Messages

1

European Pirates and Private Stations / WWTF: The Timeless and Standardless Standard Time Station, 24 Aug 14, 20:00z

« on: August 25, 2014, 0015 UTC »

On 24 August, at 20:00 z, a new utility broadcast entered the airwaves. WWTF: The New Time Signal & Standard Frequency Station, minus the time….and the standards.

Brought to you courtesy of Little Feat Radio! Hosted by myself, RadioDiscountCabbage.

The debut went so much better than I hoped and from what I am told the reception (both kinds) was great from everything I have heard so far. I used a remote SDR from the Netherlands to listen in with the signal peaking at s9 and the noise gradually receding by 0418 z. The broadcast was over at 20:26z.

Hope anyone who heard enjoyed. Thanks again to Little Feat Radio for "beaming me up, scotty!" We have designed special QSLs for the program. He knows how to go about getting those and will handle that at this point.

Playlist:

Opening bumper music-

Song of the Whale Part 1  (Tangerine Dream)

Songs:

He’s So Shy (Pointer Sisters)

Invisible Touch (Genesis)

Everybody (Black Box)

She’s Fresh (Kool & the Gang)

If I can’t have you (Yvonne Elliman)

Don’t you forget about me (Simple Minds)

Rosanna (Toto)

What time did I play each song?

That is a good damn question. Hell if I know. RDC has no idea where he is half of the time. ☺

2

Equipment / HF Reception on a MW Ferrite Loop Antenna: Anyone Know about this Oddity?

« on: August 22, 2014, 0929 UTC »

I was tuning Radio New Zealand on 25 meters at around 07.30 zulu, when I noticed that despite good propagation conditions and greyline positioning, the signal was fading a bit and weaker than usual on my capable Icom r75. Band conditions were fine. Dumbfounded, I checked all of the functions of my receiver and realized that my antenna selector was set to my Grundig/Eton AN-200 passive ferrite loop built for MW reception. It was also picking up WWV on 10 MHz, and a south American station also on 25 meters. How was this thing, which is admittedly great for MW DX but not at all an HF antenna, picking up these signals?
 
To rule out some sort of interplay between the Ferrite loop and the bare copper wire of my homebrew antenna, I pushed both it and my ground outside my shack. No change. Moving the ferrite loop to a window on the other side of the room at a rough heading towards the transmitter site improved reception to about S7. Fading was present but not extensively so until the greyline had moved west of the transmitter site.  It continued to pick up RNZ on 31 meters until 09.30 zulu, when fading became so obtrusive that I could no longer copy the signal.  

Since then, I have pulled in signals on all of the HF bands below 25 meters during local nighttime hours. Strong reception above S5 has exclusively taken place when the greyline effect is present at either my location, the tx site, or both. Marginal reception of stations (primarily in the Americas, for example, CHU at 3.330 MHz) is possible without the greyline effect, but this is very unreliable and prone to fade out quickly.

This has led me to hypothesize that low- impedance antennas intended for MW reception such as ferrite loops can receive a subset of HF signals when conditions in the ionosphere are extremely favourable to the propagation of longer HF wavelengths. The greyline effect, combined with the ease of signal propagation at and below the 25 meter band, appears to bolster (if it does not entirely enable) shortwave reception on these antennas intended for reception of medium wavelengths. Exactly how is another question. But it is certainly a phenomenon worth further exploration.

Does anyone have experiences that might shed some light on this?

Apologies for the long post. Actually part of a draft on a working paper that started on this, since I can find nothing about it anywhere else.

Video of this happening is linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snu_gV_RIAY

3

General Radio Discussion / Adios, Radio Exterior de España. :(

« on: August 22, 2014, 0036 UTC »

So today, around 00.23 Z, the English hosts at Radio Exterior de España's broadcast on 6.055 MHz delivered some sad news. They said nothing is official as of yet, but that in all likelihood, all Shortwave broadcasts are likely to get 86ed by the end of the year. This is of course a global trend, at least among western broadcasters. I was expecting that the English language broadcasts were on the way out, but this news is suprising even though it is in keeping with the current pattern.

In the meantime, stations like CRI, which had been planning to cut shortwave considerably, have noticed the trend and reversed course. Speaking as one of a dozen new hires from western countries whom they offered great salaries, benefits, housing, and advancement opportunities, I can say that China is quite serious about filling the void created by the western broadcasters with as many American and English accents as they can.

I am not saying that this means China is great and the West is bad. But western broadcasters need to realize that if they go silent, other voices will take their place on the airwaves. The more variety, the better. So I hope that CRI's coming expansion causes some people to wake up and smell the roses.

4

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0046 UTC 5Aug14

« on: August 05, 2014, 0101 UTC »

0045: Rap but the lyrics sounded like they were in Spanglish

0057: Country/Folk now

SIO: 544

Vid below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADlJ7iQjpXg

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Gen. Wild 100 6925 USB 0240z 8/2/14

« on: August 02, 2014, 0411 UTC »

S9 with intermittant noise here, but signal still almost entirely readable in Georgia. SINPO 43233.

Sorry I am short and low on loggings today. I have spurts where I stay up for days and no nothing but log.


Now its time for sleep.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: RFW 6924.4 AM 0024 UTC 1 Aug 2014

« on: August 01, 2014, 0116 UTC »

01.13 Zulu copied Leslie Gore's "You Don't own me," but as my compadre from the area has already noted, not very strong here in GA tonight. SIO: 222.

7

European Pirates and Private Stations / Remote Logging: DJ Blackbeard on 6.950 MHz at 21.20 UTC.

« on: July 31, 2014, 2210 UTC »

And a third great pirate broadcast to start the night off here in the US for some of us was DJ black beard up on 6.950 MHz at 21.20 Zulu until 21.53 Zulu. SINPO Was 44344 until about 21.49 z, then some fading did kick in. Still copied well. Recorded a good chunk of his broadcast below. Excellent dance tunes, along with very friendly shutouts to those of us listening at Free Radio Cafe.


http://soundcloud.com/rdiscountcabbage/dj-blackbeard-on-6-950-mhz-at

Thanks for the broadcast!!!!

8

European Pirates and Private Stations / Remote Logging: Pluto Denk 20:53 UTC 31 July 2014 on 6.290 MHz

« on: July 31, 2014, 2158 UTC »

More goodness from the Netherlands!!!! Copied some great music (What is Love? Baby, Don't Hurt me!) by Pluto Denk on the remote RX in the Netherlands. A bit of band noise but he came in strong at SINPO 43243 from 20.53 Zulu when I started recording him until 21.06 Z.

Recording of around 13 mins of his broadcast is linked below.

http://soundcloud.com/rdiscountcabbage/pluto-denk-20-53-utc-31-july

9

European Pirates and Private Stations / Remote Logging: 20:45 UTC 31 July 2014 Rode Adeelaar 6.290 MHz

« on: July 31, 2014, 2113 UTC »

The Netherlands is going wild tonight with pirates. At a remote SDR located in the Netherlands, I monitored Rode Adeeelar on 6.290 MHz playing polka-folk type music from 20.45 Zulu to 20.53 Zulu. Thanks to the folks over at the Free Radio Cafe for helping me ID him!

Soundcloud link below.

http://soundcloud.com/rdiscountcabbage/20-45-utc-31-july-2014-rode

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Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Sarandi (Uruguay) 6.045 MHz, USB, 31 July 2014, 09.16 UTC.

« on: July 31, 2014, 0950 UTC »

This was a new one for my logs: A sports talk station principally on the MW band in Uruguay called Radio Sarnadi has a SSB relay at 6.045 MHz. It is a very low power station, transmitted at a mere 300 hertz. I always get excited when I log low power South American stations like this one, especailly those low power station in Spanish rather than Portugese, since I can fluently correspond with the station which helps loads when you are dealing with a small domestic outfit.

I will be calling up the station later today to ask a bit about their broadcasts (specifically why they transmit on SW in a mode rarely used for commercial radio) so I can have a complete log and will report back.

Has anyone else logged them?

Here is my log:
Tuned 6.045 MHz on USB, best reception with Grundig 750 using Apex 700 DTA active antenna clipped to (and thus tuning) my first ever HF antenna: a 25' roll of aluminum foil rigged up on the south and east facing crown molding of my shack. SINPO: 24232.

Programming was in Spanish. Despite the noisy band I was able to copy:

09.16-09.20 Zulu: Two announcers discussing Luiz Suarez (the biter from the World Cup!) who is apparently due to learn his fate soon.
09.20-09.30: Smaller domestic teams were discussed and the station ID was given at the half.

By 09.38 Zulu the signal was overcome by noise and I was unable to dig it out by adjusting gain.

End RR.

Has anyone else picked up this runt of a signal on SSB?

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North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6925 USB 04:10 UTC 31 July 2014

« on: July 31, 2014, 0423 UTC »

Signal coming in strong but with considerable interference, arond SIO 412. Copied various heavy metal songs, recognized "Shes my Cherry Pie" by Poison at 04:11 zulu. Signal still registering but overtaken by interference at 04:20 zulu.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 2328 UTC 30 Jul 2014

« on: July 31, 2014, 0004 UTC »

NW Georgia here, S9+10. Music (sounded like dance/electronica) was reading fine until about 23.50 Zulu, then it sounded like voices interspersed with music,  I cannot seem to copy the voices.

13

General Radio Discussion / Re: [Swlfest] Western radio broadcasters tuning out

« on: July 30, 2014, 2159 UTC »

What is even more regrettable is the choice to allow certain broadcasters to continue, even increasing their funding, while others get the axe taken to their budgets. Specifically, I am talking about Radio Marti. Radio y Television Marti, according to a study quoted in NPR's "On the Media" has about 3 percent name recognition in Cuba. Those who have heard of it almost universally have a negative view of its programming, oftentimes even lower scores than the domestic propaganda outlets receive. All of this while Voice of America, a far more objective, trusted, and effective source of information, is cutting staff like mad.

Speaking as someone who is about to go work at a non-western shortwave broadcaster, I can say that it is quite sad that (if I wanted to work at, say VOA or Radio Free Asia) I would essentially have to go through the same process that a civilian defense contractor goes through. No wonder they have trouble attracting new and young journalistic talent.

It is quite telling that of 5 English-native speakers in my Mass Communication MA program (at Central European University, which houses the RFE/RL archives on campus) who focused on radio: one works for AL-Jazeera, two work for Radio Romania International, one is at Radio Kuwait, and I worked for the Moscow Times (Western newspaper) initially only to take a position at the largest non-western shortwave broadcaster of them all. The jobs at Western broadcasters are just not there, and those that are available do not even come close to offering a journalist with an advanced degree adequate pay. Until Western governments realize the value of international broadcasting, they will essentially continue to cede a generation of talented journalists to the competition.

14

General Radio Discussion / Re: Allow myself to introduce....myself (and posit a question!)

« on: July 30, 2014, 2131 UTC »

Tested it just now, should be fine. Will likely still connect with a VPN to be on the safe side.

15

General Radio Discussion / Allow myself to introduce....myself (and posit a question!)

« on: July 30, 2014, 1819 UTC »

Greetings everyone. First time posting here, wanted to give a quick introduction, then ask a question. If there is a separate thread for introductions, forgive my broadcasting out-of-band.

Name is Spence, and I've been a casual shortwave listener for several years since I wrote an MA thesis on the economics of international broadcasting during the late Cold War years. I have only been a shortwave monitor for a few months, but thanks to some great logging software, have an impressive number of confirmed receptions and even a few physical QSL cards (despite all of my RRs explicitly stating that I don't need them).

For the next few weeks, at least, I reside in the Coosa Valley region of NW Georgia. On the 15th, I will be leaving the US and moving to Beijing to start work at a major international shortwave broadcaster that shall remain nameless for privacy reasons but whose identity should be obvious to all. I know that this may be a controversial thing here, and I welcome your thoughts and questions about this career move.

I can't wait to log a few US pirate stations before I depart and to report this to the HFU community. And then, if I happen to pick up some pirates in Asia, I will be sure to log them here too.

Now onto my question. Something that has helped me tremendously as a monitor is my reception logging software. I use DXtreme reception log, running on a small Asus Transformer book that I use exclusively for SWL logging. It does just about everything I need including providing templates for RRs. I am curious: what sort of logging software (if any) do you use at your monitoring post?

A link to my youtube channel is below for those who would like to learn a bit more about some of what I do.

Thanks in advance for the kind reception. Eat your cereal with a fork. Do your homework in the dark. Blame WWV when you are late for a date. 

73s.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGt6JndpRkod2pH4cMQlDjQ