Need advice on Tecsun Pl 600 ssb reception

[Seasider]

Hello all,

I know very little about listening to ssb.
I bought this radio so I could listen to a weather forecast broadcast over the Sonrisa net from El Burro cove in Baja Mexico.
I live in Courtenay on Vancouver Island, BC.(100 km from Vancouver) I wanted to test the radio here in Courtenay, so I read the instructions and attempted to scan through the channels. Nothing but static. Am I doing something wrong , or is it not easy or possible to receive ssb from here? I would like to be sure I can get the daily forecast from El Burro Cove. I checked the FM station reception and it works fine.

 

[ka3jjz]

Yes it's possible - but before we can go further, what is the time/frequency of the broadcast you're trying to hear?

If it's not on HF, Baja Mexico would be a fairly difficult catch on other bands, particularly for you. They don't propagate the same way HF does

Mike

 

[Seasider]

Yes it's possible - but before we can go further, what is the time/frequency of the broadcast you're trying to hear?

If it's not on HF, Baja Mexico would be a fairly difficult catch on other bands, particularly for you. They don't propagate the same way HF does

Mike

The Baja Sonrisa net broadcast is 0630 Pacific time @ 3.968 mhz on lower side band. I'm told that 15 to 30 minutes before the broadcast, cruisers will check in and report the conditions wherever they are located in the Sea of Cortez.
For testing the radio,I thought I might be able to receive a broadcast from here in Courtenay, but no luck so far. I thought I would be able to simply set the radio to receive ssb and then hit the scan button. Maybe I need to know what frequency to dial into then wait for someone to speak. The manual doesn't say that the scan function can not be relied on to receive a ssb broadcast. The scan mode on this radio scrolls quickly through all the upper and lower ssb frequencies.

 

[ratboy]

You seem to be totally confused. If you want to monitor something, just put the radio on frequency, which appears to be 3.968 MHZ in LSB, that's it, do NOT scan or do anything else, except for minor adjustments to make the voices you hear "human" sounding. Most, actually on any and all radios I've ever owned, the scan function is useless on SSB. It's not even all that useful on AM. Another problem you are probably having is the lower frequencies are pretty dead in the daytime, The higher frequencies are used in the daytime, and are dead at night. This is not set in stone, but is a "rule of thumb". This might be some help to you:

https://www.amrron.com/2015/10/11/shortwave-radio-basics-parts-1-2/

 

[ka3jjz]

As ratboy implies, both you and the Mexican must be in darkness for you to have a chance at hearing that station. During the daytime, such a reception would not be possible. This site is an excellent choice for learning the reason why. You will need your Flash player active for this site to work (all links are always blue)

Propagation Primer - Flash Movie by AE4RV

Mike