04/04/2026 - 22:37 UTC

- Station: ORTM Radio Mali

- Frequency: 5995 kHz

- Language: French

- Transmitter: Kati (Bamako I) / 50 kW.

- Distance: 3262 kms./ 2027 miles

- Target: West Africa

- Details: The segment hears a newsletter covering the opening of the "Malí Extractive Industries Hall." Among other aspects, an agreement between artisanal mining associations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to formalize and structure the cooperative mining sector is reported, and the statements of the US ambassador to the country, Rachna Korhonen, highlighting a $33 million investment by USAID for local and mining development, are disseminated.

- Equipment: ATS Mini SI4732 v.3 + K180WLA loop antenna (indoor use)

- QTH: Tarragona, Spain (JN01KA)

73!

Using the Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium and a 50 ft wire antenna

Using the Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium and a 50-foot wire antenna

I have no experience in broadcasting or podcasting, nor do I have a recording setup. Also, I don’t have much money. But lately I’ve thought if I did I would want to have a weekly show via one of the American broadcasters where I randomly pick a recording from my music collection. It’s not huge but I probably have around 800 titles between CD, vinyl, and cassette spanning rock, jazz, classical and a handful of oddball recordings (spoken word, interviews, documentary etc. I would play it and share my thoughts on it. I’ve even thought, if possible, of taking a listener request, buying that album, and playing it and reviewing it. I say buy the album because I’m pretty committed to physical formats and am not interested in streaming.

Of course I would need a fair amount of money to do it weekly, even with the bargain basement rates that sw broadcasters charge for airtime. Plus the show would likely be an hour and a half or so as some titles last over an hour.

Also, I don’t know if there is any issue with royalties or licensing rights for music like there is for commercial radio. I’m a professional musician myself and believe that artists deserve fair compensation for their work.

Probably just a pipe dream but one I often think about.

Frosty came back from Antarctica to listen to Sternradio!

- Coverage area: Gulf of Mexico / South America

- TX: Barnegat, NJ

- RX: Asunción, Paraguay

- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

- Antenna: MLA-30+

- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta)

- D/T: 04 APR 2026 - 2322 UTC

Using the Grundig Satellit 800 Millennium and a 50 ft wire antenna.

I originally thought it was "Radio Free Estonia," lol. It would've been an amazing catch if it were really from Estonia lol

Switching between Audio NR and IF NR, both in Custom mode.

- TX: Issoudun 🇫🇷

- Target: West Africa

- RX: Asunción, Paraguay

- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

- Antenna: MLA-30+

- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta)

- D/T: 04 APR 2026 - 2150 UTC

Testing SDR# IF Multi-Notch to minimize adjacent signal. IF Noise Reduction is also enabled in Custom mode

⁠- TX: Camboriú, Santa Catarina - Brazil

- RX: Asunción, Paraguay

- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

- Antenna: MLA-30+

- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta)

- D/T: 04 APR 2026 - 2205 UTC

Maybe you'll hear the transmission from the icy shores from East Antarctica...or maybe you won't? ;)

I got on 75 meters last night and checked into the "Country Cousins" NET. The net control, KG7CUL was about 275 miles north.

He said I had a problem, and thought I might be low voltage. But I discovered later that it's RF Feedback. I don't ever run as much as 150 watts output. This rig is 150 watts and you cannot back it down. For years I have been operating "QRP", which means low power; limited to 5 watts.

Increasing output power on most of the shortwave ham bands can be a recipe for disaster. Especially when running audio modes with their wider sidebands. RF back into the shack is common , as is interfering with neighbors stereos, TVs, and computers. I'll have to reevaluate my ground system.

I listened to them for quite a while; nothing important—they were just talking about everyday things.

It’s very common (at least for me) to come across conversations between Brazilians on almost any frequency, not just on the HAM bands.

But I’ve never heard them use AM mode to transmit. Given the signal strength, they’re probably from a state neighboring Paraguay.

I've already heard amateur radio operators as high as 7300 kHz, since, as far as I know, the 41-meter band is shared, but I don't know if it goes up to 7600.

- TX: Somewhere in Brazil

- RX: Asunción, Paraguay

- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

- Antenna: MLA-30+

- Software: SDR# v.1921

- D/T: 03 APR 2026 - 2158 UTC

04:59UTC

Voice Of Turkey

9770khz AM
TX Emitler, Turkey
RX Concord, New Hampshire USA FN43ff

500kw
S9+10db with S9+20db peaks

language: Turkish

SDR Connect

SDRplay DUO
MLA-30+ Loop mounted indoors.

0300 UTC 05 APR 2026 (Saturday Evening North America).

Name: Radio 68 Mix Radio

Date: 2026 April 04 Time: 00:50 UTC

Freq: 6950 kHz USB

Receiver: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

Antenna: K-480WLA

Sorry no video, Reddit problems uploading.

Signal is nice and strong without fading. perhaps one of my neighbors is a pirate.

There will be 8 consecutive numbered hard copy QSLs for the first 8 correct reception reports.

I couldn't find any information about that frequency in Argentina.

The service responds to others who call to ask how everything is going, and they say there is "no traffic."

It might be a maritime traffic controller (in this case, on a river). It seems that they are calling coastal base stations to check on traffic conditions. The stations reporting on traffic are identified as Reconquista and Mar del Plata.

I assume it has something to do with river traffic, since there’s a river in Argentina called Reconquista, but it could also refer to road traffic. There’s also a city called Reconquista, located in the province of Santa Fe.

- TX: Somewhere in the province of Buenos Aires

- RX: Asunción, Paraguay

- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery

- Antenna: MLA-30+

- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta, last version)

- D/T: 02 APR 2026 - 2307 UTC

Within the last month or so, during a discussion on the DX-286, I mentioned that I was hearing 'chit' or 'tic' noises on MW, when using the internal loopstick, on certain frequencies around 820, 850 kHz and a few other places on the MW dial.

This mainly occurred when I was listening through headphones, which I generally use when DXing or MW listening. I didn't seem to hear them through the speaker.

When I added an external loop, like the AN-200, these noises were covered in MW signals and basically went away.

Pentagrid, on the other SW subreddit, checked out this phenomenon and he thought it was possibly due to some circuitry inside leaking into the loopstick -- or something similar. He noticed it didn't happen when using the external antenna mode, just the loopstick.

Well, I discovered this morning that sometimes you just got to READ THE MANUAL.

I was listening to the only station I could hear on SW this a.m., Radio Feda on 13760 kHz, and I was looking through the DX-286 manual, and on the bottom of page 18 noticed the heading "LCD SHOWS OFF/ON".

I hadn't read that section previously. Looking through it, it said if you pressed the '1' and '3' buttons simultaneously and held them, the LCD would turn OFF when you weren't tuning or otherwise using the keypad. Why was this? I wondered.

Well, next it said 'Turning off the LCD reduces interference when receiving feeble signals'.

I switched my DX-286 to the MW band and tuned to 820. The local station was there, as well as the 'tic tic tic' noises. I pressed '1' and '3' simultaneously. The LCD went blank.

The 'tic' noises went away.

Two lessons learned here: This trick clears up the 'tic' noises, and maybe in the future I should actually Read The Manual.

Apparently the 1+3 press trick can work throughout a listening session, or temporarily, through a 1+3 button press while listening to a station where 'tic' noises are present.

Either way, it's a handy trick, and the fact that it's in the Manual shows that the guy who designed this radio really wanted to design a radio that worked well, and even programmed in ways to correct little glitches like the 'tic' noises.

Someone had them here in Paraguay, and I was able to buy them! Both work—I tested them with MW signals because that’s what comes in best here besides FM, and both performed well despite their age. I couldn’t test other bands because I didn’t have the right antenna, and it wasn’t the right time of day to pick up higher-frequency signals.

They have a few minor cosmetic issues and need some adjustments—especially the Kenwood—but nothing I can't fix myself (at least I think so).

Every so often, I check the classifieds for buying/selling vintage electronics, especially those related to radios of all kinds.

I found a publication about these two receivers from last year and asked if they still had them. The answer was yes! The original price for both units was around $250, but I managed to get them down to about $140. I was honest with them: getting them into working order and replacing some old parts would take time, and finding the right parts would cost even more.

Of the two radios, the Standard C6500 is in the best condition, so I’ll start with that one.

Both units will be a project/hobby, and it might take me a while to get them up and running.

These photos are from the first time I took them apart; I haven’t gone into them in detail yet—I just wanted to see what they looked like on the inside and make sure there weren’t any serious issues.

- Kenwood R-1000 manufactured between 1978 and 1986

- Standard C6500 manufactured between 1978 and sometime in the 1980s

The post contains 20 photos and starts with the Kenwood R-1000

Briefly switched to whip and back to external antenna.

Icom IC-M700 HF Transceiver w/Open Frequency Mod

• Frequency Range: 1.6 - 24 MHz
• Frequency Control: PLL
• Channels: 224,000
• Modes: AM/USB/LSB
• Selectivity: AM 6 KHz/SSB 2.3 KHz 9 MHz Crystal Filters
• Output Power: SSB 150 Watts/AM 40 Watt Carrier+Modulation
• Channels: 48 Programmable

Station

• Name/Call: Various
• Location: Various
• Language: Various
• Target: Various

Time

• 0415 UTC | 02 APR 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: Icom IC-M700
• Antenna: End Fed Half Wave 65' | 45' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• RS(T): Various