Though I’ve spent the entire day sawing and splitting firewood, I’ve been actively recording spectrum on the 31, 25, 19 and 16 meter bands with the WinRadio Excalibur, Elad FDM-S2 and the SDRplay RSP. Why? Propagation–especially on the higher bands–has been the best it’s been in several weeks.
As I discovered at the recent SWLing Post DXpedition, my shack PC can handle making multiple spectrum recordings simultaneously as long as I limit each recording to the width of a broadcast band. (I’ve never tried pushing the limit very hard.) Someday in the future–perhaps when we’re having terrible propagation–I’ll play those spectrum recordings back and tune through them as if they were live.
Radio time travel at its best.
When I decided to throw in the towel with all of the firewood processing, I fired up the Sony ICF-SW100 (above) and tuned in a game on 17,855 kHz: Radio Exterior de España.
The REE signal was simply booming into eastern North America!
Hard to break away from the radio on days like this.
My advice? Take advantage of these conditions and make time to listen!
For me, SWLing a great excuse to relax and let me back heal after a long day of splitting wood. For some, perhaps it’s a good excuse to take the radio outdoors and away from urban interference. Whatever the excuse, don’t hesitate to fire up your radio!
There are some interesting stations on the bands this evening. Feel free to comment with some you’ve logged.
Tonight (20 October 2015 at 00:00 UTC) on 31 meters:
9395 WRMI English
9420 VOG–Helliniki Radiophonia Greek
9450 Athmeeya Yatra Radio Bagri
9475 WTWW English
9490 Radio Republica Spanish
9510 Voice of Islamic Republic Iran Arabic
9520 Radio Romania International Romanian
9535 Radio Habana Cuba Spanish
9550 Voice of Islamic Republic Iran Spanish
9560 China Radio International Portuguese
9570 China Radio International English
9575 Radio Mediterranee International Arabic
9590 China Radio International Spanish
9630 Radio Aparecida Portuguese
9660 Radio Taiwan International Chinese
9665 Radio Voz Missionaria Portuguese
9710 China Radio International (Portuguese) and RHC (Spanish)
9730 Radio Romania International English
9740 Radio Sultanate Oman (?) Arabic
9755 BBC English
9785 Adventist World Radio Karen
9800 China Radio International Spanish
9810 BBC Bengali
9820 Radio 9 de Julho Portuguese
9855 Voice of America Tibetan
9870 AIR New Delhi Hindi
9880 Voice of America Chinese
9900 TWR India Bhojpuri
9935 UNID Music Jamming
9955 WRMI English
9965 Radio Cairo Arabic (strong signal, bad audio)
9975 KVOH English
10000 WWV Fort Collins and BPM China
17855 coming in SUPER strong, wow. UTC 21:24 in NYC.
Radio Exterior de España
Propagation continues to please!
Some loggings from this morning (1300 UTC):
11550 EWTN (WEWN) Spanish
11580 WRMI English
11595 UNID
11600 Denge Kurdistana Kurdish
11620 AIR New Delhi English (weak)
11640 Radio Taiwan International Chinese
11675 China Radio International Hindi (weak)
11685 NHK World Radio Japan Bengali (weak)
11730 UNID Chinese
11730 BBC English
11775 Caribbean Beacon English
11785 Voice of America Chinese
11825 Overcomer English
11860 RHC Spanish
11880 Voice of Turkey(?) Kazakh(?)
11890 Vatican Radio Vietnamese (weak)
11900 China Radio International English
11910 China Radio International English
11915 Radio Gaucha Portuguese (vy weak)
11950 Radio Habana Cuba Spanish
11965 Voice of Turkey Russian(?) (weak)
11990 Voice of America Korean
12035 Voice of America (Deewa Radio) Pashto (weak)
12055 TWR India Bondo
12065 Radio Australia English
12075 Reach Beyond Australia (HCJB) Hindi
12085 Radio Australia English
12160 TWR India Hindi
Some very good loggings, Thomas. Well with the cooler weather, a harbinger of fall and winter, the bands should be getting better for listening. It is time for us to retire to the solitude of the shack, fire up the rig, don the headset, and spin the dials hi hi.
Listening to baseball game DX on 1520 khz right now. Will try SW later on. Afedri SDR and Wellbrook ALA-100M up in a tree.
A few from the logs, starting at at 2100 UTC:
11660 China Radio International French
11670 All India Radio English
11710 China National Radio 1 Chinese
11760 Radio Habana Cuba Spanish (though no audio at the moment 2103 UTC)
11780 Radio Nacional da Brasilia Portuguese
11800 Voice of Islamic Republic Iran Spanish (weak)
11820 Radio Riyadh Arabic
11840 Radio Habana Cuba Spanish (still strong carrier, no audio 2105 UTC)
11910 NHK World Radio Japan Japanese
11915 Radio Riyadh Arabic (and a little Radio Gaucha in background)
11955 Adventist World Radio English
12040 KSDA-AWR Guam Chinese (weak)
12050 EWTN (WEWN) Spanish
12105 WTWW French
Also UNID on 11570 kHz: lots of music and good signal. Maybe Radio Free Chosun?
These are the good times when the bands are really nice to cruise….thanks. And nice SW100!
It’s a welcome event when propagation is favorable! Hope you’re catching some good DX, Dan!