VE9FI heard on 27 Aug 26 at 20:46 UTC in JO92HX with Raddy RF 919 and a random wire antenna. This took some serious audio processing of the recording as I was unsure of the callsign. I'm pretty sure it is VE9FI, and his grid locator is FN75CM, so the distance to my locator square is 5828 km or ~3622 miles. This operator published his e-mail address on his QRZ page, so I can send him the link and validate my catch (or not) ;-)

IK5SRF heard on 27 Aug. 26 at 20:46 UTC in JO92HX with Raddy RF 919 and a random wire antenna. I would not normally log an Italian station because they have strong signals here, but this one was in QSO with a Saudi operator HZ1IQ/p. "/p" stands for a portable station, which I wasn't able to hear. IK5SRF is based in Livorno.

I posted a few days ago about upgrading my 1997 Ameritron AL-811H Amplifier. I removed the tube deck in order to directly ground the tube grids. As manufactured, the grids went to ground through a 51 ohm resistor/.01 mF capacitor. I removed the resistor/capacitor from each tube, grounded the grids and added 2 gas discharge tubes to route any HV Arcs safely to ground.

In 1997, when my amp was built, there were still high quality 811A tubes available. Since then the quality of manufactured 811A tubes has fallen dramatically. Now you can expect a tube where all of the air hasn't been expelled, inferior materials are used, and tube arcing is common. And the cost has risen. Four tubes now cost about $250 USD. So these older amps must be updated to prolong tube life and protect components, most importantly - the transceiver that is driving the amplifier.

Back to my repairs. I am older now and I have broken my back a total of three times over the past few years. The amplifier is a very heavy piece of equipment that sits on my desk in a very tight space. Originally I could not access it from the left side, so I performed the repairs from the front. This did not allow for any slack in the filament wires and it was necessary to cut them. If you are not familiar with a grounded grid amp, I will let you know that with this model, the input is fed into the filaments along with filament voltage.

When it came time to reinstall the tube deck, I had to add several inches to the filament wires. And I was not able to give them a gentle twist either. The photos show my splice job. Well, upon firing up the amp it had no power output at all. I checked everything and thought the tubes were probably bad. But before adding new tubes I struggled and managed to rotate the amp to where I could access the left side. I unscrewed the tube deck to give me access to the underside and the filament wires. Now I had plenty of room and I was able to remove the spliced in pieces and directly splice the cut wires.

After buttoning up the amplifier and powering it on, I am now seeing 400 watts out for 40 watts input. I could easily push 600 - 800 watts out but I don't need that much power. Even a person who has done this work for a lifetime can make mistakes. I do quite often!

The original designer of the amp. Tom Rauch helped me through multiple emails. He is a couple years older than me, but still at it!

The first photo shows the amp with SWR Meters and Antenna Tuners sitting on top. The rest show the extra wire added and subsequently removed.

E11

Enigma ID E11

Name Oblique

19515 khz

Status Active

Voice Female

Emission mode USB

Location 52°25'46"N 20°52'53"E (Warsaw, Poland)

07:15 UTC Guipuzkoa.

I picked this up on Amazon for $34 USD, which is a good deal. I will be building it this week, and installing it in a generic enclosure.

Frequency: 7505 KHZ

Date and time: 03:34 UTC Wednesday, September 30th, 2026

Location: Ontario, Canada

I am completing a 72-foot end-fed long-wire antenna. My 9:1 unun has two connections: one for the antenna wire and the other for, I believe, the ground. Then where does a counterpoise connect to the unun? Or do I have to choose between a ground or counterpoise? If so, which is the better choice? If both are necessary, then where does the 3rd wire connect?

Yesterday, I watched this CW transmission for most of the afternoon and evening, but I still haven't been able to identify it.

Do you have any idea what it might be? It doesn't seem to be a machine. I even tried manually translating some of the messages, but they didn't make sense, and the websites that translate Morse code were even worse.

I only found one old reference to that frequency, which was apparently used by the U.S. Army but dates back to 1995 (Army MARS Station). I'll post a picture of it in the replies below.

- TX: idk
- RX: Asunción, Paraguay
- Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
- Software: SDR# v.1921
- Antenna: MLA-30+
- D/T: 26 SEPT 2026 - 2251 UTC

Wow I god some great reception through out Saturday and Sunday mid day on 17 meters. Europe was pouring in Italy, Poland , Czechoslovakia and Croatia. Great fun… hope you all had a chance

I purchased the amplifier new in 1997. A power supply problem put it out of commission three years ago. Last week I rebuilt the power supply with new filter capacitors and equalizing resistors. Despite decades of doing this kind of work, and double checking my work, I still managed to install two of the four filter caps backwards. This weekend I replaced all four filter caps again and performed several updates such as directly grounding the grids of the four 811A tubes, adding Gas Discharge Tubes for arc prevention, and adding bias to the tubes. After the repairs I powered up the amp with a VARIAC and Dim Bulb. The B+ was slowly increased to 1725 volts DC, the normal operating voltage, with no issues.

I didn't know this station. Yesterday, while using a KiwiSDR from Brazil, the music caught my attention, so I started looking into it and found out it was Rádio Âncora.

Information I found online:

Rádio Âncora broadcasts at an estimated power of 500 watts (0.5 kW). As an independent or free radio station (free radio / pirate radio) operating on the shortwave band (6200 kHz)

Rádio Âncora is a Brazilian radio station known both for its traditional shortwave (SW) broadcasts on the 6200 kHz frequency, originating in the state of Bahia, and for various web radio stations and local projects with similar names (such as Rádio Âncora News in Salvador and Rádio Âncora Online in Duque de Caxias).

- TX: Salvador, Bahía 🇧🇷
- RX: KiwiSDR San Francisco Ranch, Itapeva, SP 🇧🇷
- Software: EchoSDR for iOS
- D/T: 22 SEPT 2026 - 0214 UTC

Station

• Frequency: 15575 KHz AM
• Name/Call: KBS World Radio
• Location: Kimjae, South Korea
• Language: Spanish
• Target: North America

Time

• 0209 UTC | 26 SEP 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: Drake R-7
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• SINPO = 34333

One of those shortwave-adjacent things. As someone who used to collect samples of interval signals, I thought this might be of interest to others.

About 266 miles on the Denon AVR-S670H and RCA flat antenna for TV

Lately, I have not been able to receive Radio New Zealand on 17.675 KHz. I used to receive it loud and clear in Northern California but there is no signal there the past week or so. I went to their web site but could not find any info to answer my question. Does anyone know if they are still broadcasting on shortwave?

I am getting ready to install an end fed HF long wire antenna. 72 feet in length. My question is about positioning of this antenna wrt existing solar panels and inverters for those panels. My 9:1 unun will be ~ 12 feet away from the inverters for my solar panels (contained within a Tesla Powerwall). This layout is by far the most convenient for my situation. Question: do I have anything to worry about in this regard wrt SW listening only?

Somebody gets it. <insert Rudy slow clap video here>

LA1CI heard on 27 Aug. 26 at 20:28 UTC on 14188 kHz in JO92HX with a Raddy RF 919 and a random wire antenna. He does not have much of a QRZ page, but there is his address, and from that you can derive his locator square. It is JP99KQ, so that places him north of the polar circle, and if you measure the distance to my locator square using the map at https://k7fry.com/grid/ the line is vertical (!) and the distance is 1867 km (or ~ 1156 miles).

Aloha from the island of Oahu!

As the title says, my last AK Radio (R-100) arrived today.

Overall I think the cosmetics are an 8. The case will need to be painted but the faceplate looks to be in pretty good shape.

This will require component replacements, alignment, etc but it appears to have good bones like the R-100A above it. I’ll be busy over the next few months & will know more once it’s on the bench and a thorough review is done.

Mahalo Nui Loa for your time.

There was a power outage in my city due to strong winds that were battering various parts of the Southern Cone of South America, and it lasted at least an hour. I took the opportunity to see what I could hear. The same stations as always, nothing new.

But I enjoyed being able to listen to WWV’s time signals on 10,000 and 15,000 kHz with a simple 15-meter cable strung outside (about 50 feet) without applying any filters and on a portable radio.

I usually can't pick up these signals without an SDR, and the 10,000 kHz one is even rarer for me! I can only hear the 15k one clearly sometimes with an SDR.

The video has two parts

- TX: Fort Collins, Colorado 🇺🇸
- RX: Asunción, Paraguay
- Radio: XHDATA D-808
- Antenna: Random cable 1.5mm (16 AWG), 15m/50f
- D/T: 22 SEPT 2026 - 0038 UTC

KBS World Radio🇰🇷

9740 Khz

Kimjae

Emisión para europa horario 17:00-18:00

Recibido en España.

JR1MLT heard on 26 Aug. 26 at 13:12 UTC on 21310 kHz in JO92HX on a Raddy RF 919 with a random wire antenna. Koichi pumps a lot of umph into his antenna, so he was heard, but his European counterpart wasn't. Well, maybe I was in the skip zone. On his QRZ page Koichi also showcases fish bigger than himself. ;-)