New Antenna : Good Night of DXing
Well, I finally got around to putting up a new antenna. I had been using about a 40 foot wire that ran out my window and up the hill along the group. I had been picking up a lot of interference, and not really able to pull in that many stations.
Well, today, I ran about 60 feet of wire, but elevated it from a pole on the hill to the side of my house. Pretty simple, but the difference in reception tonight has been amazing. I have been getting tons of stations, but the best two of the night were:
- Radio Free Asia : 7480 Khz. 0115z - 0158z. SIO : 343 initially, ending at 111. Broadcast from Dushanbe, Tajikistan in Uyghur into Eastern China. Music played for the entire time. Oriental Music.
- Radio New Zealand : 9765. 0721z - 0800z. SIO: 444. Broadcasting to South Pacific. National Radio Show (Interviews), and news at the top of the hour.
I was most excited by the Radio Free Asia catch. I was scanning and picked up the music which was interesting (sounded exotic / Chinese). I started researching the frequency and time, and the only thing that matched was Radio Free Asia broadcasting in Uyghur out of Dushanbe, Tajikistan (which is on the opposite side of the earth from San Francisco). Over the hour, the signal got progressively worse. It was just after sunset here, so I was guessing that I was getting a grayline effect, which was allowing me to pull in the broadcast. Sure enough, I checked a grayline map, and San Francisco was at dusk, just as Dushanbe was at dawn. Music was playing the entire time, and by the end of the hour, I had pretty much lost the signal, so I was not able to get an on air ID. I am going to try again tomorrow night and try to get a 100% positive ID.
Also, I sent in a report about the broken street light that was causing so much interference on my Radio, and it looks like they already turned off power to the light. I am not getting interference from it anymore, and when I checked it, it no longer seems to be trying to turn on (which was causing the interference).
I was going to try and get some sleep tonight, but I think I am going to try and see if I can pull in a decent signal from North Korea. I wonder if they send out QSL cards?
Man, I am getting hooked on my shortwave.
