Shortwave logs for 9/6 to 9/15/12 from Euless, TX

Country in brackets is the country of origin of the
transmission, and not necessarily the transmitter site,
unless specified. If two countries are in brackets, first
one is transmitter site. After that, the date, time and
frequency in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and all
stations heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable in
Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire antenna,
on a second floor, unless otherwise noted. Recordings
made with Olympus VN-120PC digital recorder,
with line input from SW receiver.


[MADAGASCAR / VATICAN] 090612, 0342, 7360 --
Vatican Radio in Swahili, trasmitted from Talata-
Volondry, Madagascar. Talk from OM and YL, SINPO
34233.

[ASCENSION/UK] 090912, 1605, 17640 -- BBC
World Service, from Ascension Island, SINPO
34222. Lots of noise, but I could tell it was in
English. YL & OM seem to talk sports news.

[GREECE] 091312, 0115, 9420 -- Per Aoki, this
comes from Avlis, at 170kw. Best reception I've
had for Voice of Greece so far, 44344! Listened
for a few minutes and heard some great Greek
music. Sweeeet.

[BRAZIL] 091312, 0120, 6180 -- Radio Nacional
de Amazonia in  Portuguese. SINPO 44344, very
strong, as is common with Radio Nacional on this
and 11780. Txmitter is in Brasilia per Aoki. Male
and fem. talk over futbol game.

[CUBA] 091512, 0030, 5025 -- Radio Rebelde, much
more geared towards domestic consumption than
RHC is, and it shows in the non-controversial nature
of what I regularly hear on here, which is usually
sports-related. No exception tonight, as I hear the
sports show "Deportiva", where two guys discuss
the latest in Cuban baseball. You can call in at
838-4562. Not sure if you can call from abroad.
Recording made and available at the URL below:

https://www.box.com/s/o0uyw7xtjxyyf7xxov1b

[CYPRUS/UK] 091512, 0326, 12035 -- BBC from
Limassol, 250 kw per Aoki. Very weak, could barely
hear OM talk, faded out a couple of times. SINPO
23111.

[KUWAIT] 091512, 1400, 21540 -- I'm finally awake
and free at the right time of day to hear Radio Kuwait.
YL talks in Arabic, then middle eastern-sounding
music bumpers, then male talks with female chanting
and music in background. Made out "Kuwait", "Koran".
SINPO 44344. Recording at the link below:

https://www.box.com/s/i4i1hkl0utgwb918yjdt

[SAUDI ARABIA] 091512, 1416, 21505 -- Radio
Riyahd, from Saudi A. at 500kw. Definitely not
coming in as well as Kuwait, 23222. Another first
time reception for me. Brief, awful recording made,
link below:

https://www.box.com/s/s4cw6wdtwma5bjciibyv

[USA] 091512, 1426, 11715 -- KJES, Catholic
religious station from Vado, New Mexico, 717
miles west of me. Male recites Bible verses, children
repeat with robotic delivery. Choral music, then a
child reads the station ID at 1430. Noooot creepy
sounding at all. Very strong, 55455. Recording
made, and available at the link:

https://www.box.com/s/xn1fxiber9cep58ksxjb

Shortwave broadcast logs for 8/24 to 8/26

Country in brackets is the country of origin of the
transmission, and not necessarily the transmitter site,
unless specified. If two countries are in brackets, first
one is transmitter site. After that, the date, time and
frequency in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and all
stations heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable in
Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire antenna,
on a second floor, unless otherwise noted.

[CUBA] 08-24-12, 0048, 5025 -- Radio Rebelde coming
in very nicely, SINPO 54334. Sports show presumably for
domestic audience, male announcer scolds audience over
complaints their call-in phone number is always busy,
says people are misdialing it, repeats the number several
times. Listened for about 10 minutes, and it was same
caller the whole time, going on and on; suspiciously
articulate and good on air for a "random" sports radio
caller. Hrmm.

[BRAZIL] 08-24-12, 0203, 11780 -- Radio Nacional
Brasilia in Portuguese. Male reads news, ID at 0204,
ballad played at 0205. 43244.

[SPAIN] 08-24-12, 0359, 9535 -- Radio Exterior de
Espana in Spanish, txmitter is Noblejas, 350 kw per Aoki.
Female gives phone number for listeners to call and leave
messages, which may get played on air: 800-34-100-100.
Said it works from US, Germany, Brazil, UK and a few
other countries I couldn't write down. News at 0400 by
male, mentions wildfires in Spain. SINPO 54344.

[GREECE] 8-24-12, 2348, 15630 -- Voice of Greece in
Greek. Music and some talk, weak signal, lots of noise.
23122.

[CANADA / VIETNAM] 08-25-12, 0349, 6175 -- Voice of
Vietnam in English. YL talks, hard to understand through
bad QRM (pretty sure I heard RN Brazil, which was on at
6180). Made out words "revolution", "1945...liberated the
country". Started 41422, improved around 0355 to 43444.
Silence at 1358, pop music abrubtly on a few seconds later.
Spanish programming started at 0400 with OM talking about
labor issues in different countries. Txmitter is Sackville,
Canada (thanks go to Dan Ferguson).

[EGYPT] 08-25-12, 0141, 9315 -- Radio Cairo, supposedly
in Spanish. Lots of noise, distorted/muddy speech from
possible male, impossible to understand, for a change.
22121.

[RWANDA / GERMANY] 08-26-12, 1805, 21780 -- Deutsche
Welle in Hausa, txmitted from Kigali, Rwanda @ 250 kw.
Excellent signal! SINPO 55455. Male read news, made out the
word "Aleppo" (as in Syria).

[USA] 08-26-12, 1810, 17895 -- Voice of America in English.
Aoki shows that at this freq., but not at this time. Same when
checking VOA's website schedule. Txmitter site might be Sri
Lanka? Male talks about human rights in Ethiopia, then female
w/ story about government policy around the world to deal
with drought. 43333. EDIT: Eike Bierwirth, Glenn Hauser and
Dan Ferguson have informed me that the txmitter site for the
above is Greenville, SC, USA. This per HFCC, which I had
neglected to check, for some reason.

Vatican Radio QSL

On July 27th, 2012, I happened to pick up Vatican Radio in English,
relayed via Sackville, in Canada (a relay which was ended permanently
soon after). I logged it and promptly sent an email to Vatican Radio
with my reception report. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the receiver
I was using was faulty and I reported the wrong frequency, 9500 khz,
when it probably should've been 9610.

Regardless, three weeks later I got an envelope in the mail from
them with a QSL card, a postcard, two Vatican Radio stickers and
a couple of schedules printed on glossy paper. Not bad, considering
I didn't even report the correct information. It could be that, with
the gradual decline of shortwave radio as a medium and Vatican
Radio's significant cutbacks, the folks at VR may not care too
much about their reception reports nowadays. I reached this
conclusion when I saw that the frequency field in my QSL card
didn't even list a frequency, it only says "31 m" (for the 31 meter
band). Whoever read my email probably just said "f*ck it" and
scrawled whatever on my card. Not complaining, though, I'm
grateful for the souvenirs (pictured below).

It was hard for me not to notice how creepy Pope Benedict
looks in this postcard. But he is a pretty creepy-looking guy,
on a good day. The other card had a picture of the inside of
the Chapel of the Annunciation on the front. This was probably
my most significant contact with the Catholic Church since
I graduated from catholic high school 17 years ago.

Email for Vatican Radio: english@vatiradio.va

Observations of shortwave broadcast listening from August 14 to 16, 2012.

Country in brackets is the country of origin of the
trasmission, and not necessarilly the transmitter site,
unless specified. After that, the date, time and frequency
in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and all stations heard
on TECSUN PL-380 in Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot
reel wire antenna, on a second floor, unless otherwise
noted.

[CUBA] 081412, 0128, 5040 -- Great signal again from
RHC's Spanish service. Music, then news at 0130. I
scanned the shortwave bands a few minutes later, and I
could hear the exact same broadcast on 15230, 11760,
9810, 6120 and 11680. Overkill much, RHC?

[USA] 081412, 0139, 11530 -- Family Radio, religious
programming in Portuguese, directed at Brazil, no
doubt. OM preaching in non-insane way. SINPO 55455.
Txmitter is supposed to be in Okechobee, FL, 100kw.

[SPAIN] 081412, 0325, 9535 -- Radio Exterior de Espana,
in Spanish. Show ID "Espanoles en la Mar" ("Spaniards
at Sea"), station ID by YL. SINPO 54444. From Noblejas
txmitter site, per AOKI A12 schedule. Excellent signal
tonight with good modulation.

[NEW ZEALAND] 081412, 0338, 15720 -- The usual on
here, Radio New Zealand Intl. Some sort of audio
documentary, in which some guys were thatching
something. A hut, maybe? 43344.

[TAIWAN] 081412, 2350, 17725 -- I seldom get to listen
to R. Taiwan's Spanish service, so I'm glad I ran into this.
Sounded good, 54444. Economics news, then talk about
renewable energy in Taiwan, including a solar plant that
would power 1,000 homes.

[AUSTRALIA] 081512, 0000, 21740 -- Once again, R.
Australia's English service comes in very handsomely
on this frequency, but not as good as I've heard it, 44344.
Directed towards Asia-Pac., per announcement before
ID at 2359. Headlines at top of hour read by Ashley
McGee [sp?], including contoversy over Australian
plans to process boat refugees in PNG or places other
than Australia itself.

[CHINA] 081512, 0259, 21600 -- Carrier signal, listened
for a few minutes, but just silence. Per the Shortwave
schedule app on my Android tablet, this is a jammer vs
R. Free Asia, originating from commie China. Sure,
I'll buy that. 19dbu signal strength. No wire antenna,
just the Tecsun's telescoping one.

[CUBA] 081512, 0300, 17705 -- IS, then news headlines
in Spanish, YL & OM. First couple of minutes marred by
technical problems. First, the opening news theme played
for too long (maybe 1 minute+). Then , it sounded like
people talking over each other for several seconds.
WTF? Anyway, something about Paraguay, and how
Simon Bolivar's face is being seen in Cuba for the first
time. No wire antenna.

[BRAZIL] 0815, 0309, 11780 -- R. Nacional Amazonia,
agitated male talking in rapid Portiguese over stock back-
ground music. 44334.  No wire antenna.

[SPAIN] 081612, 2328, 9535 -- R. Exterior Espana in
Spanish at first, hard to understand due to bad QRM,
22322. Improved a bit after 2330 to 32323. Time pips
at 2329, then YL reading headlines in Catalan. Good
times.