log your SW catches here:)

[majoco]

That's something that really brasses me off about those YouTubes of somebody listening to some random station that they don't tell you where they are, what the UTC and local times are, what antenna they are using - all I wanted to do was evaluate the receiver but it's impossible without some data....and why do they insist on using a microphone instead of a direct connection and use a cr@ppy cellphone to record the video.....

OK, rant mode off!

 

[SDRPlayer]

Fair point! The place is full of them, so i don't bother anymore.

 

[ridgescan]

That's something that really brasses me off about those YouTubes of somebody listening to some random station that they don't tell you where they are, what the UTC and local times are, what antenna they are using - all I wanted to do was evaluate the receiver but it's impossible without some data....and why do they insist on using a microphone instead of a direct connection and use a cr@ppy cellphone to record the video.....

OK, rant mode off!

Damn good thing I aint one of those eh Marty

 

[GB46]

....why do they insist on using a microphone instead of a direct connection and use a cr@ppy cellphone to record the video.....

I spend as little time as possible on YouTube, but one of my pet peeves is the way many videos featuring mostly talk, such as instructional videos, etc., have background music louder than the
voice. You simply can't make out what the guy is saying, especiailly if he keeps turning his head away from the mike when he's demonstrating things.

Another of my pet peeves is cell phone videos that are shot with a vertical orientation, so that you get a narrow little band of video in the middle of your screen, cutting off some interesting stuff on either side of the camera. I'm sure those phones can be turned sideways when taking a picture.

My final pet peeve is a local news site here that insists on including a YouTube video with almost all of its stories. I'm an avid reader and favor text communication, which is rapidly eroding on the web. I guess one could say that the internet employs witchcraft, and has cast a misspell over everyone. :lol:

So much for my pet peeves. I'm going to need to spay or neuter all those "pets" before they start multiplying out of control.

 

[GB46]

BBC giving English lessons

Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 1620 UTC (9:20 AM local) on 9615 kHz:

The BBC broadcasting in Korean, and relayed via the Philippines, were giving English lessons, teaching Korean speakers how to say, "Can you tell me where the nearest supermarket is, please?"

Signal strength was around S5 to S6 with very clear audio and only moderate fading.

I was using my ATS-909X with the indoor wire antenna. With just the whip antenna their signal dropped to about S2, but was still pretty audible.

Shortwave reception here in the BC interior is much better in the morning than it is during the evening hours.

 

[ridgescan]

Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 1620 UTC (9:20 AM local) on 9615 kHz:

The BBC broadcasting in Korean, and relayed via the Philippines, were giving English lessons, teaching Korean speakers how to say, "Can you tell me where the nearest supermarket is, please?"

Signal strength was around S5 to S6 with very clear audio and only moderate fading.

I was using my ATS-909X with the indoor wire antenna. With just the whip antenna their signal dropped to about S2, but was still pretty audible.

Shortwave reception here in the BC interior is much better in the morning than it is during the evening hours.

Good catch

 

[GB46]

Thanks, Ridgescan. I've stopped using the R75 for SWBC, as the portable has much more pleasant audio, and it's less noisy, too. I'm using it exclusively in AM mode, and currently have 30 stations in memory. I don't even use the fine tuning anymore. Anything SSB or digital has been removed and relegated to the R75, but to be honest, my main interest is and always has been SWBC. I'm getting pretty bored listening to the utilities.

We're planning a vacation trip out to Saskatchewan for next summer, and the portable will definitely be coming along, because reception on the prairies is so much better, with that flat terrain and an elevation of around 1800 ft. above sea level. The whip antenna will do just fine out there. I'll finally be able to hear those European broadcasters again!

 

[ridgescan]

Thanks, Ridgescan. I've stopped using the R75 for SWBC, as the portable has much more pleasant audio, and it's less noisy, too. I'm using it exclusively in AM mode, and currently have 30 stations in memory. I don't even use the fine tuning anymore. Anything SSB or digital has been removed and relegated to the R75, but to be honest, my main interest is and always has been SWBC. I'm getting pretty bored listening to the utilities.

We're planning a vacation trip out to Saskatchewan for next summer, and the portable will definitely be coming along, because reception on the prairies is so much better, with that flat terrain and an elevation of around 1800 ft. above sea level. The whip antenna will do just fine out there. I'll finally be able to hear those European broadcasters again!

Glad to hear that your portable has such attributes within it to get you nice SW signals!
With the R75 I have found that judicious working of the RF gain control can go a long way to suppress a lot of hash the R75 seems to be sensitive to. I did a video years ago showing this.
https://youtu.be/9c9sVcZcIQY


It's such a simple thing, but it is very effective. I have my R75 in the living room running through a powerful A/V receiver with 5 speakers. So when I utilize the backing-off of the RF gain, any audio volume lost is more than regained through that unit

 

[GB46]

With the R75 I have found that judicious working of the RF gain control can go a long way to suppress a lot of hash the R75 seems to be sensitive to.

Yes, I've used that technique at times, but I'm not very happy with the audio characteristics of the R75. It's excellent for communications, of course, and at its best on SSB and digital signals, but harsh enough at times to set my teeth on edge, even with a good pair of headphones (I always use headphones).

For relaxed listening to SW broadcasts, however, especially when there's music, I prefer a warmer sound, which is what I get from the portable. As for hash, the R75 does seem more prone to it, especially because it relies on my external power supply, which is well filtered, but still manages to transfer noise from the AC line. Surprisingly, I get much less of that from the Sangean when I run it on its AC adapter. I bought it, however, with the intention of taking my radio listening off the grid.

But getting back to what I was listening to today: It's interesting that the BBC is easily readable even with a low signal strength, fading and some background noise, while many other broadcasts are hard for me to make out under the same conditions. Those of RHC, CRI and RNZI are good examples. RHC, in fact, sounds muddy even at S9 with no fading.

 

[ka3jjz]

Somewhat OT here, but it's relevant...

Since we seem to have a few R75 owners here, it might pay to join this Yahoo group...

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/icomr75/info

I could be off base here, so don't take this as gospel, but I seem to recall a R75 'cookbook' floating around that had all sorts of useful mods and tricks. Maybe there's something to kill that hash that's been discussed recently.

Mike

 

[mbott]

Somewhat OT here, but it's relevant...

Since we seem to have a few R75 owners here, it might pay to join this Yahoo group...

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/icomr75/info

I could be off base here, so don't take this as gospel, but I seem to recall a R75 'cookbook' floating around that had all sorts of useful mods and tricks. Maybe there's something to kill that hash that's been discussed recently.

Mike

The traffic in the Yahoo! R75 group has dropped off significantly over the last couple of years. As for Phil's Cookbook, a PM to me and I'll gladly send a copy of what I have.

--
Mike

 

[ridgescan]

Somewhat OT here, but it's relevant...

Since we seem to have a few R75 owners here, it might pay to join this Yahoo group...

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/icomr75/info

I could be off base here, so don't take this as gospel, but I seem to recall a R75 'cookbook' floating around that had all sorts of useful mods and tricks. Maybe there's something to kill that hash that's been discussed recently.

Mike

Hey Mike thanks for putting this out here so that everyone who has an R75 knows. I myself am a member there. Like mbott stated, it's kinda sleepy in there. But so also is the R71a group, but when you post a question, you will get a few very learned Icom wizards piping-up suddenly with some direct answers for you.

 

[Boombox]

Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 1620 UTC (9:20 AM local) on 9615 kHz:

I was using my ATS-909X with the indoor wire antenna. With just the whip antenna their signal dropped to about S2, but was still pretty audible.

Shortwave reception here in the BC interior is much better in the morning than it is during the evening hours.

That's because -- honestly -- aside from Cuba and US domestic broadcasters, there is less to hear on SW in our section of the world during the evening.

I heard Radio Nacional Da Amazonia for the first time in over a year a couple evenings ago on 11780 khz -- that was a surprise. It used to be a nightly dependable, then propagation got very poor. When propagation is at least fair, there are maybe a handful of other dependable stations here in the PNW US / BC Canada region that one can hear in the evening.

In our neck of North America, Asia in the morning is the best time to DX the SW broadcast bands. It's mostly China and Japan, but BBC Singapore often makes its way here also -- in English, as well as in South Asian languages and other Asian languages.

When propagation picks up (and hopefully it will over the next few years), the overall picture may improve, but until that happens, the morning Asia pipeline is the big deal for those of us in this part of NA.

 

[mbott]

<snip>

I heard Radio Nacional Da Amazonia for the first time in over a year a couple evenings ago on 11780 khz -- that was a surprise. It used to be a nightly dependable, then propagation got very poor. When propagation is at least fair, there are maybe a handful of other dependable stations here in the PNW US / BC Canada region that one can hear in the evening.

<snip>

RNA on 11780 has been a constant here in Ohio. Voice of Greece 9420 also, generally after 20:00utc. Would be nice to have RNA back on 6180. After 22:00utc, we start to see RNZ Pacific making its way through the noise on 13840.

--
Mike

 

[Boombox]

RNA on 11780 has been a constant here in Ohio. Voice of Greece 9420 also, generally after 20:00utc. Would be nice to have RNA back on 6180. After 22:00utc, we start to see RNZ Pacific making its way through the noise on 13840.

--
Mike

Here in my section of the PNW, Greece on 9420 comes in rather weakly, usually 2-3 nights a week. Amazonia used to be S4 signals every evening on 11780, until about a year ago, when it was so non-existent I thought they went off the air.

They used to be a nightly received station on 6180 as well.

There were a couple other Brazilians (Super Deus something or other, and the Sao Paulo station) that I would hear now and then also, but they haven't been appearing lately.

Ridgescan, about 900 miles to the south of me, gets a lot better reception, and I think some of it is the latitude. He also may be closer to saltwater, and farther from a mountain range. But I think with SW, latitude can also make a difference.

 

[ridgescan]

Sorry but this stuff about poor propagation just doesn't show itself here. Maybe it's a thing in the northern to far-northern region of the USA, but here in my region, propagation is quite the same as always, following normal trends of the season. Yeah, the Asias stack the bands in my morning, but so also is RNZI on 5980, Cuba up on 11880.
When my evening hits here, the Asias, Africa, Cuba, Romania, Greece etc. as well as my regulars WTWW and WRMI etc. all stack the bands as usual.
It'd be nice if Boombox would refresh my memory what he uses for an antenna.

 

[Boombox]

Well, here in WA and other northern states, we're closer to the auroral zone, and according to some articles on HF prop I've read, latitudes that are closer to the equator have better overall propagation because of the arrangement of the Earth's magnetic field.

I think that is a lot of what accounts for the difference.

 

[SDRPlayer]

Have to agree there, i'm about 4000 km south of the equator (even with the big Asian stations to the North, It's been a tough 8 or so months HF-DX wise, however things are starting to improve for us.

 

[majoco]

Same here, lots of the Chinese International and Domestic services in the late afternoon and evening but nothing from the east. I used to get some of the South American flea-powered domestic stations but now just noise. If I get up early enough, say 0400local, there a few AIR stations but that's about it - never anything from Africa - but the route is over the pole so hardly surprising. Even the local daytime aero HF stations are pretty weak.

 

[mbott]

Great (relatively speaking) conditions tonight. Both Voice of Greece on 9420 and Radio Nacional Amazonia on 11780 are sounding almost like locals. There are some evenings when VOG playing music will keep me camped on 9420.

--
Mike