Shortwave logs from Euless, TX for 11/18 to 11/24/12

Country in brackets is the transmitter site and not
necessarily the country of origin, 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.


[IRAN] 11-18-12, 2345, 7325 -- Weak, SINPO 23222.
Seemingly Voice of Iran in Chinese. Ballad-type music with
male singing.

[CANADA] 11-20-12, 0255, 3300 -- CHU, a time signal
station transmitting from near Ottawa. Automated time tones
and male voice reading time in French and English. Pretty
weak, SINPO 23222. Also heard modem/data-like noises. I
guess I still get a chance to QSL a Canadian station even
with RCI gone.

[FRENCH GUYANA/FRANCE] 11-23-12, 1955, 21690--
Per Aoki, this is Radio France International, transmitting from
Montsinery, French Guyana, on 500 kw. Two males talking in
French, abruptly off at 1959, with the broadcast scheduled off
at 2000.  SINPO 34233.

[USA] 11-23-12, 2000, 15225 -- Voice of America in French
from Greenville, SC. Excited male DJ introduces music,
mostly Latin-sounding, thought I heard "Shakira" mentioned.

[SOUTH AFRICA/ DRC] 11-24-12, 0405, 11690 -- Per Aoki,
this is Radio Okapi, transmitting from Meyerton, SA, at 250 kw.
Apparently this station was set up by the UN and NGOs to
broadcast news and information across the Democratic Republic
of Congo, mostly on FM. Language is supposed to be Lingala/
French, and I did hear a lot which sounded like French. Male
and female seem to read news headlines, made out words like
"Goma" (city in the DRC) and "Hutu". SINPO 34333, surprisingly
clear.

[EGYPT] 11-24-12, 0422, 9965 -- Radio Cairo, very weak and
noisy, SINPO 23222. Chanting by male with Islamic-sounding
music in background.

QSL cards from Croatia, Germany and Cuba

Back in July, I heard Voice of Croatia on 9925 khz, and sent
them a reception report by email (several times and to several
addresses over several weeks, as it turned out), but they finally
responded with an e-QSL on September 13th. This was followed
a couple of weeks later by the same QSL letter that I received by
email, but this time by postal mail from Croatia. Wasn't expecting
that! But then, even more unexpectedly, a couple of weeks after
that, I received a Voice of Croatia QSL card by mail! It is
pictured below (top). Damn, VOC, you really came through in
the end. Huzzah!

In other QSL news,  I heard Germany's Deutsche Welle, trans-
mitted from Kigali, Rwanda, in East Africa, on October 21st
(as logged here). I sent them a reception report by email to
info@dw-world.de, and about 3 weeks later I received a QSL
card (pictured below, under the V. of Croatia card), mailed
from DW Customer Service in Bonn, Germany. The back of
the card can be seen in the second picture.

 

Finally, on September 15, I heard Cuba's Radio Rebelde on 5025
khz, and I sent them a reception report to web@radiorebelde.icrt.cu
two days later,  including an mp3 recording of my reception (they
apparently require this for QSL requests). On November 8th, I
received an email from Radio Rebelde with an e-QSL ( :-/ )
attached. It is displayed below. A big thanks to these three
shortwave broadcasters who took the time to acknowledge my
reports!

Recent shortwave logs from Euless, TX

Country in brackets is the country of transmission. If 
two countries are in brackets, first one is transmitter site,
followed by the country of origin. After that, the date, 
time and frequency in kHz is listed.  All times in UTC and 
all stations  heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable with the 
radio's  telescoping whip antenna. All stations heard from
a second floor patio in Euless, TX, USA. 

















[RWANDA/GERMANY] 10-21-12, 0400 UTC, 9470 --
Deutsche Welle in English from Kigali at 250kw. News,
including a  piece on the Colombian armed group FARC.
Male interviews female. SINPO 43233.

[CUBA] 10-26-12, 0150, 11760 -- News in Spanish
by female, the abruptly off the air at 0154. Because of
Hurricane Sandy, I assume? SINPO was 44344 before
this. Checked back at 0205z, male was reading news
but signal was very weak now, seemingly off air again
at 0207.

[ROMANIA] 10-26-12, 0200, 11795 -- Radio Romania
in Spanish. ID at top of hour, then intro by male and
female. Headlines by female at 0202; King Michael's
birthday, news about budget and economy in Romania
and Europe. SINPO 43344, very good signal.

[USA/TAIWAN] 10-26-12, 0212, 9680 -- Radio Taiwan
in English transmitted from Okechobee, FL. Male and
female talk about Taiwan government giving people
subsidies to have children (!), also talk about decreased
wages in the country, $12K a year is the average now,
among lowest in developed world, but optimism was
expressed. SINPO 43344, some light interference and
fading on occasion, but very good all around.

Shortwave, mediumwave and FM logs for 10/10 to 10/11/12 from near Yucatan, MX

Me and  my wife Emily went on a honeymoon cruise
to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico last week, and
I was able to do a little DXing from our room balcony
on the way from the port of Progreso to Cozumel on
10/10/12, and on the way back from Cozumel on
10/11/12, both times in more or less the same area.
Logs start after my standard disclaimer below:

Country in brackets is the country of transmission. If 
two countries are in brackets, first one is transmitter site,
followed by the country of origin. After that, the date, 
time and frequency in kHz is listed. I neglected to notate 
times on some stations. All times in UTC and all stations 
heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable with the radio's 
telescoping whip antenna. All stations heard from the 
balcony of our stateroom on the starboard side of the 
Carnival Triumph cruise ship, halfway between Progreso 
and Cozumel, Mexico. Approximate location for both 
10/10 and 10/11 loggings is latitude, 21.828187, 
longitude -88.308105.


10/10/12


[MEXICO] XEZ 105.1 FM, Grupo Formula Yucatan, Merida.
Business related talk and advertisements in Spanish. Average signal.
Website: http://grupoformulayucatan.com.mx/genteenaccion.html.

[MEXICO] Planeta XHRRF 88.5 FM, Merida. Ad for 'Partido del
Trabajo' (Worker's Party) in Spanish, then music.

[MEXICO] Retro 103.1 FM, Merida, old American pop music, "Power
of Love" by Huey Lewis. Web:  http://www.cadenarasa.com/retro/

[CUBA] 2317z, 1620 AM, Radio Rebelde Cuba. Sports and news by
male, station ID heard. SINPO 32222.

[MEXICO] 94.5 FM, XHVG? Two males talk about the Zeta leader
killed recently. I seemed to hear an ID mentioning Radio Formula Yucatan.

[UNIDENTIFIED] 2315z, 1530 AM. OM talk, weak signal. No info
online. VOA per Aoki??? Wrong time, though.



10/11/12


[UNIDENTIFIED] 2216z, 11850 khz. Foreign language talk,
weak. KSDA-AWR Guam, or Vatican Radio per Aoki??? Another
mystery.

[SAUDI ARABIA] 2216z, 11820. Male chant in Arabic. Radio
Riyadh. 

[TURKEY] 2218z, 9830. Male reads news in English. Voice of
Turkey per Aoki A12. SINPO 33222.

[CUBA] 2220z, 9810 & 9710.  RHC in Spanish, female talks in
piece about historic Cuban hotel. SINPO 44454.

[UNIDENTIFIED] 2222z, 9955. Foreign language, male talk.
34333. Maybe WRMI??

[BONAIRE] 2224z, 15265. NHK World in Japanese transmitted
from the former Netherlands Antilles. SINPO 44444.

[HONDURAS] 2230z, 630 AM. Radio America, "Hora del
Cafe" w/ host Victor Manuel Zelaya, talks to male about the coffee
industry in Honduras. Religious talk at 2259, then news show at
2300, "Expreso Informativo", with various announcers. SINPO
34333. Listened off an on to this station for nearly an hour.

[COLOMBIA] 2305z, 1170 AM. Radio Caracol,  ID @ 2309.
Sports news in Spanish by male. Weak, but completely readable.
A real surprise to hear this from the waters off Yucatan.

[MEXICO]  2310z, XHYI , Mix 93.1 FM, Cancun. Pop music
in English, Queen's "I Want To Break Free"... the long version that
I rarely get to hear. Queen's music was everywhere in Progreso
and Cozumel, the Mexicans are obviously fellow fans of the band.

[BRAZIL] 2320z, 11780. R. Nacional da Amazonia, male talk
in Portuguese. Weak signal, but I could tell it was Brazil.

[SPAIN] 2321z, 9535. R. Exterior Espana, news by male in
Spanish, transmitted from Noblejas. SINPO 55455.

[GREECE] 2323z, 9420. Voice of Greece, YL talk in Greek,
SINPO 24232.

[ALBANIA / CHINA] 2324z, 7210. Weak, Chinese/Spanish
language lessons. CRI, transmitted from Cerrik, Albania.

[USA] 2325z, 15000. WWV from Colorado, very weak.

[UNIDENTIFIED] 2330z, 14240. Ham operator? Distorted,
male voice.

[GUATEMALA] 2344z, 4055. Spanish talk, weak. Radio
Verdad, from Chiquimula, Guatemala, per Aoki. This seems
to be an evangelical religious station.

Shortwave logs from Euless, TX for 8/30/12 to 9/5/12

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.

[GERMANY / CROATIA] 08-30-12, 0210, 9925 --
Radio Croatia in English from Wertachtal, per Aoki A12.
Male and female read frequencies for RC. I seem to
have tuned in near the end of their very brief English
broadcast (15 minutes). SINPO 43333, pretty good.

[ROMANIA] 08-31-12, 0218, 11795 -- Radio Romania
International in Spanish. Fem. talks about Romanian
architecture, music at 0222. Some noise but otherwise
 a very good signal, 45344. Txmitter is Tiganesti,
 Romania, per Aoki, 300 kw.

[EGYPT] 09-01-12, 0255, 9315 -- Finally, a sort-of-okay
signal from Radio Cairo! Some fading at first, lots of
noise, but I can at least tell more or less what I'm hearing.
Per HFCC & Aoki, this should be English. Can't know
for sure, because I listened for about 10 minutes and all I
heard was Middle Eastern music. Which was nice, but I
didn't hear any talk or an ID at the top of the hour (0300).
Tuned away at 0302, came back at 15. Music remained on,
signal was still okay, SINPO 32333. Made a recording,
link to listen or download is below:

https://www.box.com/s/t56uok6566g8dmhe9m87


[MAURITANIA] 09-01-12, 0304, 7245 -- Per Aoki, this
is Radio Mauritania in French/Arabic...or it's Voice of
Tajik. The latest of Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digests
seems to agree that this is most likely Mauritania. This
and Egypt...must be a good night for propagation from
Africa, because I rarely hear Egypt (never as well as
tonight) and this is my first time getting anything on
this freq. Signal was unfortunately terrible, 21211,
distorted w/ lots of interference. Heard what may have
been a male talking, perhaps chanting.

[CUBA] 09-02-12, 0615, 5800 -- Morse code message,
sounded repetitive, but no idea what the content was.
On for at least 10 minutes. Per Aoki, this is a Cuban
spy station. Makes sense. SINPO 44334.

[COSTA RICA / SPAIN] 09-02-12, 1840, 17850 --
Great signal for Radio Exterior, in Spanish. Two males
comment on recently finished live football game (I
wanna say Real Madrid vs Levante). Paralympics
coverage at 1845, Spain won 2 new medals in London
that day. SINPO 55455, txmitter is Cariari, Costa Rica.

[BONAIRE / JAPAN] 09-05-12, 0940, 6080 -- NHK
World in Spanish, transmitted from the former Nether-
lands Antilles. Surprisingly strong, SINPO 55455. News
about fighting in Syria, North Korea's assembly meeting,
a flood control system in Thailand, among others.

[SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE / USA] 09-05-12, 1445,
17530. Voice of America's news show "International
Edition", in English, from the Pinheira txmitter @ 100kw,
per Aoki. News by OM, editorial about US government's
position on women's rights at around 1455. Off air at
1500. SINPO 34333.

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.

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.