A Shortwave Verie

 VOA have replied for a report on their transmission on 6080 kHz via Botswana in English. The broadcast was heard on August 10 and the verie received this morning. The address the report was sent to was QSL@usagm.gov

Another Verie

 KSHO 920 kHz in Lebanon, Oregon was heard on August 21 at 0907 UTC, 9.07 pm NZ time. It is a 1 kw station and it poked its head up through the noise for about 20 minutes with a few tunes I was able to identify.

Charlie Eads, President and General Manager was kid enough to verify the report. I also had an email from James Wright, a Marketing Consultant, who had been in NZ for a couple of years as a Mormon missionary: a lovely man and a lovely email.

A Verie

 KYNO (940) in Fresno, CA recently swapped frequencies with KFIG (1430). It now booms in to Mangawhai when the conditions are right. I sent a report not expecting much and was delighted to receive a verification from Jim Roberts who has worked in the Fresno radio scene since 1991. He was originally at KFRE 940. I verified KFRE on 940 back in September 1980! Jim's address is:  Jroberts@OnePuttBroadcasting.com 

SW Loggings

 I didn't realise it had been so long since last I posted to this blog. Life has been busy, I have had problems with my EWEs and I haven't made the time to listen.

However, in a fit of energetic activity this morning, I decided to have a scan of the SW bands. I began at 1800. It is dark here until 1900. The list below is the result of that.

Some people bemoan the fate of SW now that so many international broadcasters have closed. When I began DXing in 1973, you had international broadcasts from the USSR, Sweden, Norway, Finland, West Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland (used to love listening to Swiss country music), Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium among many others. Now they are all gone and the bands are flooded with CRI in multiple languages spewing out their world hegemony propaganda. The VOA, as you will see below, seems now destined only for Africa or parts of Asia.  

I was surprised - in an hour of listening I logged nearly 20 different countries. There are one or two stations which I didn't add to the list below.

Who says shortwave is dead!

3320    1805    NTH KOREA Pyongyang BS Fair with martial music and mass choirs. Not a clear signal. SMF 9/8

3480    1807    STH KOREA Voice of the People Fair/ good with talk in KK. //3910 & 3930 audible but under Nth Korean jamming, 3480 Fair, SMF 9/8

3985    1815    GERMANY, R Slovakia Int fair/ poor in GG. Hard to decipher what was being said. Mx was fine. SMF 9/8

4750    1817    BANGLADESH, Bangladesh Betar good in EE with translations of traditional Muslim stories. SMF 9/8

4890    1818    STH KOREA, V of Hope vg in KK. SMF 9/8

5860    1820    KUWAIT, US Agency for Global Media. Good with pops, but horrible interference spreading from 5740 to 5870. SMF 9/8

5875    1824    ARMENIA, BBC WS Vg in Pashto with lots of talk. SMF 9/8

5890    1826    THAILAND, US AGM Fair in Pashto. SMF 9/8

5960    1827    TURKEY, VoT Excellent with a great mx prog. TT b/cast. SMF 9/8

5970    1828    OMAN, BBCWS, Vg in Pushto. SMF 9/8

6015    1835    UNKNOWN - woodpecker type jamming centred around Nth Korean jamming of KBS Hanminjok. Also on 6048. Suddenly stopped at 1842. SMF 9/8

6040    1831    SAO TOME, VOA poor. Advertised in Shona, but there was EE spoken with an African accent. Horrible woodpecker QRM at 1837. SMF 9/8

6080    1836    BOTSWANA, VOA fair in EE. SMF 9/8

6130    1844    SWAZILAND, TWR audible but poor in Umbundu. SMF 9/8

6165    1845    UAE, TWR Fair in Tigray SMF 9/8

6180    1845    SAO TOME, VOA Fair/ poor in FF. SMF 9/8

7235    1850    IRAN, IRIB fair/ poor in Hausa to Nigeria presumably. SMF 9/8

7485    1853    SINGAPORE, BBC WS fair in EE. Became noisy as day broke. SMF 9/8

7485    1859    NTH MARIANAS (Tinang) VOA signing on suddenly over the top of the BBC with usual axmnts and Yankee Doodle and then into KK. Fair/ good. Haven't heard this for a long time. SMF 9/8

All of these were heard using a WinRadio G33DDC connected to a 5m EWE antenna pointing NE.

Loggings for May

 Here are my loggings for May

# after the date means I logged this station on the DX League's SDR, also located in Mangawhai. 

It is housed in Bryan Clark's back garden, right on the edge of the Mangawhai lagoon. He has better reception than I. I am about 8km (5 miles) back from the sea.

Freq	Time UTC	Details	Date
940	0853	USA, KFIG Fresno fair/ good with sports talk. 4/5 SMF #	*
1020	0915	PARAGUAY, Radio Nanduti (tentative) with lots of talk in SS. Seemed to be // to website. Mixed with a mx stn - possibly KTNQ. SMF 11/5#	*
1190	0653	ARGENTINA, LRA15 San Miguel de Tucuman fair with vocals //web. SMF 12/5#	*
1210	0640	HAWAII, KZOO fair/ poor in background with probably KPRZ on top. SMF 12/5#	*
1220	0715	PERU, R Melodia, on top of XEB briefly. // web. SMF 5/4	*
1330	0854	USA, KLBS Los Banos CA fair at best and mixed. PP songs. SMF 29/4#	*
1430	0917	USA, KYNO fair/ poor but clear on SE EWE with what sounded like a ballad. In clear SMF 4/5	*
1470	0430	PERU, R La Mega poor/ fair but a bit noisy.Usual v excited talk and mentions of La Mega. SMF 23/5	*
1480	0625	USA, KVNR, Sta Ana, CA fair on peaks with VV talk and mx// website. SMF 8/5 #	*
1490	0740	ECUADOR, R Sta Maria - fair/ poor but dominant on freq. SMF 17/5	*
1650	0835	KCNZ Cedar Falls, IA fair with sports talk but mixed. SMF# 29/4	*
1650	0823	USA, KBJD Denver CO dominant on freq but only fair with reiligious songs and SS axmnts. SMF 29/4	*
1660	0751	USA, KBRE, Merced CA Fair with heavy rock. SMF 28/4	*
1700	0911	MEXICO, XEPE fair/ good with mx and SS axmnts. SMF 8/5	*
1700	0620	USA, WJCC, Miami Springs, FL Fair and dominant in Creole. SMF 9/5#	*

A new verie and a new country

 Harbour Light of the Caribbean 1400 kHz come in here quite well on occasion. One such night was the 6th May. I received them at 0905 UTC and listened for about half an hour. I sent an email and this morning received a reply from Randy Cornelius the station Director/ Engineer (harbourlight@spiceisle.com). He is doing a great job on the engineering side as we are 13,800 km from Grenada.

It is a very welcome QSL.

A verie

 For the past few nights, WJCC 1700 kHz in Miami Springs, FL has come in very well on the League's SDR, with its EWE pointing towards Sth America. It has dominated XEPE, the station normally heard on the frequency.

I sent a report off for reception on May 9 along with a short audio recording to a Mr Alex Saint Surin (alex@radiomega.net) the General Manager.

Within an hour a reply came back. 

Bonjour Mr Forsyth

Vous avez parfaitement raison. Vous avez capté Radio Mega 1700 am émettant de Miami Etats-Unis d’Amérique. 

 Nous émettons en créole, francais et anglais pour une communauté haitienne d’environ 750000 habitants

Merci d’avoir partagé cette information  avec nous

Alex Saint Surin

I am delighted to have it. It joins KBGG, KVNA and WEUV (all logged and verified 2002-2004) on the frequency.