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Author Topic: Your recent SWLing  (Read 1017 times)

ALPARD

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Your recent SWLing
« on: November 14, 2019, 01:19:09 AM »

I have been listening IRRS station on somewhere on 7Mhz lately.

I also came across a station which sounds like from USA, and it is just talks and talks of one person about religion and the Bible. He also tells the listeners to phone in, and gives out the phone number.

Ham radio band condition is very poor, but still a lot of strong SW stations are coming through well on 41m, 49m and 25m band 24 hours a day.

Wood it be because the SW stations use mega watts of power and massive tower antennas?  Some Sw stations seem using 500K Watts.

What have you been SWLing lately?
« Last Edit: November 14, 2019, 01:37:39 AM by ALPARD »
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2019, 01:43:08 AM »

I am listening some unfamiliar language SW service on 16m band this morning 9:40GMT. Sorry my SW receiver being analogue vintage, it is not giving out the freq.

I just know it is on the 16m band.  Very strong sig. from this station. It sounds like either Arab or African language.
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WA8ZTZ

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2019, 09:54:39 AM »

Propagation on 40M was terrible last night but an even bigger problem is lack of activity regardless the propagation.
If you want to listen to ham bands there should be lots of activity this coming weekend Nov. 16-17 as there is the
ARRL Sweepstakes SSB contest.  "Propagation" always seems better during a contest.  ;D
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2019, 06:58:46 AM »

HF condition is very poor lately here too, especially on the Ham bands even down to 80m band.  The top band was doing reasonably OK, heard many stations on there at night.

Yes, I also do believe that lack of ham radio operating could make look the band condition a lot worse than it is.  Not sure, if they are all operating on the digital mode, or just waiting for exotic DXes appearing on the band :)

But the SW bands are still very nice. I could hear a lot going on even during the day on 9Mhz and 7Mhz.  Other bands were very quiet with just one or two signals at a time.

But in the evenings and late nights the SW bands are full and rich with good stations to listen to.

Thanks for the info on the ARRL sweepstakes SSB contest. Will try to listen out for that.
Contest stations are already on 20m giving out very strong signals, maybe they are the ones?

73 de Al.
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2019, 11:40:09 AM »

6050 Khz

19:30-20:00 GMT, Voice of Turkey,  RST 9999, Good signal strength, intelligibility with slight fading.

Receiver used : ICOM IC-751A
Antenna : EFLW
« Last Edit: November 26, 2019, 11:42:45 AM by ALPARD »
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2019, 04:30:43 AM »

Heard this station on 10.051 Mhz USB using IC-751A and LW.

http://qrg.globaltuners.com/?q=10.051
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2019, 09:31:54 AM »

Vatican Radio English Service on 7.230 Mhz 17:00-17:30 GMT,  SIG7788
Used ICOM R-71E with 40m long wire.
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N8YX

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2019, 09:01:28 AM »

A bit of 26-30MHz Es at the moment.

Fortunately, I can listen from the home office as I work.

Unfortunately, I can't participate in any of the activity...as I have to work>:(
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2019, 08:28:40 AM »

WBCQ was heard on 9330 Khz with SIG 5544
ICOM IC751A with LW.

There must have been some disturbance on HF band either Aurora or something, as nothing was audible apart from frying noise on most part of the HF, but this WBCQ was coming in nice and steady.

It was about some religious program.
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2019, 10:05:20 AM »

Also heard was  NHK from Japan in Japanese Language on 9765 Khz.

The program started at 17:00 GMT, and keeps on going  after 18:00 with the NEWS.
They also had Blues Rock Music program ,and played some famous blues artists, which I enjoyed very much.

My ICOM IC751A was connected to my Guitar Amp AUX port, and was really semi HiFi reception.

I used think NHK stopped overseas SW service, but they are still on, and going strong.  Another great news itself, and reason to keep on SWLing :)
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2019, 04:11:55 AM »

Recently especially this winter, HF band condition is worst I have seen in my entire SWL and Ham life.  There had been Aurora or some sporadic E a few days ago, and disturbed the HF bands, and that effect is still going on the whole HF bands from MW - 30MHz.

 Yesterday, I heard no signals on HF ham bands at all.  But at night I heard the EA3JE on 80m, and he was about 33, and he was the only station I heard on whole HF ham band.  Usually he is 59+20 on 40 and 80m.

But SW Broadcast signals are still coming with good strength maybe due to their high TX power and massive antenna?.  I was listening to the CRI on 7350Khz at night for over an hour, and they were interviewing a British guy living and working in China, practicing KungFu and TaiChi. It was interesting.

Receiver used was ICOM IC751A and 40m long wire in the garden with MFJ974B tuner.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2019, 04:18:23 AM by ALPARD »
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RENTON481

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #11 on: December 23, 2019, 04:19:34 AM »

Recently especially this winter, HF band condition is worst I have seen in my entire SWL and Ham life.  There had been Aurora or some sporadic E a few days ago, and disturbed the HF bands, and that effect is still going on the whole HF bands from MW - 30MHz.

 Yesterday, I heard no signals on HF ham bands at all.  But at night I heard the EA3JE on 80m, and he was about 33, and he was the only station I heard on whole HF ham band.  Usually he is 59+20 on 40 and 80m.

But SW Broadcast signals are still coming with good strength maybe due to their high TX power and massive antenna?.  I was listening to the CRI on 7350Khz at night for over an hour, and they were interviewing a British guy living and working in China, practicing KungFu and TaiChi. It was interesting.

Receiver used was ICOM IC751A and 40m long wire in the garden with MFJ974B tuner.

I'm old enough to remember the movie The Day After, and the characters trying to hear something -- anything -- on MW and HF. All they heard was harsh static. Of course, the implication was that Nuclear Winter had begun to set in. The past few days have reminded me of that. Even WWV on 10Mhz was MIA, 31 meter band having nothing but static when years ago even on bad years it had signals.

It was a little better earlier tonight, though.

Strange conditions. I don't remember them being this bad for such a stretch before. But then, there were periods over the years I didn't switch on the SW all that often, so who knows.
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ALPARD

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2020, 12:16:15 PM »

Recently especially this winter, HF band condition is worst I have seen in my entire SWL and Ham life.  There had been Aurora or some sporadic E a few days ago, and disturbed the HF bands, and that effect is still going on the whole HF bands from MW - 30MHz.

 Yesterday, I heard no signals on HF ham bands at all.  But at night I heard the EA3JE on 80m, and he was about 33, and he was the only station I heard on whole HF ham band.  Usually he is 59+20 on 40 and 80m.

But SW Broadcast signals are still coming with good strength maybe due to their high TX power and massive antenna?.  I was listening to the CRI on 7350Khz at night for over an hour, and they were interviewing a British guy living and working in China, practicing KungFu and TaiChi. It was interesting.

Receiver used was ICOM IC751A and 40m long wire in the garden with MFJ974B tuner.

I'm old enough to remember the movie The Day After, and the characters trying to hear something -- anything -- on MW and HF. All they heard was harsh static. Of course, the implication was that Nuclear Winter had begun to set in. The past few days have reminded me of that. Even WWV on 10Mhz was MIA, 31 meter band having nothing but static when years ago even on bad years it had signals.

It was a little better earlier tonight, though.

Strange conditions. I don't remember them being this bad for such a stretch before. But then, there were periods over the years I didn't switch on the SW all that often, so who knows.

I have been listening to MW and LW bands DX signals, and it has been great fun.
I am now planning to get an Active Magnetic Loop for trying to hear more exotic DX stations there.

The HF bands have been, not great in here either to put it mildly :D. So, we got to keep waiting. But MW and LW, and even FM band DXing is great fun. MW and LW bands don't get affected by the Sunspots as much as the HF does. :) And it is quite a challenge to hear good DX there. It has been more fun than the HF DXing, to me at least :D
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VK2NZA

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2020, 08:18:25 PM »

On a slightly differing note, I caught up with a friend from his SAT phone yesterday I used to drive for, he owns a trucking business and operates a number of 3 trailer roadtrain stock (cattle) trucks in far western Queensland Australia.
 He complained a number of years ago that there were no MW or FM radio stations available during daylight in many of the outback areas of Australia and he missed the news and weather bullitins.

Its quite possible in many areas of this large country to be out of reception during the day.

2WEB the Outback radio network based in western New South Wales works well at night but can be not heard outside its repeater stations reach in many more remote parts of the western Queensland outback during the day.

 I fitted a Pioneer CD radio with AM/FM and 2 shortwave bands to his prime mover, a while back, (Pioneer, Kenwood and JVC supply SW capable units here in Australia, not Sony oddly enough).
With a large old style fibreglass AM 5 ft whip mounted behind the top of the sleeper cab it works quite well.
He can now listen while driving during the day to Radio New Zealand and China Drive out of Bejing in English with good signals approximately 2800-3200 Klms from RNZ's transmitter base on some memory presets I punched in.
Considerably more Klms from Bejing however they're running some serious power!
He finds it interesting and another view on the world during long hours behind the wheel or when out of log book time and parked up.

Sadly Radio Australia's shortwave service was canned a while back,.
It provided sometimes the only decent signals in remote parts of the country and is a very short sighted move by our govt as far as many rural and remote travellers and outback stations * ( USA read as ranch) dwellers are concerned.
Also the Pacific islanders who relied on R' Australia and now only RNZ for accurate news and cyclone  warnings and updates.
Satellite and FM repeaters from ABC Australia placed in the pacific although available is not always as reliable especially during the cyclone season when they get knocked out and technical skills are not immediately available to repair them.

As for recent reception here I have been listening to comical advertising on some Indonesian and Malaysian stations although i don't understand the languages,on my Icom IC761 and IC-765.
I often tune into tune to RNZ's Pacific program on my 55 year old Zenith Transoceanic 3000 on my bedside table during the night on the 49 meter band with a fairly consistent SINPO 55435 rating, using just the extended whip antenna on the radio.
Also Radio Thailand in English for a 1/2 hr on 9290 in the 31 meter band looking up R'Thailands frequencies, ,although I'm sure Ive heard it in the 49 meter band on 5875 or thereabouts (analog tuning) also.
Radio Thailand have a  couple of 500 KW transmitters but apparently running them at 250 KW presently from Udon Thani with good signals into eastern VK.
  Ross.
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RENTON481

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Re: Your recent SWLing
« Reply #14 on: June 15, 2020, 07:47:19 PM »

It's sort of sad that the Australian government didn't keep a few SW transmitters going with ABC programming (like Radio National), so people living in the Outback would have radio service during the daytime.

I know that there were at least two ABC outlets with SW transmitters in the past -- 6WF/6WN had one in WA that served the rural areas, and I think the Brisbane ABC station had a SW counterpart that served the Outback.
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