB (although nothing that interesting).

I am going to try and track the SW broadcasts over the next couple of days, and then submit some reports to the stations and hopefully get my first QSL cards.

I am also starting to research some new radios. I really want a Sangean ATS-803A and am going to keep my eye on eBay to see if I can find one. I am also looking at a new Eton E5, which looks like a good portable to get started with. The is actually the same radio as the Degen DE1103 / Kaito KA1103. It cost more than the Degen and Kaito (which you have to import), but I like the digital read out of the E5 a lot better. Anyways, I am still researching receivers. I don't want to spend too much right now until I am sure I am going to play around with this for a while (although I already have my eye on some more expensive models).

You can find my DX delicious links here.