Loggings for mid-late March

Freq	Time UTC	Details
570	0749	USA, KVI Seattle WA in the mix // website - fair/ poor with red neck, sorry red eye radio //website. SMF 24/3
690	0937	USA, KHNR mixed with another - at fair strength.Mixed but dominant SMF 24/3
710	0734	USA, Unknown - either KSPN or KIRO with ESPN sports talk and ids. Nothing definitive. Fair/ poor SMF 24/3
760	0747	HAWAII, KGU Honolulu presumed with business talk. Fair/poor Bad splash 756. SMF 17/3
830	0745	HAWAII, KHVH Honolulu fair/ good with news and talk. SMF 17/3
850	0906	HAWAII, KHLO fair with relig song but mixed possibly with KOA. 16/3
860	0810	MEXICO, XEMO, Tijuana poor but clear in SS with religous message. // web SMF 11/3
870	0743	USA, WWL possibly with sports talk. Fair at best. SMF 17/3
910	0738	USA, KKSF San Fran fair/ poor in mix // website. It may be mixed with KOXR with SS mx. SMF 17/3
910	0705	USA, KECR El Cajon CA fair/poor with mx over talk // website SMF
960	0745	USA, KNEW Oakland fair/ poor with business talk // website. 16/3 SMF
960	0702	USA, 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
1170	0757	USA, KLOK San Jose fair/ good with Indian vocals but fading and mixed with KFAQ. SMF 17/3
1270	0740	HAWAII, KNDI fair/ poor with talk in an island language. Mixed with KVMI with song identified from website SMF 25/3
1460	0908	USA, KION, Salinas fair with C to C. SMF 25/3
1490	0959	COLOMBIA, HJBS Emisora Punto Cinco, Bogotá - poor with id. SMF 27/3
1580	0818	USA, 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.

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.

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?

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:

Freq	Time UTC	Details
1410	0831	CANADA, CFTE fair but suffered splash from 1413. SMF 9/3	9/3
1490	0740	ECUADOR, R Sta Maria - fair/ poor mixed with others. // website but not dominant. 9/3 SMF	9/3
1490	0743	COLOMBIA, HJZB La Voz de los Robles, Tulua - fair and mixed with others. Mx prgm - confirmed by web // 9/3 SMF	9/3
1550	0727	USA, KRPI, Ferndale, WA fair with Hindi vocals. Fading in and out. Fair/ Good when "in"! SMF 9/3	9/3
1570	0713	HAWAII, KUAU fair/ good with religious talk. SMF 9/3	9/3
1600	0720	USA, KVRI, Blaine, WA good with Indian singing and axmnts. SMF 9/3	9/3
1620	0750	CUBA, R Rebelde fair/ good with Latin mx. Dominant on freq.// website 3/3 SMF	3/3
1650	0755	MEXICO, 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 SMF	3/3

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.

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.

A verification has come in

 KZOO 1210 in Honolulu, HI has been kind enough to reply to my nagging on Facebook Messenger and have verified my report of April 2020.

Loggings for February

 I finally received my new AirSpy HF+ Discovery receiver: good value for $162 USD. The first night was very disappointing - it just didn't work and I was despondent. However, when I went outside I realised that the earth wire had come off the EWE and so the aerial wasn't working! Once it was put back on, it was all systems go.

Highlights of the month have been a couple of nights where overseas stations have come in like locals. XEB 1220 was one such exmple. Radio Felicidad in Lima was another. The last time I heard stations form that part of the world as strong was back in about 2004-5 when at Tiwai we would hear ZNS1 Bahamas at local strength. It was incredible and so were these stations. 

I have not had much opportunity to listen this month due to going back to school. However, that is about to end and so hopefully I will hear a whole lot more shortly.

Meanwhile, the February loggings are posted below. I have not included stations I heard last month as there is no point. 

940	0853	USA, KFIG Fresno fair with football talk. 6/2 SMF
1180	0724	USA, R Marti Marathon FL, fair with SS talk and mx. QRM from 1179 quite bad. SMF 15/2
1210	0840	USA, KGYN Guymon OK fair with sports talk. Mixed. 6/2 SMF
1210	0810	USA, KPRZ San Marcos CA fair/ poor with religious prgm - mixed with KGYN 14/2 SMF
1210	0640	HAWAII, KZOO (tentative) vg with mx. Not sure about the mx style. Sounded Mex to me, but not sure. No axmnts. 12/2 SMF
1220	0630	MEXICO, XEB presumed with latin mx and SS axmnts. Exc signal 12/2 SMF
1290	0922	USA, KAZA San Jose fair in mix with mentions of San Jose. SMF 12/2
1360	0733	PERU, R Bienestar Fair/ good with religious talk mixed with another. 15/2 SMF
1380	0745	MEXICO, XECO Mexico City the most likely. Mx with axmnts in SS. Not a great signal and a lot of splash from 1377 and 1386. 15/2 SMF
1430	0651	USA, KVVN Sta Clara CA fair at best, but clear with VV vocals. SMF 13/2
1460	0908	USA, KION good and clear with C to C with ads. Mixed but dominant. SMF 12/2
1470	0750	MEXICO, R Formula with ads and mentions of Formula under R Felicidad. Formula at fair levels with fading and Felicidad at vg levels. 15/2 SMF