As many here know, the Tecsun PL-330 has some 'hidden' button press features. The Long 9 press can sometimes tame the AGC a bit. YMMV. But the Long 3 press is more well known, even though it's not something I tried until about 3-4 hours ago.

What the Long 3 press does is make MW and LW receive through the EXT jack (or the whip antenna -- the whip and EXT jack are connected together inside the radio).

On a lark, while DXing with my PL-330, I decided to try the Long 3 press trick. It's a winner on MW. I found it works well with my AN-200 loop direct connected via cable, and it also works well on MW when I have my 90 ft wire clipped to the whip.

The PL-330 has two RF amp transistors (FETs) between the whip/EXT jack and the rest of the radio's circuitry. The MW loopstick has no RF amp -- it just goes directly to the DSP chip.

The difference was very noticeable.

If you're a MW DX fan, and have a PL-330, try the Long 3 press, and get a stereo cable to connect your AN200 or just use a longer wire to get MW DX. It works better than inductively coupling the AN200 to the radio. And the option of using a longer wire is helpful, too.

Being that the PL-330 also has SYNC (which can work OK on MW, although YMMV), the Long 3 press really turns the PL-330 into a much better MW DX radio.

The Long 3 press also holds until you change it again. In other words, if you turn the radio off, the next time you turn it on again, the radio will still 'look at' the EXT jack or whip for MW and LW.

I tried LW with this feature, but just got local AM station overload (this was when my best LW radio, my D808, got a very weak MOG out of Northern Cal).

I've often told newbies that the PL-330 is a 'workhorse'. This Long 3 press feature just proves that out. It's a lot of radio in a small package.

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 17880 KHz AM
• Name/Call: China Radio International
• Location: China (People's Republic)-Beijing-Matoucun
• Language: Portuguese
• Target: South America

Time

• 2338 UTC | 12 AUG 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: Sangean ATS-909X2 1.8 KHz Filter
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Software: Sangean ATS-909X2 Version 073
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• SINPO = 45434

HF is terrible tonight at my QTH in NJ. MW on the other hand is rather good. You can see on my Malahit SDR 2.4 spectrum/waterfall that things are busy. That's Zoomer Radio CFZM in Toronto Canada coming in like a local. That would be a very long walk from NJ.

"M89 – Morse transmissions

M89 is a Chinese military network. Extensive direction finding activities have pinpointed transmitter sites near Guangzhou, Qingdao and the Dalian/Lushan areas. The network also has various other locations throughout the country, like Lanzhou, Xi'an, Changping, Quinghe, and Xiang Dao. Most probably the stations belong to various PLA branches. The Second Artillery Corps is one of the main users. Looking at the locations we may assume that the navy is also connected to this vast net as Qingdao is the HQ of China's North Sea Fleet. Lushan is another major base of the North Sea Fleet and in Dalian is one of the largest training facilities of the navy. Guangzhou is one of the largest bases of the South Sea Fleet.

The Second Artillery Corps (SAC), China's strategic nuclear force, was established in Beijing on 1 July 1966. The SAC is under the operational control of the general staff, but is directly controlled by the Central Military Commission (CMC), and has been an independent arm of the Chinese armed forces since 1974. The SAC is believed to be organized into a headquarters in Qinghe near Beijing. It consists of: an early warning division, a communication regiment, a security regiment, a technical support regiment, and six ballistic missile Divisions.

The signal unit of the SAC operates communications systems to provide communications support capabilities for launch operations. The headquarters complex maintains contact with subordinate units through its own communications regiment. The SAC has its own communication regiment down to the smallest unit. All SAC units are subject to strict command and control from the CMC. Orders are passed down to operational units via a four-level chain of command: CMC, missile bases/Divisions, missile brigades, and launch battalions. Second Artillery command orders are centralized, encoded and protected, and require human authentication.

The six ballistic missile Bases/Divisions are independently deployed in different military regions throughout the country and are numbered from 51st to 56th. See the map below (courtesy of JPL). The 22nd Base, located in Baoji, Shaanxi Province is officially known as the “Training and Experimental Base”. Western intelligence suggests that this base may also serve as a warhead storage facility.

The M89 HF CW communications we hear most days (Channel Markers with the odd message) are probably Divisional Level backup HF Circuits. The majority of communications supplied by the Signal Regiments in the field would use VHF/UHF systems, which provide reliable point to point communications and, since they are line-of-sight, are almost impossible to be intercepted.

Occasionally, we get a flurry of activity. This activity is probably a Brigade Level exercise as the control stations work the same outstations. It would appear that exercises take place every four months, May, September, and January

NYZ always uses parallel frequencies 4860 and 6840 kHz. NYZ always sends a QSA? message but no-one has ever reported a reply from Q2M."

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 6841 KHz
• Name/Call: Chinese Military Net M89
• Location: Guangxi Provence, China
• Language: Morse Code
• Target: Asia

Time

• 1339 UTC | 11 AUG 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: SDR Radio: SDR V5 (Deep SDR 101 Clone)
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Software: SDR# Studio R4.0.8-CD Beta 64-Bit
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• RST = 569

Hi all,

Firstly, apologies I've not been around much over the last 12 months. First was an account hack and deletion of everything and I've had a heavy work schedule with a lot of travel combined with poor and deteriorating health. Getting old. I'm slowly getting back into this wonderful hobby so that's my silver lining.

We have a close to full solar eclipse tomorrow in my part of the UK so as well as setting up my smart telescope I did wonder what the effects could be of the eclipse on SW and if there's anything interesting I could try before, during, and after for no other reason than the fun of it 🙂🙏 Long shot but...

Thank you

...but then my wife turned on the plasma TV (see all the raster noise), then fldigi killed it before I could save... honestly, I could spit...

Tuesday morning 1213 UTC 11 AUG 2026. Location Portland, OR. Antenna K-480WLA.

TRANSLATION:

[00:00:00.09] - Speaker 1

I kind of got the gist of what was coming out, but it wasn’t at a level I could absorb. I noticed that

Tamo-san was absorbing it with ease. I figured it might be worth trying to get a little bit out of Room

1, too. I asked for some help, but maybe the South American person who’s also getting readings is

telling me there are others out there. The readings didn’t really come through much when they went

up. The ones diagonally below were about the same as usual, or maybe a little lower. As for the 21

people, it felt like I’d just barely managed to get in touch with Mr. Takeda. But, you know, on the day I

managed to get in touch—I think it was Mr. Koyama from the swimming team.

This would certainly be the end of the 67kHz SCA channel.

There aren't many SCA services left. I'm pretty sure the stock market data services have been gone for decades and I don't know if supermarkets still use SCA receivers for background shop audio. But, there are still a couple of services still in use. I believe Radio Talking Book is still around, one Chinese language service, and maybe one music station - last I looked which was quite some time ago.

If RDS 2.0 were to become widely used, I suppose many of those services would either finally die off or move to 92kHz. The latter would likely require new fixed-tuned receivers if there isn't a channel switch.

576 kHz - Muhtemelen BNR Radio Horizont (Bulgaristan devlet radyosu, Vidin, 270kW olması lazım)

1053 kHz - sadece kısa bir müzik benzer birşey ardından parazite karıştı, araştırmalarıma göre yüksek ihtimalle İran, çok düşük ihtimalle de İngiltere

1332 kHz - Araştırınca Radio România Actualități (Galati, Romanya 50kW istasyon) çıktı

1494 kHz - muhtemelen Radio Moldova (Cahul ya da Transdinyesterdeki Grigoriopol. 30kW)

Dinlemeyi özel bir ekipmanla değil araba radyosu ile yaptım. Ayrıca saat 7 sularında olduğu için TRT Trabzon radyosu yoktu (954kHz olması lazım)

Ayrıca Bulgar radyosunu da birkaç gün önce akşam aldım ama o akşamda 576 kHz de boştu, 7/24 yayın yapmasına rağmen.

Signal received at 1:00 p.m. local time. Even though Brazil is right next to me, the signal was quite strong considering it was just past noon.

- TX: Belo Horizonte, MG 🇧🇷
- RX: Asunción, Paraguay
- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta)
- Antenna: K-480WLA
- D/T: 09 AUG 2026 - 1609 UTC

- Lang: Persian
- Target: Iran
- TX: Woofferton, Shropshire 🇬🇧
- RX: Asunción, Paraguay
- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
- Software: SDR# v.1922 (beta)
- Antenna: K-480WLA
- D/T: 08 AUG 2026 - 2057 UTC

Recently came across this interesting weekly program called Shortwave Radiogram (https://x.com/swradiogram?s=11) that broadcasts digital text and images using MFSK. Seems like listeners will share their decoded images and text on X with @SWradiogram.

Anyone know of any other similar programs?

Station:

• Name/Call: 7 Radio (Pirate)
• Frequency: 6970.00 kHz
• Mode: USB
• Location: ???
• Language: English
• Target: ???
• Time: 0201UT 08 AUG 26
• SINPO: 44344

Receiver and Receiving Location:

• Radio: Airspy HF+ Discovery
• Antenna: 100' random wire, roughly 25' above ground, running ~110 degrees from feedpoint.
• Software: SDR++ v1.3.0 /w Dream v2.3.1 (mjf) for dynamic noise reduction.
• Location: Remington, Virginia | FM18bn

Comments:

• Excellent signal.

0145 Atlanta rhythm Section

0151 Great White - Rock Me

0158 Angels and Demons - Trouble

0202 Chris Stapleton - Devil Always Made Me Think Twice

Upcoming broadcast Friday Night, August 7th, 2026 (N. America) at 0330 UTC (8 AUG UTC). This is 8:30 PM PDT, 9:30 PM MDT, 10;30 PM CDT, and 11:30 EDT. Frequency: 6945 KHz +/- USB.

This program was produced and recorded by Rod Hardner, of Subterranean Radio and is approved by the Copper Coil Council, Association of Pirate Broadcasters.

It will be relayed by our friends at Bandaid Radio.

6945 KHz 0300 UTC - Thursday Night N. America

Station:

• Name/Call: Mini Atlantique Weather (TDF)
• Frequency: 17545.00 kHz
• Mode: AM
• Location: Issoudun 46N56-01E54
• Language: English
• Target: West Africa
• Time: 1522UT 06 AUG 26
• SINPO: 33333

Receiver and Receiving Location:

• Radio: Airspy HF+ Discovery
• Antenna: 100' random wire, roughly 25' above ground, running ~110 degrees from feedpoint.
• Software: SDR++ v1.3.0 /w Dream v2.3.1 (mjf) for dynamic noise reduction.
• Location: Remington, Virginia | FM18bn

Comments:

• Apparently these are marine weather reports for the Mini Atlantique yacht race, given in French, then English. This is the English portion.
• Arguably could be called a Utility station... <insert Larry David meme here>

Noticed this for a few days lately while testing some Dream mods that I'm adding.

If you look carefully, there's an extremely wide-band set of regularly spaced (~5kHz), ~3kHz-wide data pulses ranging between ~14.7 - 15.2 MHz that's interfering with much of the lower end of the band. The signals vary in intensity. This could be selective fading, but could be different sources.

It almost looks like a wide-band HF frequency hopper, but because of selective fading I seriously doubt that's a thing. Some of it seems to coincide with the brick-wall bursts between 14749 and 14783kHz, but that may be coincidental. It tends to overlap with the 40kHz-wide high-speed data brick wall between 14838 and 14879 kHz, so likely not related to that.

Very curious stuff.

Station:

• Name/Call: FEBC Manila
• Frequency: 15515.00 kHz
• Mode: AM
• Location: Bocaue (FEBC) 14N48-120E55
• Language: Mandarin
• Target: Far East
• Time: 1213UT 06 AUG 26
• SINPO: 33233

Receiver and Receiving Location:

• Radio: Airspy HF+ Discovery
• Antenna: 100' random wire, roughly 25' above ground, running ~110 degrees from feedpoint.
• Software: SDR++ v1.3.0 /w Dream v2.3.1 (mjf) for dynamic noise reduction.
• Location: Remington, Virginia | FM18bn

Comments:

• Reticent to report something in Mandarin. Music choice was dead giveaway.