srijeda, 20. srpnja 2016.

Voice of Greece e-QSL

Voice of Greece, transmitting from Avlis, Greece, was logged on 8th of July, and was heard from 18:40 to 18:55 UTC from Sveti Juraj u Trnju, Croatia. (Yes, I took a bit of vacation.) The Voice of Greece came in on 9420 kHz, and SINPO was 55555, considering Voice of Greece transmitter is not that far away from me.

Opereta excerpts were heard during my listening, with orchestra and some excerpts were played a cappella. There was choir of females singing sometimes, and there was one female singing at a time.
Reception report was sent on 8th of July, 2016.
e-QSL was received in 11th of July, 2016.

e-mail : dgazidellis@ert.gr




petak, 10. lipnja 2016.

VOA Radiogram, 11-12 June 2016




Hello friends,

Judging from your reports, reception was good last weekend, either because of or in spite of the recent lack of sunspots. These images sent by listeners show that the Saturday transmission at 1600-1630 UTC on 17580 kHz had an especially wide footprint.

This weekend’s VOA Radiogram will again be all MFSK32, and again it will include some Russian – the North Carolina transmitter has been putting a signal into Russia lately.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 167, 11-12 June 2016, all in MFSK32:



1:32 Program preview
2:55 Four new chemical elements named*
7:21 New Russian medium-haul airliner*
11:13 In Russian: NASA astronaut selection process* **
18:40 Astronauts enter inflatable module on ISS*
24:20 Five days with no visible sunspots*
26:34 Closing announcements*

* with image
** Russian text requires UTF-8 character set. In Fldigi:

Configure > Colors & Fonts > set Rx/Tx Character set to UTF-8.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

The Mighty KBC broadcast to North America is back to two hours this weekend: Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC (Saturday 8 to 10 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 will be transmitted at about 0130 UTC. Please send reports for this reception to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit DX news in MFSK32 and other modes on its usual schedule: Sunday 2130-2200 on 15770 kHz, and 2330-2400 UTC on 11580 kHz, both via WRMI in Florida. And Monday at 2000-2030 UTC on 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 in Germany. Also listen for DigiDX on 6070kHz (Channel 292) every day at 1830-1900 UTC (co-channel with Vatican Radio) and 0530-0600. Consult http://www.digidx.uk/and https://www.facebook.com/digidx/ for any schedule changes.

The Italian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) had a good first broadcast of digital on Wednesday. This will be transmitted Wednesdays at 2030-2100 on 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 in Germany, part of the IBC broadcast Wednesdays at 2000-2200 UTC. On 8 June, the modes were MFSK32 at 1500 Hz at 2030-2045, and Olivia 16-500 at 2200 Hz at 2045-2100. I don’t know if those will be the modes on 15 June, so be ready to adjust Op Mode if necessary.

Thanks for your reception reports from last weekend. I’ve been busy this week with audience research projects involving Myanmar and Laos, so I’m farther behind in responding. I hope to send out galleries from program 137 this weekend.

A reminder that Fldigi automatically saves your decoded MFSK images as png files in the folder \fldigi.files\images\. Please send those png files with your reception reports.

I hope you can tune in and write in.

Kim
Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net
Twitter: @VOARadiogram

petak, 20. svibnja 2016.

LKB/LLE Bergen Kringkaster

LKB/LLE QSL card (identical to this one, posted by Hugo), was sent to my e-mail on 18th of May, 2016. The LKB/LLE was heard on March 23rd, 2016, on 5895 kHz, with SINPO 32222, heard from SDR receiver in Twente.

Here is the e-mail I received.

Dear radio friend!

Thank you so much for your reception report!
Congratulations on a fine catch!
We herewith verify your reception as correct of LKB/LLE Bergen Kringkaster, broadcasting over LLE-3, 5895 kHz in the 49 metres SW band. Please take this letter as our QSL.
This is an official Norwegian test broadcasting license.
In addition to voice IDs in Norwegian, English, Swedish, Czech and and Japanese we have broadcast our morse ID VVV VVV VVV DE LKB / LLE LKB / LLE LKB / LLE. The board members as well as American announcers Ron and Sue, and Norwegian announcer Renate are also heard. We also have broadcast special electronic music composed for the transmissions by Øyvind S.Ask. We also put out instrumental music played by Bjørn Tore Bystrøm on Saxophone.


Transmitters:
LLE-3 5895 kHz 200 watts USB 50 watt AM, Yaesu FT-950-tx. Antenna: Inverted V.
LLE-2 1314 kHz 250 watts, usually 150 watts Western Electric (WE 451A-1) tx from the late 40s, brought back into life after it closed as LLU for NRK Odda over 37 years ago. Antenna: Refurbished Comrod.
LLE-FM 103,8 FM 100 watts, Itelco-tx. Antenna: Omnidirectional. Recently we received a RSL "full broadcast» license for this frequency.

In addition Radio Northern Star has two other MW frequencies licensed to the site, one of these is often on the air with a different test program on 1611 kHz, 186 metres. This comes from a 65 watt AM/250 watt USB(LLE-4) ex-Marine Skanti TRP-8250 HF and another Inverted V antenna.

I am attaching pictures.


Please publish your reception and our information on as many boards and lists as possible!

73s and Good DX!


Svenn Martinsen/s/


Broadcast Coordinator/Editor

LKB/LLE Bergen Kringkaster

Foreningen Bergen Kringkaster

Org.no.: 993809055

Boks 100

5331 RONG

95067890

56324985
Per-Dagfinn Green LA1TNA chairman/s/
Øystein Ask, LA7CFA treasurer, CE/s/
Reidar Mjøs, LA7MLA secretary/s/




Foreningen Bergen Kringkaster:
www.bergenkringkaster.no
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bergenkringkaster
Radio Northern Star:
www.northernstar.cc


For further info these links:
http://www.nrk.no/hordaland/nrks-pausesignal-tilbake-pa-luften-1.8836220
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_kringkaster
http://www.stellamaris.no/bernt.htm
http://www.la9dl.no/Norske%20kringkastere/sendere-AM.html
http://www.la1ask.no



petak, 13. svibnja 2016.

VOA Radiogram, program 163

Hello friends,

You might remember that last year, the BBG, parent agency of VOA, issued a Request for Proposals for the development of a decoder app for VOA Radiogram. There were no proposals, but that might be because of the short deadline. It's possible that the RFQ will be issued again, but only if there is potential interest by developers. So let me know if you are an interested developer.

The specifications in the RFQ would be the same as in the 2015 RFQ, which you can see here ...

http://www.bbg.gov/wp-content/media/2015/09/RFQ-BBG50-Q-15-0915MD-Software-Development.pdf

VOA Radiogram this weekend will be all MFSK32, except for the transmission schedule in Olivia 64-2000 under the closing music. The show will include six MFSK images.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 163, 14-15 May 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:34 Program preview

2:46 Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile*
8:42 UK government review of the BBC*
14:29 RFE/RL Crimea website blocked*
18:35 Radio/TV Martí now receiving letters direct from Cuba*
23:11 Image from South Pole Journal*
26:36 Closing announcements*
28:15 Olivia 64-2000: Transmission schedule under music

* with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.
The Mighty KBC has a different transmission schedule this weekend: To North America Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC on 9925 kHz, via Germany, with a minute of MFSK32 at about 0130 UTC. And to Europe Sunday at 0800-1000 UTC on 6095 kHz, also via Germany, with the minute of MFSK32 at about 0830 UTC. Reports for KBC reception and decoding to Eric:themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit DX news in MFSK32 and perhaps other modes on its usual schedule:
Sunday 2130-2200 UTC - 15770kHz via WRMI Florida
Sunday 2330-2400 UTC - 11580kHz via WRMI Florida
Monday 2000-2030 UTC - 6070kHz via Channel 292 Germany
Consult https://www.facebook.com/digidx/ for any additions or changes to this schedule.

Thank you for your reception reports from last weekend. Reception was especially difficult on Sunday due to a solar event. I am now compiling the gallery of MFSK images from program 137, and will try to send that out this weekend.

Early next week I will send information about programs 164 and 165, to be broadcast during the last two weekends of May.

I hope you can tune in and write in this weekend.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter

srijeda, 11. svibnja 2016.

All India Radio (via Bengaluru)

While some sources say how All India Radio is about to give up shortwave, I still managed to get a QSL card from them. 

All India Radio was heard on March 25th, 2016, from around 21:20 to 21:45 UTC, transmitting from Bengaluru transmitter. Frequency was 9445 kHz.

While AIR transmissions are terribly noisy sometimes, and can make a lot of troubles for other broadcasters to transmit, this was exactly the example here. SINPO indeed was 55555, but the band just looked horrible and this had to be addressed.
The noise from AIR transmitter (heard from SDR in Twente)


It was Good Friday on the very day I listened to the English service, and story of Good Friday was told, as well as announcements for Saturday (next day) were heard.

Reception report was submitted to AIR on the same day. QSL card arrived in the mail on May 10th, 2016.

Back of the QSL card
QSL card, depicting the Shire Temple


(e-mail : spectrum-manager@air.org.in)

nedjelja, 8. svibnja 2016.

Radio Latino

Radio Latino e-QSL card, received for transmission done on March 19th, 2016, at around 19:30-19:46 UTC, on 7620 kHz. e-QSL received 49 days leter, with sincere apologies for the delay. E-mail sent to radiolatino@live.com.

Europe 24 (via Kall-Krekel)


Europe 24 QSL card arrived, after a long long wait. After an email sent firstly to test6150@yahoo.com, and on 25th of March this year resent to europe24onshortwave@yahoo.com, I finally managed to receive the QSL card. Actually, the real date I reported reception was September 10th, 2015! Frequency was 6150 kHz!

srijeda, 27. travnja 2016.

Radio Slovakia International (via Kall-Krekei)


Radio Slovakia International, transmitting from Kall-Krekei, was logged on 6005 kHz, from 14:30 to 14:40 UTC, on April 16th, 2016.

French service of the RSI programme was observed. There was garage rock song playing, along with the female commentary during the programme. was observed.

Back of the detailed written QSL card
Although reception was pretty good during the broadcast, there were certainly some flaws. SINPO was 34233, with noise being the major problem of the broadcast.

Front of the QSL card
Reception report was sent on April 16th, 2016. Detailed written QSL card arrived in the mail 10 days later, on April 26th, 2016.

email : rsi_french@slovakradio.sk







Radio Vaticana (via Santa Maria di Galeria)



Radio Vaticana, transmitting from Santa Maria di Galeria, was logged on 15570 kHz, from around 17:30 to 17:45 UTC. Date was April 17th, 2016.

Look at all this promo material from Radio Vaticana!
Radio Vaticana usually covers news in a very good and very stylish way. Report on same-sex marriage was heard, and one thing that was really good about it - there was no hate speech, and there was rational discussing about it. Those 15 minutes were well worth a listen!

SINPO was 55555 (SIO 555), with reception being amazing as most of the transmissions on Radio Vaticana. 

Reception report was sent on April 17th, 2016. QSL card, along with promo material from Radio Vaticana, arrived on April 26th, 2016.

E-mail : english@vatiradio.va

Back of the QSL card
Front of the QSL card


utorak, 19. travnja 2016.

Radio Belarus (via Kall-Krekei)



Confirmation letter of Radio Belarus
I was an avid listener of Radio Belarus while they were still present on shortwave radio. I logged them a couple of times on the shortwave when they were transmitting from Minsk, or from Kall transmitter. I really liked their reports about political, economical, ethnic and social life in Belarus.

Radio Belarus, transmitting from Kall-Krekel transmitter, was logged on March 23rd, 2016, from 22:47 - 23:00 UTC on 3985 kHz. German service was observed at the time.

I know a bit of German, so that is how I identified the program. Radio Belarus' transmissions were usually really handy for learning German and English too. Report about Romani people in Belarus occured, as well as another show, and later, female singing with accompanion of acoustic guitar started (this might be classified as pop song, I have no idea).

One thing that surprised me during this broadcast was really good reception. With outstanding SINPO of 45554, signal reception was outstanding and pretty good!

Goodies from Radio Belarus (I also got a pen but couldn't scan it - scan just looked horrific)


Reception report was emailed the same day. The biggest package of goodies I have ever received arrived on March 18th, 2016 Thank you, Radio Belarus. It was such honor to listen to your program, and you've learned me a lot about Belarus's life.

Email : radio_belarus@tvr.by

The "membership certificate" and very nice note left in the certificate











petak, 15. travnja 2016.

Voice of America Radiogram, 16-17 April 2016

Hello friends,

Reception was good last weekend, allowing for successful decodes, including the nuances of the gray-scale images. Here is the photo of the migrant as decoded by Dmitry in Kursk, Russia, on 15670 kHz …


VOA Radiogram this weekend will include a seven-minute segment of Olivia 64-2000, so let’s hope for poor reception to give this slow-but-robust mode a workout. If reception conditions are good, try a cheap receiver, or a compromised antenna, or a location with electrical noise.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 159, 16-17 April 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:
1:31 Program preview
2:39 Octopus makes daring escape*
7:53 Kerry calls for more connectivity in poor countries*
12:42 Trolleybuses in Moscow to be retired*
16:10 Olivia 64-2000: Tiny spacecraft to explore space
23:21 MFSK32: Closing announcements*

*with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.
VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

The Mighty KBC will have an extra digital mode transmission this weekend. The usual minute of MFSK32 is Sunday at about 0220 UTC (Saturday 10:20 pm EDT), on 6040 kHz, via Germany, part of KBC’s broadcast to North America Sunday 0000-0300 UTC. Eric van Willegen’s Giant Juke Box show will then be repeated to Europe, Sunday, 0800-1000 UTC, on 6095 kHz, also via Nauen, Germany. The MFSK32 will be at about 0920 UTC. Outside of Europe, you can listen viahttp://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ .

DigiDX will transmit MFSK32 and possibly other modes …
Sunday 2130-2220 UTC - 15770kHz - via WRMI Florida
Sunday 2330-2400 UTC - 11580kHz - via WRMI Florida
Monday 2000-2030 UTC - 6070kHz – via Channel 292 Germany
Consult http://www.digidx.uk/ for any additions or changes to this schedule.

Thank you for your reception reports last weekend. In keeping with the pattern of alternating between oldest and newest reports, I am now compiling the gallery of MFSK images from program 158. I hope to start sending those out this weekend.

Please tune in and write in.



Kim
Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net
Twitter: @VOARadiogram

ponedjeljak, 11. travnja 2016.

KBS World Radio (via Woofferton)

KBS World Radio, transmitting from Woofferton, was heard on 6145 kHz, from 19:17 to 19:34 UTC, on April 7th, 2016. It was monitored from Enschede SDR, because on my Grundig, only carrier was heard. The service was French, and that is pretty much it from "formal reception report".

This was one of the KBS's strongest transmissions ever heard. Propagation was good at that time, and Woofferton is only 650 kilometers away, so SINPO was 55555 - excellent transmission.

Female commentary and couple of rap and pop songs appeared during the broadcast. It was quite interesting French programme to hear. Anyway, reception report was filled and sent to KBS World Radio. At April 10th, 2016, email from French service came.

E-mail from KBS

Let's hope for a QSL! 

E-mail : french@kbs.co.kr (for French service solely)

SQ9S QSL (DX Adam)

SQ9S is the callsign of Adam Grzenia, Polish ham-radio operator. I heard him 2 days ago via SSB (voice) communication at 13:20 UTC. I can't remember the frequency, but I am sure that it was somewhere on the 40m band.

Adam is very good ham radio operator and I will consider this QSL one of the most valuable ones, especially for the reason because he is one of my huge influences, and with his DX Adam blog, he made an influence on me.

DX Adam is name of his blog, which is pretty much straightforward blog about QSL'ing and QSL cards he gets. His collection of pirate and legal broadcasters is pretty impressive. You can check it out here.

petak, 8. travnja 2016.

Newsflash Radio Mi Amigo International - April 2016

Hello to all in the big Radio Mi Amigo family,
For this month just a short Newsflash, but with two very important things !!

1. Johnny Lewis joined our team, and his first show can be heard on Tuesday, 12th of April, and than every Tuesday at 2pm CEST on 6005 and 7pm CEST on 6005 and 3985 kHz SW
Johnny worked in the 70s and 80s for Radio Caroline on the Mi Amigo and the Ross Revenge and also for Laser on the Comunicator as well as on the Voice of Peace.
If you like to hear some of the original recordings with Johnny from that time tune in at 12 midday CEST this Saturday on 6005 and 9560 or online via radiomiamigointernational.com

Please give Johnny a very warm welcome and write a mail to: johnny@radiomiamigointernational.com , if its just a "Hello and welcome", a music request or whatever, thanks a lot !



2. Our big Spring Competition
The first month of our competition is over and we say congratulations to the first winner of March getting a Radio Mi Amigo Souvenir package: Ursula Klein, Köln, Germany
Dont forget to send in your audio-file to win one of our monthly prizes or even one of the big prizes at the end of March:
2 tickets for the European Football Championship, for the Final at the July 10, 2016 in Paris
2 VIP tickets to the Mi Amigo party to be broadcast live on-air onboard the Veronica ship in Amsterdam, Sunday 24th July 2016, staying the night of 23rdJuly in a floating hotel anchored nearby

All infos: http://radiomiamigointernational.com/english/competition.html (english) -- http://radiomiamigointernational.com/nederlands/competition.html (dutch) -- http://radiomiamigointernational.com/deutsch/competition.html (german)
                           


In the next Newsletter in May there will be all information about our big party at the end of July on the former Radio Veronica ship in Amsterdam, how you can join the great fun, what we are planning, and which presenters you will meet there live ! Hope to see you all there, it will be great fun, keep this date free and dont plan other things !!!

Have a great April with Radio Mi Amigo International, the fastest grwoing AM station, bringing back the golden era of offshore AM radio

kind regards

The Radio Mi Amigo International Team

Voice of America Radiogram, program 158 announcement




Hello friends,

The German communications regulator Bundesnetzagentur has changed its mind about allowing digital modes on shortwave broadcast transmitters in Germany. Apparently BNetzA thought that Channel 292 was transmitting the text and images in single sideband (SSB), which is how amateurs, military, etc, transmit the digital modes. Now that they know that the MFSK32 and other modes are sent as program audio on an analogue amplitude-modulation shortwave transmitter, their objections were withdrawn. (It's similar to A2A modulated CW.)

BNetzA prefers that the term MFSK32 not be used to describe these broadcasts, but we have to specify the mode so that you can set Fldigi or other decoding software to the correct mode. In any case, the weekly MFSK32 transmission will resume on The Mighty KBC, and DigiDX will return to Channel 292.

Meanwhile, VOA Radiogram this weekend will be all MFSK32 except for the transmission schedule in Olivia 64-2000 under the closing music.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 158, 9-10 April 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:32 Program preview
2:46 China domain name rules*
11:58 South Korea blocks North Korea Tech website*
18:09 Mars Opportunity rover photographs dust devil*
23:01 Photo of migrant from RFE/RL Top Shots*
26:24 Closing announcements*
28:01 Olivia 64-2000: Frequencies under music

* with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

The Mighty KBC will (after a one-week break) transmit a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at about 0220 UTC (Saturday 10:20 pm EDT) on 6040 kHz, via Germany. Sometimes the MFSK32 is as late as 0228 UTC. Reports for this KBC reception to Eric:themightykbc@gmail.com

DigiDX will broadcast DX news in MFSK32 (and perhaps other modes) …
Sunday 2130 UTC 15570kHz via WRMI (Florida)
Sunday 2330 UTC 11580kHz via WRMI (Florida)
Monday 2000 UTC 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Germany)
Check http://www.digidx.uk/ for any changes or additions to this schedule.

Thank you for your reports to VOA Radiogram last weekend. I am now compiling the MFSK image gallery from program 136 (November 2015) and hope to send that out this weekend.

Fldigi saves decoded MFSK images as png files in the folder \fldigi.files\images\. When you send a reception report, please attach those png files.

I hope you can tune in and write in this weekend.


Kim
Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net
Twitter: @voaradiogram (especially active before, during, and after broadcasts)

utorak, 5. travnja 2016.

How to do a reception report via e-mail

I know. There are many how-to guides on doing reception reports, or even books. But, nobody has really, as far as I know, written a somewhat comprehensive guide on e-mail reception reporting.

E-mail reception reporting is quite new to the DX community. Or is it? Anyway, it exists for like 15 years or so, so I may not call that "very new" but it is quite new. There are many benefits of doing reception reports via e-mail, you don't have to pay for postage, no rushing to post offices and so on. From my personal experience, big broadcasters like Radio Romania International, or NHK World Radio Japan will reply with a paper QSL, some with reply with e-QSL, some with confirmation letters, some will just say "Yes" or "cfrmd" or anything like that- but you will also have to face the fact that many stations are not going to respond to first or second reception report. I sent over a dozen reception reports to Deutsche Welle before they finally acknowledged my Ascension report. Anyway, here is a guide of doing reception reports via e-mail. Some are even not going to reply at all.

1. Find a correct e-mail address to contact the station.

This can be very tricky and difficult at times, maybe harder than finding postal address. Anyway, some stations' e-mails aren't that easy to find. If you ever try to contact a station, you have to have their e-mail first. For major broadcasters, e-mails are not that hard to find. I usually go at their websites to check their e-mail addresses for appropriate departments. But usually, that didn't work so well. Some departments didn't reply. I switched to another way. There are many DX and SWL blogs on the internet, which, with their reception reports, also provide contact details for the station. Almost every blog under "blogs that I follow" section on my websites have the contact details for every station they QSL'd. I would suggest either checking the broadcaster' websites or checking some good DX blogs. Check out South East Asia DX-ingMaresme DXDX Adam, or some other good DX blogs. Each of those blogs have links to other blogs which usually follow the same procedure. Some of stations, like Voice of Indonesia and Radio Veritas Asia have contact forms which you can fill, without going to your e-mail address and typing out station's email addresses. If you do want to reach out with reception reports, here are e-mails of some major broadcasters :

China Radio International - yinglian@cri.com.cn
Radio Romania International - rri@rri.ro
Voice of America -letters@voa.gov
Voice of Vietnam - vovworld@vov.org.vn
Voice of Turkey - englishdesk@trt.net.tr

2. Begin with reception report.

Many people usually find this really hard to start with or to begin with.  After you found the correct address, start with addressing the one to whom it may concern. If you're, let's say writing to Radio Romania International, you can start with "Dear sir/madam", or "Dear Radio Romania International", it doesn't really matter how you address them as long as it is appropriate and not insulting. After you have addressed them, you can start anyhow. I started off first with "I'm reporting your reception", because I was too scared to say anything else. When I started doing reception reports more often, I started with "I'm happy to say that I have listened to your programme", because it sounds more relaxed and optimistic. Anyway, in the intro of reception report, you must (or at least I see people doing so) include frequency, receiver you tuned with, QTH (place where you got the station from), time in UTC and QSL request (of course, if you want one). Date is optional, but you will include all of this in "technical details" section, which you will write later, if you will.

Anyway, it should look like this :

"Dear _______________,
I'm really happy to say that I have received your station and heard your programme. Your station was at _____________(frequency), and you were heard from ______ to _______ (time in UTC). Receiver you were heard from was ______________ (receiver), which was located in _________ (location). If my reception report of your programme was correct, I hope that you will send me a QSL card, but e-QSL will do too.

This really depends on your personal QSL taste. I usually like paper QSL cards the most, or confirmation letters, but I also understand stations that will have to pay all the costs for postage and stamping QSL cards. That's why I also ask for e-QSL cards or even confirmation letters. Anything, so I could know whether my reception report was right or not. If you, however, do want a paper QSL, leave your postal address below. I know, this might get a little risky, because you are afraid you gave out your postal address, but trust me and DX community - there are people who DX for 30 or 40 years, and nothing bad has ever happened to them. With giving out your postal address or basically any kind of contact information, you can start with your technical details and everything that is about reception report.

3. Write down technical details of reception reports

Some people may consider writing some factors of transmission redundant, but I always type some details twice, they are very important concerning the transmission. First thing that I always type is date. You have to type the date of transmission (for date and times in UTC check this site), and after that, I usually type the name of the station I listened to. Of course, this really depends on the station you are writing reception report to. After that, I usually type RX site (which is the site I listened the station to). This is really important for the station, so I always make sure I type that. After RX site, I type the TX site (which is the site the station has transmitted from), of course, you can't know where the station transmitted from, unless that station, like Voice of Turkey, has 1 transmitter. There are many useful sites like Shortwave ScheduleShort-Wave.info or so on. Short-wave.info is better in my opinion, it also has the interactive map, and you can find the correct transmission you have listened to. After that, I added SINPO, but you do not need that. You will add that later, in signal comments. Frequency is one of the most important things in the reception report. Without correct frequency, I hardly doubt any station will accept your reception report. You have to write down the frequency during your listening, so you would not have troubles in searching the correct programme. Next very important thing about writing a reception report (I might have focused too much on usual reception report, but for everyone that has already read reception report, this is just a revision of the subject), is UTC time. Some stations (like Voice of Indonesia) also accept your time, but if you do that, they also request you to type your time zone (+0100 or +0200 or whatever time zone you are). For UTC time check, see this site, and for time zone, check this site. Also, an important issue about reception reporting is receiver you have used to report this reception.  In case you have used SDR receiver, make sure to write down the location of the SDR. It is really important because of location. And most of SDR sites also have specifications included. For reception reports, you wouldn't need every single thing about SDR - you will only need the antenna. You can also add the language service has been broadcasting on - but that is optional. I usually add the language station has been broadcasting on - just in case if I have added something wrong, this will somehow help in correcting the wrong details. Of course, you can't use this when you're reporting something like VOA Radiogram.

This is how the reception report looks (SINPO is optional)

4. Signal comments

One thing you should really get extensive about is station's signal comments. During your listening, you should also check the station signal comments. Signal comments are usually rated with SINPO code. I thought I should explain what is SINPO code, but I have found this great photo online, which shows you how can you define station's SINPO code and what is SINPO code. Some people use only the signal, interference and overall code (SIO) or SINFO code (with propagation replaced for fading, which is basically the same word). You can also get really, really subjective with signal report - the more you get subjective, the more help this will get to the station.


5. Programme comments

Possibly the best proof you have listened to the station is writing down everything you heard during the transmission. Try to identify almost everything - name of the programme that was going on, name of the hosts, some bits they have mentioned in the show, maybe song names. I usually use Shazam to identify songs -  but you can just describe songs, and it will be alright. Programme comments usually follow the same doctrine as signal comments - the more subjective you get, the better. Also, mark the time when the event happened, of course, you can do it in your local time, but you will have to note that somewhere. I would recommend UTC times again, it is much easier to you and the station too. If you can't identify something, or name of the hosts as example, just use "male host" or "female host", it will still help at some point. Photo below shows you how it should look like.

RRI programme details
And that's it, folks. You have written an e-reception report. One thing you should add if you are an avid listener of the particular station you are writing to, is certainly feedback. If you are reporting to national public broadcaster, you should leave them a feedback of how good are they in representating their nation on shortwave or anything they are good at, or anything they should improve in their broadcasts. 

If you follow those steps - you will get a successful reception report via e-mail, and I do hope that this tutorial helped you to start, or if you are already doing reception reports - hopefully it brought something more into your knowledge.

73!







nedjelja, 3. travnja 2016.

SDR - random DX, March 3rd, 2016

I usually don't have so much time to turn my receiver on and set antennas and everything, so I just use SDR receivers. I used Enschede one this time.

These are (some of) logs I logged today. Enjoy.

549 kHz - Radio Koper, report about cooking muffin-like breads and music, male host. Significant interference with Jil FM. SINPO 31343.

1625 kHz - Unidentified pirate station, playing "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. Very strong signal. SINPO 55455.

3435 kHz - Very weak male communication in English. Those could be freebanders, or RAF, as it was noted few months ago. But, who knows? SINPO 21111.

3881 kHz - Possibly M51, but according to Priyom, this station is gone for a year. 5 group messages arriving, but I see no other option than M51 from France, run by DGSE.

6070 kHz - Flying Rock Circus radio via Channel 292, surprisingly good signal. "Just a Gigolo" playing, but not the Louis Prima version. SINPO 54555.

6305 kHz - Radio Marabu, weak signal, music, and identification by male voice. Very weak signal, but "Radio Marabu" identification was heard loud and clear. SINPO 22122.

9745 kHz - Firedrake jamming Radio Free Asia. It is a normal thing now, but according to A16 schedule, Firedrake is now also on 9355 kHz. SINPO 44554.

15670 kHz - Voice of America radiogram, but significantly weaker than it used to be. Various news, including Latvia's blocking of Sputnik News, earthquake reports and so on. SINPO 44444.



petak, 1. travnja 2016.

VOA Radiogram, 2-3 April 2016

Hello friends,

New this weekend is the elimination of the digital text modes from shortwave transmitters in Germany. 

The German regulator Bundesnetzagentur has ruled that the digital modes are not allowed in the broadcast bands. Because of this, there will be no MFSK32 on The Mighty KBC this weekend, because it uses a transmitter in Nauen, Germany. And, for the time being, there will be no DigiDX MFSK broadcasts on Channel 292, 6070 kHz, and Radio 700, 3985 kHz.

Listeners in Germany might want to note these arguments for the digital modes on the shortwave broadcast bands: 1) It is broadcasting, not point-to-point communication. 2) It can be received on any shortwave radio, even inexpensive portables with no SSB capability. (Software is required to decode the text and images, but this can be included in future shortwave radios.) 3) DRM is legal on the shortwave broadcast bands, and DRM can transmit text and images. 4) Text and images via analog radio requires less spectrum (bandwidth) than DRM. 5) Text and images via analog radio are a useful new application for underutilized shortwave transmitters and frequencies. 6) Text and images via analog radio extend the range of a shortwave transmitter, resulting in accurate content in conditions where voice transmissions may be unintelligible. 7) Digital modes via shortwave can be a useful alternative when the Internet is not available due to disasters or to net censorship by dictators.

VOA Radiogram, program 157, 2-3 April 2016 is all MFSK32 except for the transmission schedule in Olivia 64-2000 under the closing music:

1:35 Program preview
2:48 Asia at risk for water shortages*
10:25 Seismic risk map now includes quakes caused by humans*
17:05 Latvia blocks Russia's Sputnik website*
22:20 View bald eagles in Washington via Nest Cam*
25:30 Closing announcements*
28:05 Olivia 64-2000: Transmission schedule

* with image
Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.
And visit voaradiogram.net.
Twitter: @VOARadiogram

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

Digital modes on The Mighty KBC (via Germany) and DigiDX (via Channel 292, 6070 kHz, and Radio 700, 3985 kHz, both via Germany) will not be available this weekend for reasons stated above. DigiDX will be available via WRMI, Florida, Sunday at 2130-2200 UTC on 15770 kHz and 2330-2400 UTC on 11580 kHz.

Thank you for your reception reports to VOA Radiogram last weekend. I am now compiling the gallery for program 136 (November 2015) and hope to send it to listeners this weekend.

Kim
Kim Andrew Elliot
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net
Twitter: @VOARadiogram.net

ponedjeljak, 28. ožujka 2016.

The end of the mighty Mighty KBC

So, another station left shortwave, sadly. Apparently, Mighty KBC left shortwave because of lack of funding and sponsors. As I said in some previous blog entries, Mighty KBC was an awesome programme on shortwave.

Apart from political and religious content, which often needs time and concentration to think about ; this station was a fountain of concentration. It provided a lot of good music like Fleetwood Mac, Brian Setzer, Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and so on...I often did my chores and works with this station.
I was away when the last transmission happened, however, Mark Hoppenstedt shared Mighty KBC's final moments on YouTube.


Radio Canada International broadcasting again via Radio 700!

I have never seen Radio Canada International broadcasting. So I think that gives you an impression of how long I'm into SWL-ing. (It's been a year and a half now.)

Anyway, Stephen Cooper from group "Shortwave Radio Station Listeners", which I highly recommend joining, shared this link, which shows Radio 700's programmes they are going to relay.
And, I was kind of surprised to see Radio Canada International on there.

For those of you who aren't in possibility of clicking a link, I'm bringing you the broadcasting times here.

Saturday - 6005 kHz - 14:30-15:30 UTC
Saturday - 7310 kHz - 14:00-14:30 UTC


Radio Supersound

QSL from Radio Supersound
Rig of Radio Supersound
Radio Supersound was heard on March 23rd, 2016 from 15:09 to 15:24 UTC on 6297 kHz. As usual, I listen to pirate stations from SDR receiver in Enschede, considering they are very easy to hear there and you can identify one also in the chatbox.

SINPO was 22423 - with a lot of noise, but still, signal weakness was the problem that appeared during the broadcast. Many songs were heard during broadcast, but I only recognized Jermaine Jackson's "When The Rain Begins To Fall" and "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)" by Flock of Seagulls.

Reception report was sent on the same day. The e-QSL arrived on March 28th, 2016. (QSL card is pictured below.)

E-mail : superstudio1a@gmx.de
Antenna of Radio Supersound









nedjelja, 27. ožujka 2016.

Radio Mustang

Thought I would like to share with you this very nice e-QSL card I received during my time listening to Radio Mustang. Date was March 19th, 2016, and time listening was 19:53 UTC - 20:11 UTC. Of course, you can always (well not always), find Mustang Radio on Twente SDR, and maybe from your QTH if you have some luck.

This transmission was listened from SDR receiver in Enschede, because my transmitter was too far away for reception of this transmission. SINPO was 44444 - good transmission after all. This station hooked me up on "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and The Papas.

E-mail address : mustangradio@live.nl

Enjoy with California Dreamin'.



Voice of Vietnam (via Hanoi-Sontay)



Voice of Vietnam, transmitting from Hanoi-Sontay, was logged on March 23rd, 2016. Time monitored was 16:40 UTC - 16:57 UTC. Voice of Vietnam was heard on 9730 kHz, with my equipment used - Grundig RTV820 HiFi and Trentin UT-2 speakers, with stock antenna.

SINPO was surprisingly good - 54555. It was very loud and clear, but interference still appeared. In reception report, I stated that it was programme at 9720 kHz. That was Uyghur service of Radio Free Asia being jammed by Firedrake jammer, so I guess that gives you an image of things this transmission had to cope with!

Report about Vietnam economy, specifically macroeconomy, occured, as well as various genres of music, included rap and soft ballads. 

Reception report was emailed the same day. From one of the emails I sent the reception report (golosvietnama@mail.ru), a response came on Russian language.

E-mail sent to me.
I would ask for an assistance, but with a little help of Google Translate, common sense and personal knowledge, Voice of Vietnam wrote :

"Dear Kristian Kolar!
Thank you very much for your reception report.
A QSL card will be sent by regular mail.
We hope that you will listen to us and we hope that you will also keep up a correspondence. 
Regards,
Voice of Vietnam, Russian service"

I'm excited for this one. I still haven't got one from Voice of Vietnam.

E-mail address : golosvietnama@mail.ru


utorak, 22. ožujka 2016.

Logs for September 22nd, 2016.

4029 kHz - Laser Hot Hits International playing some kind of dance music. SINPO 22222.

8424 kHz - "de SVO de SVO de SVO" - SVO/Olympia Radio. Morse code. SINPO 55555, clear and loud Morse code heard.

9265 kHz - WINB, transmitting from Red Lion. This station was heard unusually loud here, but heavily distrupted by transmitter fault or even Russian "Container" radar. Who knows?

9775 kHz - CNR 2 China Business Radio with better signal than usual. Chinese soft pop song heard. SINPO 34444.

11860 kHz - Radio Sanaa heard. Weak female commentary and later male commentary with oriental music heard. SINPO 22222.

Not really much logs, but you probably get the impression how is listening in Croatia going.

utorak, 15. ožujka 2016.

Voice of Turkey (via Emirler)

Voice of Turkey, transmitting from Emirler, Turkey, was heard on February 22nd, 2016 at frequency of 15350 kHz. They were heard from SDR receiver located in Enschede (yes, I know I listen to a lot of a transmissions from Enschede, but my radio, considering it is old and usually has a lot of troubles breaks down a lot), and their Turkish service was observed. Time listening was 10:55-11:05 UTC.

Voice of Turkey transmissions can vary in their quality a lot. But this transmission was loud and clear, and I guess propagation said "Sure, why not?", and SINPO was 55555.

Various programmes were heard, including Turkiye pop songs, with one of them having the guitar solo at the end. Time ticks at 11:00 UTC announced news, which lasted until 11:05 UTC. Both female and male had their commentary.

QSL report was sent the same day, with QSL and this...thing came in my mail on March 14th, 2016.

Before I post QSL photos, I would like express my sorrow for recent events that happened in Ankara, with 37 people killed. My heart goes out to all the people that have lost someone in this attack and all the people that were in medias res. Stay strong. Read the full article here.

E-mail : englishdesk@trt.net.tr





Back of the QSL.

This upside down photo of the QSL shows the Pax Ottomani, a global peace established by Ottomans.

What is this?