Too much interference? Get in the car
Well, I have been pretty frustrated for the past week or so, as I have realized that there is just too much RF and electrical interference in my house. It is making shortwave listening difficult. Some of the interference is from my house (electrical system is really noisy), and some is from the neighbors.
As I posted earlier, I put up a long wire antenna, and this drastically improved my signal strength. However, it lead to two problems. First, the increased antenna power is overloading my receiver, and I am receiving AM stations all through the shortwave bands. Second, the antenna I currently have up comes directly into the house, and thus picks up all of the RF noise from the house. I put up a test antenna that comes into the house via a shielded cable, but reception was very bad with a lot of noise (I am guessing I did something wrong).
Anyways, I have been pretty frustrated, so I decided to hop in the car, and head up to the top of the hill (Walter Hass Park which overlooks San Francisco) to see if it was my location, or maybe all shortwave reception is bad. I planned on just checking for 5 minutes, but ended up staying over an hour because the reception was so good.
Here is what I picked up (January 11, 2007 UTC):
- 0653 Khz (probably should be 6055 but lots of interference from Radio Havana at 6060) 0617 UTC - 0629 UTC : SIO 433 : French language. Mention the Congo. News, Bush / Putin / Irag, and sports scores. I think I caught a BBC mention, and the frequency charts say this is BBC (which would be my first BBC hit since I started back in shortwave). Broadcast from Ascension Islands
- 6080 Khz : 0633 - 0636 : VOA News. Very strong signal. Originated from Sao Tome, which mean this was my first African reception.
- 6120 Khz : 0636 UTC - 0642 UTC : SIO : 555 : China Radio International, Voices from Other Lands program with Roy Kiehe. Discussion with an author of a book on the Balkans.
- 9580 Khz : 0650 UTC : SIO 232 : Very faint music. Sound Africa, and I think I also picked up some French. This was a very weak signal, and the only reason I am posting because according to the schedules, it might have been a broadcast from Gabon.
- 9765 Khz 0655 - 0700 UTC : Strong Signal. Radio New Zealand. Playing some music.
I would have actually stayed much longer, but 1) I was freezing. It was about 40 degrees F, and I was in shorts and slippers, and 2), I half expected the cops to come by and check out what I was doing in a car with a long wire hanging out, occasionally blinking a Flash light (which I needed to take notes).
It was a ton of fun though, and reminded me how much fun the shortwave can be. I am still going to try to figure out how to fix some of the noise issues at my house, and am planning some shortwave camping trips.
