Propagation is wondrous and frustrating

[ditto1958]

This afternoon I did some SW scanning and at first there was nothing. I started down from 13m but it wasn’t until 22 and 25m that I found things. Mostly Radio Marti and other US religious boomers. But then I caught World Christian Broadcasting from Madagascar at 11965 kHz, and a few minutes later when they went off the air I got a different broadcast from them at 11610khz.

DXing is a lot like fishing… 🙂

 

[bearcatrp]

If you could get a wire outside, say 30 feet, you will see the light. But with more reception comes more noise floor. Or if you want to try something different, try the youloop. $29 bucks I think. Bought those suction cups and stuck it to the window. Was very surprised how good it did. Fishing is a good term for looking for frequencies. In the evening, I start at the bottom and scroll up. Sometimes good nights, sometimes no so good. Enjoy.

 

[ratboy]

It is like fishing, sometimes, it's just really dead, nothing but the annoying preachers and big SW broadcasts that someone must listen to, but not me. Other times, jackpot. You hear some really crazy stuff that isn't listenable when the conditions are supposedly good.

Some of the best "oddball" stuff I ever heard on HF was during periods of "bad conditions" when a lot of people didn't bother doing much HF listening. I heard some hilarious fishing boat captain arguments a few times, and some celebrities talking to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

 

[Boombox]

I've had more than one poor SW DX night were most of the 49 meter and 31 meter bands were dead (aside from WRMI, Marti, and WWCR, and a grainy, semi-readable Radio Educacion on 6185), and voila! There's the BBC to Africa (from either the UK or Ascension), or VOA from Botswana to Africa! Semi-readable, but audible. Or one of the religious broadcasters using Madagascar, often with some cool sounding music included with the African language talk.

You never know what you'll hear (or catch, to use the fishing term). And I agree that the best way to do it is simply tune bottom of band to top. If you depend on the radios auto-scanning feature, it will miss a lot.

 

[ditto1958]

I've had more than one poor SW DX night were most of the 49 meter and 31 meter bands were dead (aside from WRMI, Marti, and WWCR, and a grainy, semi-readable Radio Educacion on 6185), and voila! There's the BBC to Africa (from either the UK or Ascension), or VOA from Botswana to Africa! Semi-readable, but audible. Or one of the religious broadcasters using Madagascar, often with some cool sounding music included with the African language talk.

You never know what you'll hear (or catch, to use the fishing term). And I agree that the best way to do it is simply tune bottom of band to top. If you depend on the radios auto-scanning feature, it will miss a lot.

1. I’m in Wisconsin and 6185 is a catch that eludes me. Most people list it as a reliable catch, but not me… 😢
2. Alas, I must confess that I do a lot of sort of scanning of the bands. I use the Auto step setting in my Qodosen DX-286, and I often go up and down over the same range. Not as through as hand tuning, but still works pretty well.

 

[ratboy]

Of course, if you have several radios, you can sit on freqs without any time restraints and not miss anything. At one point, I had a lot of decent HF receivers and my location was super quiet in the months without lightning. I had 2 really good antennas, and two not so good ones, along with a junk box dipole in the attic. Now I have the receivers, but no outside antennas, and a noise level that is downright insane.

 

[bearcatrp]

Last night was just awesome using my youloop. Noise floor was real low. Picked up allot of stations. Trying to figure out 9.395 that was almost pegging my needle. Some talk show. Tried to stay on for a bit to see if they would announce who they were but they just kept talking. English speaking. Am thinking it was out of Los Angeles as I picked up some vegan show last month around this frequency. This was around 9PM last night.

 

[bearcatrp]

Good conditions tonight. Allot of hams are out too. 5.850 was some church thing playing 70’s music and talking about parents want it banNed. 5.950 is some guys show talking about the Ukraine war. 7.490 was talking some serious stuff about the Ukraine war. Said NATO changed there stance to now preemptive strikes on Russia. Have not heard anything on local news or on the net on this. That’s why I like listening to HF. You hear stuff not broadcasted here. Whether it’s true or not, guess we will find out.

 

[T680]

Good conditions tonight. Allot of hams are out too. 5.850 was some church thing playing 70’s music and talking about parents want it banNed. 5.950 is some guys show talking about the Ukraine war. 7.490 was talking some serious stuff about the Ukraine war. Said NATO changed there stance to now preemptive strikes on Russia. Have not heard anything on local news or on the net on this. That’s why I like listening to HF. You hear stuff not broadcasted here. Whether it’s true or not, guess we will find out.

President Biden allowing deeper use of missiles was on the news here last week. That's the kind of news I'd hoped to find on SW but I haven't had much luck yet.

 

[ditto1958]

President Biden allowing deeper use of missiles was on the news here last week. That's the kind of news I'd hoped to find on SW but I haven't had much luck yet.

The lack of useful or interesting programming on SW is sometimes discouraging.

 

[T680]

The lack of useful or interesting programming on SW is sometimes discouraging.

Exactly. I keep wondering what it would have been like if I had my current radios (and the needed chargers) back in the 70's when I first listened to SW.

 

[bearcatrp]

The Bible pumpers are stretched through HF. Some have more than 1 frequency. Some have some serious power that peg my needle. I listen to some of the hams once in a while. Finding an overseas station talking about world affairs like the BBC that speaks English is not easy but does happen, depending on conditions. It can get boring but there are times, jackpot! You get what you put into it. I don’t listen every night. But when I do, I scroll from the bottom to the top, or as far as I can go before I get tired. Good luck fishing.

 

[KC1THE]

This morning at about 10 UTC, I was listening to hams on 40 meters and saw a signal further up the band. I picked up 7.215 MHz and switched from LSB to AM. It was listed online as Chinese Radio International (in English) emanating from Xianyang, China at 500 KW. It is about 6,200 miles away.

Hard to read at times but I could pick up some words and phrases here and there. I’m in Massachusetts. I was using an indoor mag-loop antenna.

 

[T680]

The Bible pumpers are stretched through HF. Some have more than 1 frequency. Some have some serious power that peg my needle. I listen to some of the hams once in a while. Finding an overseas station talking about world affairs like the BBC that speaks English is not easy but does happen, depending on conditions. It can get boring but there are times, jackpot! You get what you put into it. I don’t listen every night. But when I do, I scroll from the bottom to the top, or as far as I can go before I get tired. Good luck fishing.

Finding stations like the BBC is what I thought I'd be looking for, but I can get that on NPR. 🤔

It's interesting when I find something that is hard to identify, especially when it's something I haven't heard before. I knew I was starting to get familiar with things when I was able to recognize Brother Stair's voice. He's not as bad as the Mud Duck in CB radio but they're both quickly recognizable.

 

[bearcatrp]

This morning at about 10 UTC, I was listening to hams on 40 meters and saw a signal further up the band. I picked up 7.215 MHz and switched from LSB to AM. It was listed online as Chinese Radio International (in English) emanating from Xianyang, China at 500 KW. It is about 6,200 miles away.

Hard to read at times but I could pick up some words and phrases here and there. I’m in Massachusetts. I was using an indoor mag-loop antenna.
View attachment 173502

Thought I heard an oriental voice around that frequency a few nights ago. Usually hear them above 9 MHz. Good catch.

 

[KC1THE]

Very strong signal - BBC Radio in Hausa (West African Language) now on 11 meters 25.700 MHz emanating from Santa Maria di Galeria, Italy (near Rome). About 4100+ miles:

 

[Boombox]

1. I’m in Wisconsin and 6185 is a catch that eludes me. Most people list it as a reliable catch, but not me… 😢
2. Alas, I must confess that I do a lot of sort of scanning of the bands. I use the Auto step setting in my Qodosen DX-286, and I often go up and down over the same range. Not as through as hand tuning, but still works pretty well.

6185 kHz (Radio Educacion) here is spotty. It has readable music maybe every 5th or 6th night that I tune them in. Often, it's just a weak carrier with a trace of audio. So it's not just your location....

One night a couple months ago, however, the 49 meter band had really poor conditions and most of the regulars were in the muc, but Educacion was quite readable. Maybe SIO 252 or so. That was odd. Maybe it was auroral radio conditions that night, similar to what you get on MW, when northern signals are reduced and signals from southerly regions are slightly enhanced.

 

[bearcatrp]

Usually scan at night but yesterday I scanned above 9MHz. Stuck at home healing from knee replacement surgery. Conditions were good. Allot of hams were on. Picked up more bible pumpers. Good amount of other stations to listen to. Overall good afternoon.

 

[KC1THE]

Lots of 40 meter phone conversations this morning. I guess a lot of hams are home.

 

[Boombox]

Earlier today, the only readable signals (12:00A local to around 1:15P local Pacific Time, between 2000-2115 or so UTC) were VOA to Korea from Tinang on 9800 and Korean from Thailand on 9575 kHz; VOA in Kirundi on 11660 kHz (Vatican / Sta Maria De Galeria) and VOA in Hausa from Botswana (11830 & 11850 kHz) on 25 M as well. I didn't check the ham bands. 11765, NHK in Japanese to the Middle East was audible but not readable (2025 UTC).