The bands are open! Make time to listen.

Sony-ICF-SW100-Outside-Fall

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.

Sony-ICF-SW100-Outside-2

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.

Spread the radio love

9 thoughts on “The bands are open! Make time to listen.

  1. Thomas Post author

    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

    Reply
  2. Thomas Post author

    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

    Reply
  3. Mario Filippi

    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.

    Reply
  4. princehifi

    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.

    Reply
  5. Thomas Post author

    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?

    Reply

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