Welcome


Hello and welcome to my blog.

My wife and I relocated to Mangawhai, Northland, New Zealand - just over 100 km north of Auckland in July of 2018. Whilst not as active as I would like to be, this is a record of what I have been hearing.

Monday 29 March 2021

Loggings for mid-late March

FreqTime UTCDetails
5700749USA, KVI Seattle WA in the mix // website - fair/ poor with red neck, sorry red eye radio //website. SMF 24/3
6900937USA, KHNR mixed with another - at fair strength.Mixed but dominant SMF 24/3
7100734USA, Unknown - either KSPN or KIRO with ESPN sports talk and ids. Nothing definitive. Fair/ poor SMF 24/3
7600747HAWAII, KGU Honolulu presumed with business talk. Fair/poor Bad splash 756. SMF 17/3
8300745HAWAII, KHVH Honolulu fair/ good with news and talk. SMF 17/3
8500906HAWAII, KHLO fair with relig song but mixed possibly with KOA. 16/3
8600810MEXICO, XEMO, Tijuana poor but clear in SS with religous message. // web SMF 11/3
8700743USA, WWL possibly with sports talk. Fair at best. SMF 17/3
9100738USA, KKSF San Fran fair/ poor in mix // website. It may be mixed with KOXR with SS mx. SMF 17/3
9100705USA, KECR El Cajon CA fair/poor with mx over talk // website SMF
9600745USA, KNEW Oakland fair/ poor with business talk // website. 16/3 SMF
9600702USA, KALE, Richmond WA up occasionally with mx cofirmed as // to web. SS station in the mix possibly XEHK in Gaudalajara?? KNEW and CFAC nowhere to be seen. SMF 11/3
11700757USA, KLOK San Jose fair/ good with Indian vocals but fading and mixed with KFAQ. SMF 17/3
12700740HAWAII, KNDI fair/ poor with talk in an island language. Mixed with KVMI with song identified from website SMF 25/3
14600908USA, KION, Salinas fair with C to C. SMF 25/3
14900959COLOMBIA, HJBS Emisora Punto Cinco, Bogotá - poor with id. SMF 27/3
15800818USA, KBLA Sta Monica with a good/ fair signal. Relig message and mentions of California. One of the easiest Yanks to hear. SMF 17/3

 I am particularly pleased with the logging on 1490 HJBS Emisora Punto Cinco. It was about the only thing showing up on the evening. 

Conditions have been quite noisy.

Tuesday 16 March 2021

A Shortwave Verie

 There has been a hobby broadcaster on the air in Australia recently - Bay Islands Radio 5045 kHz - licensed, I might add. They are based near the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Shannon is the contact I have and he said he didn't know if they would ever be on air permanently. In the meantime, they are pumping out the sound in the evenings and it is coming in pretty well to Mangawhai. 

I sent a report last evening and back came the verie this morning.  The email address to use is: islandradio88@gmail.com

Thanks to bryan Clark for the info.

Wednesday 10 March 2021

A Shortwave Logging

 This morning (March 10 - UTC time) I had great pleasure in listening to the VoA broadcasting on 11720 kHz at 2100 UTC. The program was destined for West Africa, but appears to have slipped over the continent and gone 3/4 the way round the world to Mangawhai. It was a program of modern popular music. I have sent a report so await a reply with interest. Does the VoA still QSL?

Tuesday 9 March 2021

MW Loggings Early March

 I have had some problems with my EWE antenna and the cable running to it. Thanks to the good services of Paul Ormandy in Oamaru, I have a new cable. I got home fromwork last ngiht, installed the cable only to discover that the aerial didn't work on MW - but it did on SW. Closer investigation revealed that the earth wire had come adrift at one end. Once that was connected, away I went.

What I heard follows. I should point out that the X-Band stations heard on 3/3 were caught on the NZRDXL's Mangawhai SDR, located at the home of my good friend, Bryan Clark.

I am using an AirSpy HF+ Discovery, which seems to work very well. I would like ot be using my WinRadio G33 DDC Excalibur, but alas it is not well and WinRadio want to charge $400+ AUD just to open it up. That's without the courier postage. It was cheaper to buy a new radio - literally. 

The AirSpy HF+ Discovery is a good radio and on the SDR Sharp software performs well. I am not running the latest version (1810), rather the one before - 1790 from memory.

Anyway here are my loggings:

FreqTime UTCDetails
14100831CANADA, CFTE fair but suffered splash from 1413. SMF 9/39/3
14900740ECUADOR, R Sta Maria - fair/ poor mixed with others. // website but not dominant. 9/3 SMF9/3
14900743COLOMBIA, HJZB La Voz de los Robles, Tulua - fair and mixed with others. Mx prgm - confirmed by web // 9/3 SMF9/3
15500727USA, KRPI, Ferndale, WA fair with Hindi vocals. Fading in and out. Fair/ Good when "in"! SMF 9/39/3
15700713HAWAII, KUAU fair/ good with religious talk. SMF 9/39/3
16000720USA, KVRI, Blaine, WA good with Indian singing and axmnts. SMF 9/39/3
16200750CUBA, R Rebelde fair/ good with Latin mx. Dominant on freq.// website 3/3 SMF3/3
16500755MEXICO, XEARZ Mexico City // website, but fair/poor mixed with two others - one a vocals stn (sounded SS), another US stn had ads in EE and had religious talk prior to them. Unknown. 3/3 SMF3/3

I was very pleased to hear the Ecuadorian and the Colombian. They were not dominant, but each had music that was quite distinctive and with the web feed quite identifiable.

Thursday 4 March 2021

A Shortwave Logging

 I had the pleasure of listening to Rádio Nacional da Amazônia's DRM broadcast on March 3rd on the frequency of 11910 at 0213 UTC.

The receiver was the NZRDXL SDR based in Mangawhai, connected to a 5m EWE. It was a very good and clear signal until a thunder storm arrived and then the signal deteriorated badly, unsurprisingly.

I have sent a report and will be interested to see if they reply.