Anything new & good in the great wasteland of SWL?

[TAC4]

The shortwave hobby is alive and well and DX is great right now when you factor in we are in the 11 year sunspot cycle but with a few caveats.The proof of this is go to the University of Netherlands live SDR site and you will see it is lit up like a Xmas tree with shortwave stations broadcasting world wide 🌎 24/7.

Now for the caveats (problems) we face in modern day shortwave listening.

Problem 1
-no beamed services to North America which can mean the difference between a S5/5 to a S1/5
signal

Problem 2
-very few English services left

Problem 3
-to high of a noise floor RFI due to man made modern electronic devices in the home, computers, tv screens, phones, wall adapters etc

Solution 1
-ironic if you fix problem 3 you will fix problem 1 at the same time, there is nothing wrong with a weak S1/5 signals they are perfectly readable if you have a very low noise floor

Solution 2
-use Microsoft free translate app to convert
foreign languages from speech to text in real time,
this is a game changer and will open up a whole new world of DX possibilities

Solution 3
-take your portable shortwave radio from room to room and start unplugging electronic devices watching your S meter for any drops in the noise floor, the key is not to live in the dark but just to find the bad offending RFI devices

-if there was no difference take you radio outside away from the house, if still no difference take your radio to a park, I bet you will find at a park you radio's noise floor will be nice and quiet and and your radio will come alive with station appearing from out of nowhere

Summing Up

There are tons of great shortwave stations still broadcasting up and down the band 24/7 but they are typically found in the noise floor, so if your noise floor is S9 they will be masked and not be heard.

In my opinion the way to go for modern day shortwave listening is with a modern day portable
field shortwave radios using just the back of the set antenna NO long wire as these sets are very sensitive and you will overload the front end making the noise floor even worse, you want to do the exact opposite, reduce your noise floor so it's very low.

The beauty of portable field shortwave radios is you can take them out of high RFI environments
and take them with you, kinda of hard to do with a desk top and a 100 foot long wire antenna.

As we all know the bands open and close (propagation) all the time and you can go for days not hearing any stations which is normal. Don't give up as the bands will open up again soon.

This does not really answers the OP question about what to listen to but it will surely open up a whole new world of shortwave broadcast DX so he can listen to more on the band because it sure is active and not a wasteland.

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[a29zuk]

Problem 3
-to high of a noise floor RFI due to man made modern electronic devices in the home, computers, tv screens, phones, wall adapters etc



Solution 3
-take your portable shortwave radio from room to room and start unplugging electronic devices watching your S meter for any drops in the noise floor, the key is not to live in the dark but just to find the bad offending RFI devices

-if there was no difference take you radio outside away from the house, if still no difference take your radio to a park, I bet you will find at a park you radio's noise floor will be nice and quiet and and your radio will come alive with station appearing from out of nowhere



Skippy 🇨🇦

Another option if you have room for two antennas on your property:

Purchase a Timewave ANC-4, an MFJ-1025(6) or a DX Engineering NCC-2 (there are a few more from WIMO, etc.). They use the term "noise antenna" preferably pointing one antenna at the noise source, but I just use two approx. 80' end fed wires adjacent to each other (one N-S one E-W). I'm sure it would work well with 30' antennas or two verticals.

I've used the MFJ-1025 (and it performed pretty well) in the past but upgraded to the NCC-2 a couple of years ago. You can adjust antenna gain on both antennas and phase out the noise source. If you have two strong noise sources nearby you can only eliminate one at a time. But in my situation 90% of the time I can lower the noise floor down to S-1 or lower to hear those broadcasts not intended for our area.

The longer antennas allow me to steer my reception on the AM broadcast band. Like turning a portable radio with its ferrite rod.

Jim

 

[TAC4]

Another option if you have room for two antennas on your property:

Purchase a Timewave ANC-4, an MFJ-1025(6) or a DX Engineering NCC-2 (there are a few more from WIMO, etc.). They use the term "noise antenna" preferably pointing one antenna at the noise source, but I just use two approx. 80' end fed wires adjacent to each other (one N-S one E-W). I'm sure it would work well with 30' antennas or two verticals.

I've used the MFJ-1025 (and it performed pretty well) in the past but upgraded to the NCC-2 a couple of years ago. You can adjust antenna gain on both antennas and phase out the noise source. If you have two strong noise sources nearby you can only eliminate one at a time. But in my situation 90% of the time I can lower the noise floor down to S-1 or lower to hear those broadcasts not intended for our area.

The longer antennas allow me to steer my reception on the AM broadcast band. Like turning a portable radio with its ferrite rod.

Jim

Yep for high RFI neighborhoods they can work well just like active magnetic loop antennas can be a god send. Bringing your portable shortwave radio outside in the middle of winter is not very practical so another simple trick and often overlooked is to reduce your are RF gain knob on the radio.

There is a sweet spot with RF gain were you can null out a lot RFI
noise and still let signal get through. I bet a lot SW listeners set there RF gain knob to 10 and leave it there thinking more is better.
Another reason I like portable shortwave field radios most of them have RF gain knobs on them.

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[N2AVH]

Since SDR was mentioned, I will note that online services like kiwisdr.com/public are great if, like me, your old radio doesn't work too well anymore and/or you don't have much of an antenna. There's so little actual DX nowadays that I have no problem using receivers close to whatever action still exists...it's not like I'm going to request a QSL. This evening I was using the LU8MIL SDR in Argentina and picked up something on 4590 that I am not seeing in any logs, a Latin American religious station I couldn't ID and then the remote receiver failed. (I am wondering if it's a MW harmonic.) But I will check it out tomorrow night! Now I am listening to a pirate on 6932 from a receiver in Denmark...it's been an hour and no ID but that frustration reminds me of my real DXing days 40+ years ago! (UPDATE: The LU8MIL SDR is back and the 4590 signal is indeed a third harmonic of a station on 1530 since they announced that frequency. 6932 is from Spain but no ID yet.)

 

[TAC4]

Since SDR was mentioned, I will note that online services like kiwisdr.com/public are great if, like me, your old radio doesn't work too well anymore and/or you don't have much of an antenna. There's so little actual DX nowadays that I have no problem using receivers close to whatever action still exists...it's not like I'm going to request a QSL. This evening I was using the LU8MIL SDR in Argentina and picked up something on 4590 that I am not seeing in any logs, a Latin American religious station I couldn't ID and then the remote receiver failed. (I am wondering if it's a MW harmonic.) But I will check it out tomorrow night! Now I am listening to a pirate on 6932 from a receiver in Denmark...it's been an hour and no ID but that frustration reminds me of my real DXing days 40+ years ago! (UPDATE: The LU8MIL SDR is back and the 4590 signal is indeed a third harmonic of a station on 1530 since they announced that frequency. 6932 is from Spain but no ID yet.)

You got to do what you got to do. Nothing wrong with remote listening. Ham operators do it all the time. I find their remote coax disconnect devices for lightening protection very cool.
You see these devices with like 7 coax cables and connectors on sliding aluminum rails using a worm gear motor the make or break the connection with just a press of a button from another state or country.

I always found remote listening weird as I can hear a USA signal
travel across to Europe through the airways only to return to North America via the internet. But that's just me.

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[Drake-r8]

For those of us whose specific interest was 'tropical bands' DXing, it's entirely done and in the past. It was great fun and I enjoy looking at old publications, especially the log sections (and even my old logbooks), but it's entirely gone.

For anyone who likes looking at old publications - especially radio related there is always WorldRadioHistory: Radio Music Electronics Publications ALL FREE. I still relish browsing through Monitoring Times and Popular Communications, etc.

 

[Omega-TI]

Why the heck didn't I think of that! I'll have to look into it. Is there a better option than Microsoft's?

 

[TAC4]

View attachment 157460
Why the heck didn't I think of that! I'll have to look into it. Is there a better option than Microsoft's?

There is a few translate apps on the Google Play Store but Microsoft is the best free app bar none and with no delay.
I am listening to Radio Spain right now in Spanish and getting real time text in English, a DX game changer for sure.

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[Drake-r8]

There is a few translate apps on the Google Play Store but Microsoft is the best free app bar none and with no delay.
I am listening to Radio Spain right now in Spanish and getting real time text in English, a DX game changer for sure.

Skippy 🇨🇦

So you just put the radio next to the speaker that the app is on (computer or phone) and read the text?

 

[TAC4]

So you just put the radio next to the speaker that the app is on (computer or phone) and read the text?

Yep exactly, about 6 inches away. I use a tablet with little desk top stand I got from Amazon so I don't have to hold the tablet all the time next to the radios speaker. Practice on your local medium wave stations that are in foreign languages until your get the hang of it. Turn you volume off on your device, the app with do text first then speech but this will cause a slight delay you want text only.

The app does Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Chinese amazingly well which is great because that is the main
foreign languages found on the shortwave bands today.
I think your phone would be your best bet as it is an android driven app.


Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[Drake-r8]

Thanks. I will try that.

 

[ditto1958]

I still like the ‘romance’ of listening to Shortwave. Especially on cold, winter nights. I have a small C. Crane Skywave SSB and sometimes I’ll just spin the dial and see what I can catch.

We did “DXing” as kids at night with AM radios. Of course it wasn’t called that back then, but we would wait until after sundown and go through the dial searching for far away signals. The programming was secondary to the romance of hearing someone talk from Little Rock or Detroit.

 

[trentbob]

We did “DXing” as kids at night with AM radios. Of course it wasn’t called that back then, but we would wait until after sundown and go through the dial searching for far away signals. The programming was secondary to the romance of hearing someone talk from Little Rock or Detroit.

Yep I did my share of AM dxing in the mid-sexties as a kid with a great antenna setup supplied by my dad. Exact conditions you describe. Would always stay up late and have a hard time getting up in the morning for school lol.

As far as the title of the thread, I don't think much has changed since the thread started back in whenever. It is what it is. For so many obvious reasons.

I do appreciate your experience for sure.

 

[K0WWX]

Radio New Zealand has been easy to receive lately on 9700 kHz in Colorado, especially after 0600 UTC.

Signal has been very strong on all the receivers I've tried, even on the Tecsun PL-330 with its little built-in telescopic antenna.

You can use short-wave info to check the schedule for 9700 kHz:

Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH

The short-wave radio frequencies used by station BBC for its international English language broadcasts, showing those on-air at 09:51GMT.

www.short-wave.info

 

[ditto1958]

I got it here late morning, about 1600 UTC. It was hard to make out what they were saying, but it was a pretty strong signal. That’s over 8,000 miles from me.