Category Archives: Guest Posts

A shortwave mystery on the 45th Parallel

Don Moore’s Photo Album: Museum Findings – World War II

Along US Highway 550 in southwest Colorado

Don Moore’s Photo Album
Museum Findings: World War II

by Don Moore

More of Don’s traveling DX stories can be found in his book Tales of a Vagabond DXer.

Learning should be a life-long pursuit for all of us. One of my ways of doing that is by visiting museums while traveling, whether in the USA or abroad. Cultural, historical, and science museums are my favorites. And if a museum’s theme includes the 20th century, there is a good chance that something related to radio will be found in the collection. In this edition of the Photo Album I want to share some findings related to radio and World War II that I’ve recently found in museums here in the USA.

Do A-Bombs QSL?

I’m based in Pennsylvania but my daughter lives in western Colorado and my son in Texas. So in September and October of 2024 I made a 45-day road trip to visit them both and see sites along the way. One stop was Santa Fe, New Mexico. The New Mexico History Museum downtown has an excellent exhibit on the development of the Atomic Bomb and the effect on the local area. The real place to learn about this, however, is an hour north of the city at Los Alamos, where the project actually happened.

In addition to the historical sites, Los Alamos has one of the best science museums I’ve been to anywhere. That’s not surprising considering that not many places have as many scientists per capita as Los Alamos does. And there I learned that radio was closely involved in dropping the first A-Bomb on Hiroshima.

The scientists at Los Alamos developed two types of atomic bombs. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima used a uranium-gun to initiate the explosion. The scientists were certain this would work so this was not tested beforehand. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki used the second method with a with a plutonium-implosion as the trigger. But they were uncertain as to whether or not this would actually work so it had already been tested in the New Mexico desert in July 1945. That was the first atomic explosion and the scientists collected lots of useful measurements.

But the developers had no such measurements for the uranium-gun bomb as it hadn’t been tested. But how to get them? They obviously couldn’t place monitors on the ground at Hiroshima beforehand. Physicist Luis Alvarez was tasked with finding a solution. Alvarez’s team built three canisters filled with monitoring equipment and VHF transmitters to be carried by The Great Artiste, the observation plane that would accompany the Enola Gay to Hiroshima. The three canisters were to be dropped by parachute at the same moment that the Enola Gay dropped the bomb.

The signals from the canisters were to be picked up by a bank of Hallicrafters S-36 VHF receivers on the plane and then feed to oscillographs to record the results, which would simultaneously be recorded by movie cameras.

It all worked according to plan and data was received from two of the three canisters before they were engulfed by the explosion. But, to the best of my knowledge, no QSLs were issued for the receptions.

The WASP Museum

My next destination after Santa Fe was San Antonio, Texas, 700 miles (1100 kilometers) away. To make the road trip more interesting I wanted to find some things to see along the way. While perusing Google Maps I came across the National WASP World War II Museum in Sweetwater, Texas. The museum has nothing to do with insects. The acronym stands for Women’s Airforce Service Pilots.

The use of women pilots in support roles to the US Army Air Force began in 1942 with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). In 1943 the two programs were merged to form the WASP program and the airfield at Sweetwater was chosen for the four-month training program. In total, 1,830 women started WASP training and 1,074 finished, about the same success rate as with male military pilots of the era. Continue reading →

Dan Revisits Radio Japan: A Half-Century Later

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who shares:

Running into an old friend

Hi Thomas

I was doing some random tuning on shortwave this evening using the KiwiSDR at VK2ATZ in New South Wales, Australia, when I came upon a repeating music box-like tune on 13705 kHz that I thought had a familiar sound to it. It was like running into someone who you hadn’t seen in many years and trying to place where you knew them from. Yes, the sound was a bit different, perhaps even a little slower (age does that ?), but then it came to me, could it be Radio Japan, the overseas service of NHK? A quick check at Short-Wave.info revealed this was indeed NHK World Radio.

It felt like I had found an old friend, one that I knew from my high school days over a half century ago. Still recognizable after all those years, and it felt good to know that they are still around.

Attached are two recordings:

Radio Japan, interval signal and bilingual ID, as heard in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada on 9505 kHz in 1970:

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NHK World Radio, interval signal and sign on in Thai on 13705 kHz, January 23, 2025 at 2300Z (via VK2ATZ KiwiSDR):

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Dan Greenall
London, Ontario, Canada

Thermometers at the ready please

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Hi to all SWLing Post community! FastRadioBurst 23 here with news of this week’s Imaginary Stations shortwave output.

On Saturday 25th January 2025 at 1200 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and also on Sunday 26th January 2025 at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2100 UTC on 3975 kHz via Shortwave Gold we’ll be bringing you WARM 3 (which was broadcast on WRMI last week if you missed it) a continuation of tunes to heat you up during this winter period (if it is winter where you are). So hitch up the huskies, take off your snowshoes, grab that USB powered hot water bottle and enjoy some great tunes. You can be assured there won’t be any lukewarm songs on the show, they’ll all either be hot or just below boiling.

Feeling cold or feeling run down with a cold? Well on Wednesday January 29th January 2025 at 0300 UTC via WRMI we have WARM 4 with tunes hotter than a thermal vest. Tune in and WARM up! More on our WARM shows here.

For more information on all our shows, please write to imaginarystations@gmail.com and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

Carlos Explores Japan’s Radio Nikkei: A Unique Shortwave Listening Experience from Brazil

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Carlos Latuff, who shares the following guest post:

Exploring Radio Radio Nikkei

by Carlos Latuff

It’s been a while since I listened to Nikkei Radio, a Japanese commercial broadcaster that operates on shortwave for a domestic audience. If I remember well, the signal was very weak and, since I don’t speak Japanese, I didn’t know what the content of its broadcasts was about. But today, with the possibility of recording the audio, transcribing it and translating it, it has become more interesting to follow its programs on shortwave here in Brazil, more specifically in Porto Alegre (distance between Nikkei’s transmitter in Chiba, Japan, and Porto Alegre, Brazil: 18779 km).

Nikkei Radio 1 was founded in 1954 and Nikkei 2 in 1963, and at the time it was called Nihon Shortwave Broadcasting Co., better known by the acronym “NSB”. Some Japanese electronics manufacturers have in the past released receivers dedicated to receiving the signal from these stations (see below).

Today, the Japanese company Audiocomm has radio models whose packaging states that this receiver is compatible with Nikkei Radio; note the image alluding to horse racing (see below).

I haven’t been able to acquire any of these devices (yet), since they were basically produced for the Japanese public. But any receiver with shortwave bands can tune into Radio Nikkei. I use my good old XHDATA D-808 with a long wire antenna. In Porto Alegre, the best propagation is between 08:45 AM and 06:15 AM (UTC). In the late afternoon, the signal also arrives, but with a fair amount of static.

Both Radio Nikkei 1 and Radio Nikkei 2 operate on the following frequencies:

Radio Nikkei 1:

3.925 MHz (in case of emergency)
6.055 MHz
9.595 MHz (in case of emergency)

Radio Nikkei 2:

3.945 MHz (in case of emergency)
6.115 MHz
9.76 MHz: (in case of emergency)

On the station’s website https://www.radionikkei.jp/ you can find details of its programming, as well as broadcast times, including a table (in Japanese) with this information, which can be translated with the help of Google Lens.

Radio Nikkei also broadcasts its programming via streaming, however the platform used (radiko) is inaccessible to me here in Brazil (see message below).

Nikkei Radio is majority-owned by the business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which means the station focuses mainly on the financial market. However, much of its programming, especially on weekends, is dedicated to horse racing, a popular sport in Japan. In addition to news, talk shows and music, the radio station also broadcasts evangelical preaching (!). One of these religious programs is called “True Salvation” and is sponsored by The Japan Gospel Mission, a Christian Protestant organization.

This heterogeneous mix of business, horses and Jesus Christ makes Nikkei Radio an interesting station to tune into, to say the least.

The radio listening sessions published here were made in the central Porto Alegre, Brazil, between January 15th and 19th, 2025.

(Domo arigato gozai masu Mr. Tagawa Shigeru for helping me with translation).

Click here to view on YouTube.

Video Short: Tuning In Radio Nikkei 1

Part of Radio Nikkei 1 program “Health Network”, in Japanese. Topic: Winter diet and health. Listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Unlocking Rare DX Treasures with SDR-Console’s Powerful Data File Analyzer Tool

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Finding Rare DX with the Data File Analyzer

By Don Moore

Don’s DX traveling stories can be found in his book Tales of a Vagabond DXer.

I’ve been a real jack-of-all-trades in my over five decades of DXing. I began with SWBC (shortwave broadcast) but soon branched out to medium wave and voice utility. Later I added longwave beacons and more recently I’ve gotten into digital utility stations. My goal has always been to log lots of different stations from lots of different places. And the rarer they are, the better.

For SWBC and medium wave stations, as well as scheduled utility broadcasts such as marine and aeronautical weather reports, the DXing process is simple. You tune to a frequency at a time when a station is scheduled to be on the air. It’s either there or it’s not there. If it’s not there then maybe propagation isn’t right or maybe your antenna/receiver setup isn’t the best for that frequency band or the station’s power level. You tune away to find something else with plans to try again another day.

But it’s not always that easy. Most utility stations do not have fixed schedules and only come on as needed. The best example of that is two-way marine, aeronautical, and military voice communications.

In eastern North America, tune to 8906 kHz anytime from late afternoon until morning and set your receiver to USB mode. You’ll probably hear empty static at first but it’s unlikely that more than ten or fifteen minutes will pass before you’ve heard some aeronautical traffic. The frequency is assigned for communication on the North Atlantic and is heavily used by aircraft communicating with New York Radio, Gander Radio (Newfoundland, Canada), and Shanwick Radio (Shannon, Ireland). If you keep listening, the frequency will probably be occupied around 25% of the time. Wherever you are in the world, there are a few heavily used air frequencies like 8906 kHz and listening to them can be fascinating. But I want to log more than just a few easily heard stations.

Sticking to aeronautical DX, there are many assigned frequencies for different regions and air routes around the world. But propagation to those distant areas is unpredictable and less-used routes have fewer flights. Fewer flights mean less radio communication and more empty static. The most interesting frequencies may only see traffic a few times a week.

Hearing the rarest voice utility DX requires listening to lots of empty static just to get a brief DX catch. For years my process was simple. I would set my receiver to an interesting frequency and leave the tape recorder running while I sat nearby listening and doing something productive. I got some very good DX over the years that way. But I don’t want to think about how many long hours of empty static I listened to in order to get that DX.

SDRs offered some improvement. Instead of audibly monitoring a specific frequency I could now make a spectrum recording that included a band of interest, say the 8815 to 9040 aeronautical band. During playback I could visually monitor the SDR waterfall for interesting signals. That works. But watching an SDR waterfall scroll by for three or four hours gets tedious quickly.

(When I refer to SDRs, I mean ones consisting of a small box that is connected to and controlled from a computer using a software program. None of this applies to models such as the Malachite line or the Icom IC-R8600, which use SDR technology inside but mostly function as a traditional receiver.)

Finding a Better Way

That better way is, I think, one of the most exciting DX tools out there – the Data File Analyzer in the SDR-Console program. Since I learned about it a few years ago, the Analyzer has gotten me all kinds of catches that I probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Let’s start with an overview and then dig into the how-to.

SDR-Console is one of the better-known SDR programs and it works well with most of the common SDR radios on the market, including the Airspy, Elad, Perseus, and SDR-Play models. Here’s what the main window looks like:

The Data File Analyzer is a second window that produces a scrollable waterfall display for the entire length of an SDR spectrum recording. The display is similar to a standard waterfall with frequencies along the bottom and times along the side. However, there is also a scroll bar on the right side for browsing through the entire length of the recording. Instead of watching a four-hour spectrum recording slowly roll by in real time, I can scroll through the window looking for DX.

And this is what makes the Data Analyzer really useful. When I spot an interesting signal, I click on it and that causes the main window to start playing at that time and frequency. Now going through a four-hour spectrum recording takes from a few minutes to around half an hour, depending on how much DX I find.

Here’s a closeup of part of that same screen of spectrum recording made on 24 October 2024 at a DXpedition in western Pennsylvania, USA.

“A” marks a short exchange between an aircraft and Ndjamena Radio in Chad on 8894 kHz. “B” is Niamey Radio in Niger on 8903 kHz. “C” is Gander Radio on 8891 kHz. Just to the left of that is a string of digital signals. “D” is New York Radio on 8918 kHz. Again, there is a string of digital signals just to the left. Finally, “E” is communication from Dakar Radio in Senegal and Sal Radio in the Cape Verde Islands on 8861 kHz. I caught four African aero stations in just four-and-a-half minutes. I could also show you long stretches of time when there was nothing interesting coming in. With the Data File Analyzer I was able to visually find and focus on the DX and not waste my time with the empty static.

Here’s another image taken at the same DXpedition. Notice the three transmissions between 8820 to 8845 that seem to be mirroring one other.

That turned out to be Flightwatch Brisbane, the Australian regional aeronautical network. It uses multiple transmitter sites on 8822, 8831, and 8843 kHz to cover the entire country. I had never logged it before and I doubt I would have found it if DXing in the traditional manner.

The How-To

Here I’m going to assume that you already have SDR-Console installed and know the basics of how to use it, including making spectrum recordings. (If not, see the links at the end.) This article was written using version 3.4 of SDR-Console. Some of the functionalities described are not in earlier versions, so upgrade if you are not up to date. And I should point out that while you can do this on a single monitor, it works more smoothly if you have a dual monitor setup and can put each window on a different screen. Continue reading →

Bridging Two Worlds: Shortwave Listening Meets Amateur Radio

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When the SWL and Amateur Radio hobbies meet

by Dan Greenall

Many of us who are also amateur radio operators, got their start in the hobby through simply listening to shortwave radio, or perhaps, to stations in the AM or FM broadcast bands. I suppose it is then inevitable that these two hobbies are bound to connect with each other from time to time. Here are a few examples of this that relate to my experiences.

In 1972, while doing a random band scan on shortwave, I came across a point-to-point radio station from Managua, Nicaragua that was transmitting a repeating test message (recording attached below):

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The station was operated by the Tropical Radio Telegraph Company and I sent off a reception report in hopes of receiving a QSL from them. As luck would have it, the Plant Engineer, Guenter G. Zaenker, responded with a friendly letter including some details about their transmitter power and antennas used.

A couple of years later, when I got my amateur radio licence (VE3HLC), my SWL activities took a back seat to ham radio for a while. In 1978, I received a QSL for a contact with station YN1Z in Managua who turned out to be none other than Guenther G. Zaenker.

I worked Guenter for a final time as TG9XGV in Guatemala City, Guatemala. How is that for completing a hat trick!

Shortly after receiving my amateur radio ticket in 1974, I made a contact with station PJ9BN, Jack Van Sciver on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles.

It turns out he worked at Trans World Radio, a broadcaster I had listened to regularly on the SWBC bands and it was quite exciting to discover this connection. Attached is a link to a recording I made of this station that same year as they were concluding a segment of their popular DX Special program:

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https://archive.org/details/trans-world-radio-bonaire

It seems that Jack is still going strong as I recently found this link to his current amateur callsign NA3F: https://www.qrz.com/db/NA3F

A final note, I had made a 2-way contact through the Oscar 6 amateur radio satellite (uplink on 2 metres, downlink on 10 metres) in 1976 with W.G. “George” Roach in Ottawa, Ontario.

Some 11 years later, I was able to pick up station CFMO FM on 93.9 MHz, over 300 miles away, through some great ducting conditions. When I received a QSL from the station, it was signed by W.G. Roach who was the chief engineer at CFMO FM.