A New Logging and a Verie (updated 4 July 2017)

I went hunting for All India Radio MW stations last night but got more than I bargained for. There was no sign of AIR on 567. Instead I recorded a good segment of RTHK 3 567 kHz out of Hong Kong. It was a very good signal but was rather 'fluttery' (pulsating) in its nature. Nevertheless the strength of the signal was very good and there was a very good id as well as lots of readily identifiable songs.

This is hopefully a sound file of what I heard at 1759 UTC

I use the iPhone app Shazam to help with the songs.

I think I verified this station back in 2004, but I cannot remember and so I have sent them another (email) report.

4 July 2017 - a verie just came into my inbox - signed by Elsa Ng.

I will add a new posting when the verification card comes.

A New Logging

I recorded 720 overnight and came up with a pleasant surprise - I logged RRI Ambon Pro Satu on 720 kHz. It was broadcasting out of hours and featured the takbir prayers. The signal was of pretty good quality. I have sent a report via their Facebook site, so fingers are crossed.

This is a link to what was heard. This was recorded at approximately 1859 UTC.

A new logging

Last evening conditions on MW were good. The bottom end of the band was quiet until about 1300 UTC when the noise came back, and for once it was not the neighbour! There were interesting signals on 531, but nothing that could be identified clearly.

As a consequence I tuned up the band and landed on Myanma Radio 576. The signal was very good, as you would expect for a 200 kw signal. I heard a news/ current affairs type program. There were mentions of Myanmar

A report has been sent to nptradio.eng@gmail.com, which is where my Myanmar Radio SW QSL came from. Hopefully a reply will be forthcoming.

A new verie via Facebook!

I managed to get Radio Deus é Amor 9565 back via Facebook. It wasn't easy to find an email address, so I sent a couple of reports to Facebook, written in my best Portuguese via Google Translate. I got a reply asking what I wanted. The answer was simple - confirmation that my report was correct. They duly obliged.

Broadcast Trail

As a result of some listening that Paul Ormandy and I undertook, this is a short trail of what was heard.

Freq	Country	Time UTC	Details
531	CHINA	1326	Mixed - fair but noisy
558	PHILIPPINES	1730	DZXL - vg with sunrise peak. Music and clear announcement
558	BANGLADESH	1658	Some music and talk in Bangla. IDs given and time pips on the hour.
630	VIETNAM	1630	VOV1 - fair/ poor signal at best.
657	NTH KOREA	1631	Pyongyang fair/ poor with talk
693	CHINA	1333	Presumed Xiangyang fair with talk
711	VIETNAM	2250	VOV1 via Thoi Long - vg with VV talk.
720	UNKNOWN	1334	China or Korea fair with talk but fading.
783	VIETNAM	1335	VOV2 via Thoi Long fair with talk
801	INDONESIA	1337	RRI Medan - very good signal
891	UNKNOWN	1338	Unknown - huge carrier with some talking beneath.
918	CAMBODIA	1340	Likely to be Cambodia with singing and ethnic instruments. Vg sig
1080	THAILAND	1342	Fair with talk
1287	INDONESIA	1344	RRI Pelambang - excellent with prayers
1350	PHILIPPINES	1342	DWUN probable with talk. Fair at best.
1413	PHILIPPINES	1313	DWRA up with talk. Regular fades. Fair at best
1467	UNKNOWN	1315	2 stations mixed - couldn't identify
1476	INDONESIA	1320	R RHK Bandung, Central Java fair with religious singing - lots of noise
1503	TAIWAN	1321	Very good signal from RTI with music. Some fading
1521	INDONESIA	1323	RRI Bukittingi - vg with talk.
1530	PHILIPPINES	1323	DZME poor with talk
1557	TAIWAN	1324	1557 Music Interactive Network , RTI vg with music
1575	THAILAND	1325	Not there at 1325!

A visitor and a logging

We had the pleasure of Paul and Linda Ormandy's company over the past weekend. For those who do not know Paul is a MW guru, the best ever NZ DXer of Latins and an aerial expert.

The first thing that was done was to convert my 3m EWE into a 4m EWE. The result was more gain immediately.

We had a good DX session at night and the result was a logging of DZXL on 558 in Manilla. It was heard from 1700 UTC with the morning sunrise peak to excellent levels. We got a full idea as well as a lot of very identifiable music tracks.

DZXL was mixed with an Aussie or two - probably 6WA in Wagin Western Australia and 4AM in Atherton, Queensland. 4GY shares the frequency, but is more of a music station. I would go for 6WA of the two. It was very good at times. Another analysis of the recording will reveal more.

In addition I also managed to log Bangladesh Betar also on 558. It was earlier in the evening.

I am definitely happy with the signal gain form the improved antenna.

I will post a trail of what was heard.

A new logging 

I had some time the other day so I tuned in to the DX League's SDR receiver and logged Radio Difusora Roraima on 4875 in Boa Vista, Brazil. Reception was good with the signal rated at S4 I5 N4 P4 O4. The programme was Gospel in nature with a lot of talk, some music, which was identifiable thanks to Shazam on my iPhone and the odd mention of Brazil. I now hope that I might get a verie from them.

Receivers I Have Owned

This is a further exercise in self-indulgence.

When I began DXing I was 14 years of age. I came from a family with little money but we did have a kitchen radio I could use – a Phillips Cordless Continental – a model used so well by Sutton Burtenshaw down in Southland.

I could sit in bed at night and without an external antenna I could log the Aussie ABC stations at the bottom end of the band. I thought hearing the likes of 2CR was exotic. My first verie from Aussie was 2KM on 530 kHz.

A little later an elderly neighbour up the road gave me an old valve radio to use. I have no idea what make it was but it came from Britain – the dial gave that away and it basically didn’t have a cabinet. My father being a builder built me a cabinet and mounted the speaker. It was hooked up to a thick piece of bare wire which went up through a hole in the ceiling and was connected to some chicken mesh under the corrugated iron roof. Surprisingly I heard quite a bit on that.

The problem was that we lived less than a mile from the NZBC masts in Henderson. But in those days you could expect some splash around 1070, 760, 880 and 1250 (1ZM at the time) and that was it. Everything else was fine. I even built my first loop. Problem was I stripped the covering off the wire meaning that the strands crossed to the next loop and shorted the whole thing out. Why did I strip the wire off? I have no idea – nobody said I shouldn’t! Years later I made a loop that actually worked and I could then see what all the fuss was about!

My father bought me a new radio when the old one finally packed in. It was a radio he found goodness knows where that had come out of a Wellington bomber. It worked very well and I heard a lot on that too – all on the AM bands of course. He went crazy and bought me a ZC1 as well. With that I did quite a bit of tropical band DXing and heard all sorts of interesting things.

Once I finished university I was given a Barlow Wadley XCR 30 by Bryan Clark. This was a difficult radio to operate, but the rewards were great. From that I moved to a National Panasonic DR28. This was a gem of a radio and on this I heard many very good stations. I finished after 4 years at my first school and went on a trip to the UK. On the way home to New Zealand I stopped off in Singapore and in Orchard Road I bought a DR31 because I thought it would be an improvement. What a load of rubbish – it was hopeless. I regretted giving my DR28 to a friend. My DXing went backwards. I remember being at the Auckland Convention at Whangaparoa and being staggered at what I couldn’t hear compared to what those who had decent sets were hearing.

I lasted with the DR 31 for a few more years as I couldn’t afford anything else. I then moved to the UK and a new radio came onto the market. I was determined to have it and so I purchased an AOR7030 at £600+. When I returned to New Zealand I had it upgraded to an AOR7030+ and I have it still. Nothing has been proved to be better.

I had the opportunity to purchase a Drake SPR4 off Paul Ormandy. This is just as good as the AOR except the sound quality is very bassy. However, Bill Marsh has invented a circuit board which overcomes this. He has promised me one, so we shall see how it goes.

Being one who likes new things I recently managed to purchase a WinRadio G313e relatively cheaply, but unused. This is a Software Defined Radio (SDR) and it works as well as the AOR. The only problem with it being that it can only record one channel at a time. I live in a very noisy location and so I cannot get a truly reliable guide as to what can or cannot be heard.

Having spent time listening at Bryan Clark’s in Mangawhai I am sold on the WinRadio SDRs and my plan is very shortly to purchase an Excalibur receiver, like Bryan’s. The quality of reception, the things you can do to enhance reception and its recording capabilities make it a very attractive option. That should see me done for life!

The point to make about all this is that while a good radio is important, it is how you listen that is more important. A good listener combined with a good receiver has the world at his/ her fingertips – literally.

A new logging

Despite local noise - and there is a lot of it - I managed to log AIR 11560 via Aligarh at 0302 UTC broadcasting in Dari. It was a program of talk, prayers and music. Initially the signal was not great; however, listening in DSB with a filter width of 6kHz the signal; settled down and became quite good. In SINPO I would assess it as S4 I5 N4 P5 O4