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New Shortwave Broadcaster
- Thread starter Icangelp
- Start date
It's not great at all, and the funny thing is that band is good day and night. Here in Ottawa, there's no signal during the day and only in the late afternoon do you start to hear anything. By late night, though, it's quite strong. I was expecting it to be strong, 24/7 like Radio Habana or other stations from that region. Sometimes BBC radio out of the Ascension Islands is better.
Tried it last night at around 0300 UTC (9pm CST). Eaton E-10 portable. Barefoot. Not a great radio, but not terrible, either. Signal was weak but listenable. As Mimo pointed out, not at all in the same class as RHC, which comes from the same general neighborhood and routinely blasts in here. Or at least it did when it was on 31m. I don't know if it's still there, but the 49m version of RHC on 6000 is still a monster every night here.
I also tried Global 24 this morning at 1500 UTC. It was there, but very weak. Weaker than last night with a signal that for all practical purposes was unusable.
I wonder if perhaps they're not operating at full power yet.
I also tried Global 24 this morning at 1500 UTC. It was there, but very weak. Weaker than last night with a signal that for all practical purposes was unusable.
I wonder if perhaps they're not operating at full power yet.
Still haven't heard Global 24 here in the greater Seattle area. I have heard WRMI before, so I know transmissions from that area of the US reach here. Same with that SW station out of Lebanon, TN (can't recall the call letters). I hear that one o.k. also.
I can understand not hearing it during daylight hours, but I've tried during late afternoons and early evenings when 31 meters is usually going strong -- still nothing heard but static, and maybe an extremely weak carrier.
I can understand not hearing it during daylight hours, but I've tried during late afternoons and early evenings when 31 meters is usually going strong -- still nothing heard but static, and maybe an extremely weak carrier.
WebSDR causes my whole computer to slow down. Didn't a week or two ago, but now my whole computer freezes for several seconds when it is loaded. Unusable after 2 minutes if that.
9395's signal still sucks on the west coast of North America. Loads of RF noise, can't even hear it indoors with my G5. But Cuba is still booming in on 6000 as is China Radio International!
-crainbebo
9395's signal still sucks on the west coast of North America. Loads of RF noise, can't even hear it indoors with my G5. But Cuba is still booming in on 6000 as is China Radio International!
-crainbebo
Just tuned in to 9395 khz and heard Elton John's Tiny Dancer, an announcer who gave several ID's, and then a special on the falling of the Berlin Wall. SIO153. If overall conditions were better it would probably have been better reception. It was weak, but virtually alone on the 31 meter band.
Was on a Grundig G2 off the whip. Not much different on other radios off an indoor wire.
Was on a Grundig G2 off the whip. Not much different on other radios off an indoor wire.
I'm sort of noticing the same thing. Nowhere near "rock solid" in my case, but variable every few steps.
Overall and on balance, it's a weak, but useable, signal at night. Weaker and marginal useability daytime. Lots of fading both day and night. The preachers and Cubans have much better signals.
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At night if I stand in just the right spot outside my door, the signal is so good that music is completely listenable, even enjoyable. Last night I was rocking out to them, and it sounded great. My biggest problem with reception in that band is FM interference. There are many parts of the shortwave dial where I'm hearing local FM stations instead. They're distorted but intelligible enough that I can make out which of the 2 stations is doing the damage.
Oh nothing stopped them from QSLing to DX reports in the US...the "Dallas" SW of Gene Scott had an array that pointed mostly north toward Canada and over the North Pole...but of course was heard in the US quite often.....
What part of town are you in? When I used to get into Ottawa every 2-3 months, I usually stayed downtown. DX there, in the Byward Market area, was absolutely impossible. Between the noise, the steel framed hotel buildings, and the harmonics/overload from transmitters in the area. Even listening to local stations was problematic...including FM. But every once in a while, I'd stay out in Kenata (about 16km/20 mi west of downtown). Things out there were much better. In fact, it was a pretty decent DX location.
I'm in little Italy just east of Preston. The market itself (if you're outside) isn't bad on AM...I've managed to walk around with very clean reception, but for but the whole central part of the city is pretty bad for reception. You're right about FM, if it wasn't for a radio like my G8, listening to locals where I live on FM is almost impossible due to overload. FM overload is so bad it even impacts AM. Kanata seems to be pretty good for FM. Last spring I went a bit further west to Arnprior, and found that all Ottawa FMs were much stronger there than in the city. For AM reception, Orleans is the best. There are stations that come in clear there that you won't hear any where else in the city, plus FM's from northern New York State are present out there as well. Some Montreal AM's are as strong as Ottawa AMs in Orleans. Reception has improved slightly since 95.7 went silent at the beginning of October.
I sometimes get the same thing on a couple of my radios, especially my DX-350, an analog portable that's good off the whip on SW and good on MW as well. The FM QRM is sometimes bad on 19 meters, I think I've heard it on 25 & 31 from time to time also. It sometimes isn't bad, just depends on the day. My new G2 is also hot off the whip, and seems to have it from time to time. The main solution I found was to shorten the whip (G2) or aim the whip away from the location of the FM transmitters (DX-350 & poss. G2 also), which sort of nulls them.
Obviously, I meant to post this on the Enschede WebSDR thread.
By the way, 1130 WBBR, though fading in and out, is providing a good signal tonight.
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I got my first SW radio in 1991, a Radio Shack DX-440 (the Sangean ATS-803A). I remember listening to Dr. Gene Scott on SW late at night. I also remember watching his TV program broadcast late at night on a UHF station in the DFW area. He smoked a lot of cigars!
I even flew out to LA one Sunday morning to attend a service. Overall I didn't enjoy it so much, because of the jet lag. I'm not an early riser, but I had to get up early to make that flight. I returned back to Dallas after the service was over. (I had flight benefits).
After he passed, I checked out his wife, but it didn't take hold, it just wasn't the same. Maybe if she she starts smoking a cigar. Gotta be a cigar... vaping won't cut it.
I still have the DX-440. It has SSB, so I can listen to HAM broadcasts when the world bugs out someday.... when "someone" turns off the cell phones and the internet...
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