Shortwave Logs From Fort Worth, TX for 02/15/15

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 Fort Worth, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire 
antenna, on a first floor, unless otherwise noted.

[RWANDA/GERMANY] 02/15/15, 1828, 17800 khz -- Deutsche Welle
from Kigali, Rwanda, in Hausa language. Two males talk on unknown
subject. Decent signal for daytime, considering this is coming from 
East Africa. Listened for about five minutes. SINPO 33233.

[USA] 02/15/15, 1842, 15610 khz -- EWTN (Catholic) Radio transmitting
from Vandiver, Alabama. "Vatican Insider" program with female announ-
cer. Strong, clear signal with a little noise, as typical for this frequency. 
SINPO 44344

[CUBA] 02/15/15, 1845, 11635 -- Atencion Cuba spy station with short
set of numbers being read in Spanish by female ("tres, dos, ocho, 
siete, siete"), followed by data-like sounds for several seconds, then
more numbers, and so on. SINPO 45454, good signal. It seems like
Cuban spy activity hasn't slowed down since the beginning of thawed
relations with the US.

[USA] 02/15/15, 1858, 15825 -- Religious talk by male, then station ID
and new show at top of hour (Dr. James Blank [sp?]). Male prays while
female translates into Spanish. SINPO 44344. 

Shortwave Logs For 1/29-1/30/15

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 Fort Worth, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire 
antenna, on a first floor, unless otherwise noted.


[CUBA] 01/29/15, 0410, 5025 -- Radio Rebelde in Spanish, with male
 and female announcer reading personal ads listeners have apparently
sent in from all over Cuba. Some looking for friendship, some looking
for men or women only. Reception was a bit noisy. SINPO 43344.

[CUBA] 01/29/15, 0413, 5040 -- Radio Habana Cuba in Spanish.
Latin music, with male announcer interrupting here and there. Recep-
tion much like Radio Rebelde: not great, not terrible. SINPO 43344.

[USA] 01/29/15, 0415, 5890 -- WWCR from Nashville, TN at 100
kw with good ol' Brother Stair ranting about the British Empire and
its evil (??). He then asks listeners for reception reports. 55455, very
good signal.

[VATICAN] 01/29/15, 0417, 7360 -- Vatican Radio in the Tigrinya
language of Eritrea and Ethiopia,  transmitting from Santa Maria de
Galera at 500 kw. Two males  talking, lots of noise and some inter-
ference. SINPO 43243.

[CUBA/CHINA] 01/29/15, 0420, 9790 -- China Radio International
in Cantonese, transmitted from Havana at 250 kw. Surprisingly bad
signal marred by interference and noise, unlike what I normally
receive on this frequency. Male announcer. SINPO 32233.

[GREECE] 01/30/15, 0100, 9420 -- Helliniki Radiophonia from
Avlis. Male and female talk in Greek. SINPO 33222.

[USA] 01/30/15, 0106, 8420 -- Ship-to-shore communication station
from Mobile, Alabama. Morse code usually heard on here, but
tonight just pulsing and other sounds. SINPO 33222.

[CUBA/CHINA] 01/30/15, 0108, 9580 -- China Radio Int'l from
Havana. Male announcer with news in English, mentions story of
Japanese hostage being held by Islamic State. 44344, good signal.

[BRAZIL] 01/30/15, 0112, 11780 -- Radio Nacional de Amazonia
from Brasilia at 250 kw. Latin music, followed by station ID and
chatter from male announcer in Portuguese. SINPO 43344.

Observations About CB Radio in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

As a pre-teen in 1980s Puerto Rico, I was big into CB radio, as
many others were at the time. After a couple of years, though, my
interest waned and I left CB. Many years later, I bought a used
Realistic TRC-415 mobile unit on eBay and put it in my car, with a
magnetic base antenna. Not much seemed to be going on in the
CB bands then, and I honestly wasn't as interested in it as I
thought I was. So, before long, I put the CB away and forgot
about it. Recently, I found it while going through some old boxes,
and decided to put it in my car again.

My commute to work is now different than it was since I
bought the mobile unit a few years ago, and this time I was
able to hear a lot more. Practically nobody has been able to
copy ME, though, with the exception of a contact in Grapevine
which my fiancee was able to make late one night while I
drove us back from a local bar. I know that I need a better
unit and antenna (and a SWR meter), but that's not happening
just yet.

I do monitor CB on my way home from work 2-3 times a
week, usually while driving through Irving and the DFW
Airport area, and I've noticed a few patterns:


Channel 2 seems to be used  almost exclusively by Spanish-
speakers.

Puerto Ricans seem to like to hang out on Channel 9 (the
'Emergency Channel', but apparently this isn't enforced
very well, if it ever was). Good to see Puerto Ricans
still into CB, even all the way over here. Just don't try to
use Channel 9 for emergencies near DFW Airport.

Channel 6 normally sees the most activity, with some
high-wattage units making appearances, one in specific,
which I haven't been able to clearly identify.

Other than that, I just hear a lot of truckers with extremely
rural accents that I can almost never understand.

I will transmit every now and then to see if anybody can
copy me, but other than the nighttime contact described
above, no dice. I usually do this on channels 6, 8 and 9,
at around 5:00-5:30PM CDT and I go by the handle
"W.E.M.Y." Give me a shout if you hear me.

I'm looking to upgrade my CB set-up sometime in the
near future, and I will post here when and if I do. We do
have a CB shop in the area, which I need to check out
sometime soon: Ike's CB Shop. Their Facebook page
is here. I'll post more observations when something new
happens.