Category Archives: What’s On Shortwave

Incredible band openings tonight

X1.6 Solar Flare, sunspot 2158 (source: Solar Ham)

After an X class solar flare that caused a serious HF radio black-out earlier today, we’ve been rewarded with superb radio conditions this evening in North America.

This is, perhaps, one of the best temporary band openings I’ve experienced this year. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance an incoming CME could wipe out the bands again in the next 12-24 hours. Check out the forecast here: http://www.solarham.net/

But who cares? The following are just some of the stations I logged on 25 and 31 meters this evening. Note that I didn’t include all of the weak stations I could hear and I also omitted many CRI, RHC, and religious broadcasts:

Starting 22:00 UTC on 25 meters

11780 RN da Amazonia
11810 KBS World Radio
11820 Radio Riyadh
11855 Radio Aparecida
11880 RHC French
11915 Radio Riyadh
11930 Radio Marti
11940 Radio Romania International
11965 RHC? (French)
12050 EWTN (WEWN)

Starting 23:00 UTC on 31 meters

9420 Voice of Iran
9535 Radio Exterior de Espana
9575 Radio Mediterranee International
9620 Radio Exterior de Espana
9645 Radio Bandeirantes
9665 Radio Voz Missionaria (with WRM from other broadcasters)
9740 Radio Romania International (Spanish)
9765 Radio Romania International
9795 FEBC Radio (under heavy QRM)
9850 Radio Tirana
9855 Radio Australia
9875 Radio Free Asia (Tibetan)
9900 (RA?) English
9965 Radio Cairo
10000 WWV

Staring 00:00 UTC on 31 meters

9420 Voice of Iran, then ERT Open (VOG)
9500 Radio Sultanate of Oman
9520 Radio Romania International (Romanian)
9535 Radio Exterior de Espana
9550 Radio Boa Ventade
9570 China Radio International English
9530 Radio Transmundial
9620 Radio Exterior de Espana
9630 China National Radio 1
9645 Radio Bandeirantes
9665 Radio Voz Missionaria
9690 All India Radio
9700 Radio Romania International
9710 China Radio International (Portuguese)
9730 Adventist World Radio (Burmese)
9800 China Radio International (Spanish)
9810 Radio Havana Cuba
9820 Radio 9 de Julho
9880 Voice of America (Chinese)
9930 The Overcomer Ministry
9955 Radio Marti ?
9965 Radio Cairo
10000 WWV

Staring at 01:00 UTC on 25 meters

11580 The Overcomer Ministry
11590 NHK Radio Japan (Hindi)
11620 All India Radio (Urdu)
11640 Radio Free Asia (Uyghur)
11650 China Radio International (Chinese)
11670 Radio Havana Cuba (Spanish)
11695 Radio Free Asia (Tibetan) ? QRM from another station
11711 Radio Argentina Exterior
11730 Vatican Radio (Tamil)
11740 All India Radio (Sinhala)
11760 Radio Havana Cuba (Spanish)
11765 Radio Tupi – Super Radio Deus e Amor
11780 RN da Brasilia
11815 Radio Brasil Central
11825 The Overcomer Ministry
11840 Radio Havana Cuba (Spanish)
11855 Radio Aparecida
11870 EWTN – WEWN (Spanish)
11905 Sri Lanka BC (English/Hindi)
11925 Radio Bandeirantes
11945 Radio Free Asia (Uyghur) & jamming noise
11955 Radio Romania International (French)
11980 China Radio International (Amoy) – vy faint
11995 BBC (Hindi) vy faint
12005 Voice of Vietnam (English)
12020 Voice of America – Deewa Radio (Pashto)
12025 UNID (Spanish / religious)
12070 POssible Radio Cairo behind strong jamming or transmitter noise
12105 WTWW (English)
12115 Radio Free Asia (Burmese)?

Enjoy this opening while it lasts! As my buddy Mike (K8RAT) suggested earlier today, we may be rewarded with further openings if the incoming CME only glances Earth–not probable, but possible.

I’m curious how conditions have been in other parts of the world? If you’ve been enjoying this band opening, please comment with stations you’ve logged.

From Moscow With Love via WRMI

1 Reply

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Tom Ally, who informed me that WRMI is now relaying From Moscow With Love on 9,955 kHz, Mondays at 11:00 PM EDT (Tuesdays, 3:00 UTC).

Many thanks to Jeff White at WRMI for keeping one of my favorite VOR shows on the air.

You can view WRMI’s full schedule for 9,955 kHz by clicking here.

The Mighty KBC is moving to 7,375 kHz

How Tudor enjoys Radio Australia

2 Replies

In response to my recent Radio Australia post, SWLing Post reader, Tudor Vedeanu comments:

“I’ve also enjoyed listening to music on Radio Australia lately. “Saturday Night Country” is currently my favorite show on SW. Here is a recording I made during the weekend:
http://youtu.be/CHv1hu2OVH8“

“And indeed Triple J is very good too. I discovered some nice music from talented people I’ve never heard about in my part of the world.”

Tudor, it appears you (and your pup!) live in a very beautiful part of the world. The Romanian countryside certainly makes for a scenic radio listening backdrop. I, too, am a big fan of Saturday Night Country–great stuff!

Many thanks for sharing!

Radio Australia: SWLing in the Colorado Rockies

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I’m in Keystone, Colorado at about 9,300′ (2,835 M) above sea level; mornings are crisp and chilly (38F/3C), but that doesn’t stop me from putting on a jacket, heading to the balcony and listening to Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz. Despite flaky solar conditions (flaky, frankly, is an understatement) I managed to snag RA Wednesday morning (13:58 UTC) on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR. There was a little fading, and a little local noise, but overall signal quality was quite good.

This recording starts a couple of minutes before the top of the hour; you’ll hear the TOTH news brief and then triple j—a brilliant show dedicated to new Australian music.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Listening to WWV at the source: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

25 Replies

If you haven’t already guessed it: yes, the mystery broadcast site I posted on Thursday was WWV/WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado. Well done, responders! Specifically, the photo shows the southern antennas of WWVB as I departed the site on Thursday, August 28, 2014; for those of you who got that detail, extra credit–!

I’d like to thank the staff at WWV/WWVB for allowing me to visit the site for the better part of the day. WWV is not officially open to tours, so this was a particular honor for me. And this was an especially fun pilgrimage, as WWV was most likely the first shortwave broadcast I ever heard: as I’ve previously noted, when I was a kid my father used to set his watch to WWV every Sunday morning. Now I’ve seen firsthand where that famous tock, tock (and accompanying characteristic tones) originate.

When I return home from my extended travels, I’ll sort through the photos I took at WWV and WWVB, and post them here on the SWLing Post.

Recording WWV

In the meantime, I have a few recordings to share with those who are interested in this mecca of chronology. Before leaving WWV, I pulled out my Tecsun PL-380 and my Zoom H2N digital recorder, and recorded all the WWV broadcast frequencies. I captured their 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and even their recently reactivated 25 MHz signals.

I made these recordings in the conference room at WWVB broadcast house. As you can imagine, it was simply not at all necessary to extend the telescopic antenna. In fact, the signal was so strong, you’ll hear a slight amount of distortion in the voice audio.

Below, you can listen to the recordings of each frequency via the embedded player (click on the title to download the audio). Enjoy!

WWV on 2.5 MHz

WWV on 5 MHz

WWV on 10 MHz

WWV on 15 MHz (includes top of the hour station ID)

WWV on 20 MHz

Up to this point, I used the Tecsun PL-380, but quickly realized that the ‘380 wouldn’t tune to 25 MHz. A quick look at the back of the radio revealed that the ‘380 only tunes up to 21.950 MHz (!). Believe it or not, I’d never noticed this limitation of the PL-380, likely since I rarely tune above 21 MHz for broadcast listening. Learn something new every day…But I couldn’t fail to complete my recordings.

So what did I do? I turned to Matthew Deutch, Chief Engineer at WWV and WWVB, who kindly allowed me to use their Sangean ATS-505 to make the final recording:

WWV on 25 MHz (includes Atlantic and Pacific weather)

SWLing in New Mexico: Radio Australia

1 Reply

This morning, I was very happy to tune to Saturday Night Country on Radio Australia (9,580 kHz). RA’s signal was booming into Taos, New Mexico, where my travels have taken me this Saturday morning.

It was a welcome relief to hear RA; the shortwave bands have been in terrible shape the past three days or so. The ionosphere has been so disturbed that the only broadcasters I’ve been able to hear have been Radio Havana Cuba and a few domestic religious broadcasters.

I hope to take the CommRadio CR-1 out later today and perhaps test a couple of outdoor antennas…Stay tuned!