mike.chambers

New version of ShortBoard .90

I have just posted a new version of ShortBoard, the Mac OS X application for searching for OS X broadcasts and schedules. This release adds the ability to add a broadcast to iCal so you can be reminded before the broadcast begins.

You can find all of the information, as well as download the application from here.

ShortBoard Shortwave App for Mac (v.85)

I have just upload a new Mac / Cocoa app I have been working on called ShortBoard. It is a simple app that loads shortwave broadcasts schedules from Prime Time Shortwave, and makes it easy to view, sort and filter them.

This is just a first release, and I am planning to continue to play around with it and add features (im using it to learn Cocoa).

You can find more information, as well as download the app from here.

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):

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.