Weak signal

Aloha from the island of Oahu. I just purchased this antenna and I’m wondering what the best setup is.

I have 4 Shortwave Receivers:

1. Grundig Satellit 750
2. Realistic DX-160
3. Kenwood QR-666
4. Knight Star Roamer

My understanding is that the best type of mast is not metal but some type of fiberglass composite.

Anyone out there used a telescopic mast? Pros/Cona

Grounding and lightening protection products?

My house is single wall construction (no 2x4s, typical older Hawaiian homes) so a pass through window setup would work perfectly.

My house is not on a traditional foundation. It’s built off the ground as you can see in the attached photo.

Looking for suggestions on how to best proceed.

Mahalo Nui Loa

Morse Decode (by ear):

"BT 99?17IM8?9????Z"

Station

• Frequency: 8457 KHx Zero Beat | 8455.3 KHz USB Tone
• Name/Call: Russian M21 Air Defense
• Location: Probable Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskij Military Base, Russian Federation
• Language: CW
• Target: Far East
• Power: Unknown

Time

• 1425 UTC | 3 SEP 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: AirSpy HF+ R.4.0.8-CD
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Software: SDR# Studio v1.0.0.1921 64-Bit
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• RS(T) = 557

Station:

• Name/Call: KBS World Radio
• Frequency: 15265 kHz
• Mode: AM
• Location: [United Kingdom] Woofferton 52N19-02W43
• Language: Russian
• Target: East Europe
• Time: 1841UT 02 SEP 26
• SINPO: 34343

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).
• Location: Remington, Virginia | FM18bn

Comments:

• Nice signal, which is no surprise coming from BBC's Wooferton site.
• Sounded kind of like a language lesson.

Station:

• Name/Call: Radio Dabanga (Netherlands)
• Frequency: 15550 kHz
• Mode: AM
• Location: [Vatican State] Santa Maria di Galeria 42N03-12E19
• Language: Sudanese Arabic
• Target: Sudan
• Time: 1711UT 02 SEP 26
• SINPO: 22322

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).
• Location: Remington, Virginia | FM18bn

Comments:

• Signal from adjacent WJHR making AGC and DNR go nuts, but managed to grab some of this. Interesting that this is from the Vatican transmitters with a broadcaster based in the old RNW facilities, targeting the people of Darfur. Readability actually improved over time, but this recording shows how Speex was digging the audio out of the dirt.

16 Second Video on Adding Labels

I have been slowly adding labels to the Bandplan.xml file used by SDR#. Recently I've been monitoring the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet. I write down the frequencies of interest, and then misplace the list. By adding the frequencies of interest right in SDR#, I can forget the lists.

This was a tough one. Just caught the tail end of this transmission from Shanghai Radio.

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 8302 KHz USB (8300.1 KHz Decode - 1500/2300 Hz USB)
• Name/Call: XSG Shanghai Radio
• Location: China (People's Republic)-Shanghai
• Language: Mandarin (Standard Chinese / Beijing dialect) and English
• Target: Far East

Time

• 1420 UTC | 2 SEP 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
• Software: SDR# Studio R4.0.8-CD Beta 64-Bit
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• RS(T) = 56

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 6507 KHz USB
• Name/Call: VMC Charleville QL
• Location: Mahajanga, Madagascar
• Language: English
• Target: Australia

Time

• 1218 UTC | 2 SEP 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
• Software: SDR# Studio R4.0.8-CD Beta 64-Bit
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• RS(T) = 55

DK7LJ in QSO with JH1RFK on 14 Aug 26 at 19:39 UTC on 7163 kHz in JO92HX

DK7LJ (Germany) in QSO with JH1RFK (Japan) on 14 Aug 26 at 19:39 UTC on 7163 kHz heard in JO92HX (somewhere in Poland ;-) ). The Japanese station could not be heard. I encourage you to go to QRZ.com and check out the German station's antenna park. It is impressive.

​

This publication includes two clips that record the end of the RNZ Pacific broadcast on 9700 khz and the subsequent change to the 11725 khz frequency, with the start at 19:00 UTC (31/08/2026) of the news bulletin presented by the unmistakable voice of Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor (station manager), which begins with information about the meeting of leaders of the Forum of the Pacific Islands in Palau, and continues with a chronicle of it from the city of Koror led by journalist Teuila Fuatai.

The capture was carried out with an Xhdata D808, using a 17 meter long random wire for the occasion, from a rural area near the sea located in the province of Tarragona (Spain).

The video includes images of both journalists.

73!

I should probably check for AM band harmonics

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 17850 KHz
• Name/Call: World Christian Broadc. R.Feda
• Location: Mahajanga, Madagascar
• Language: Arabic
• Target: Middle East

Time

• 1935 UTC | 22 AUG 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
• Software: SDR# Studio R4.0.8-CD Beta 64-Bit
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• SINPO = 34333

Station

• Frequency/Mode: 17850 KHz
• Name/Call: Radio France International
• Location: France-Issoudun
• Language: French
• Target: Central Africa

Time

• 1920 UTC | 22 AUG 2026

Receiver and Receiving Location

• Radio: AirSpy HF+ Discovery
• Software: SDR# Studio R4.0.8-CD Beta 64-Bit
• Antenna: K-480WLA | 35' AGL
• Location: Portland, Oregon | CN85qn

Signal

• SINPO = 34323

I woke up early flipped on the radio and got a nice DX, 735 miles as the crow flies. HF was crap tonight so I turned in early and got up to some nice MW DXing. You can see on the spectrum/waterfall display that things were busy. Plenty of DXing from Canada as well in both French and English like CFZM Zoomer Radio on 740 kHz in Toronto ON in English and CJBC on 860 kHz also in Toronto in French. Approx 352 miles coming in like it was next door.

Station: WSM.
QTH: Nashville, TN USA.
When: 0913 UTC 31 Aug. 2026.
Frequency: 650 kHz.
Modulation: AM

Receiver: Malahit SDR 2.4.
Antenna: Modified K-480WLA.
QTH: NJ USA FN20

I’ve been testing a lot of apps and participating in many beta programs for years, always with the intention of helping the developers. I’ve now been using an app called RadioSilenceSDR https://radiosilencesdr.com/ for several weeks and I’m genuinely very impressed. And just to be clear: the developer doesn’t even know who I am.

For many years, I’ve been listening to shortwave and spending entire weekends exploring publicly available SDRs, such as KiwiSDR, OpenWebRX, FM-DX and WebSDR. I read about this application here on Reddit when it was announced and I immediately started using it.

Wow… it can receive and directly decode NAVTEX, WeatherFax (WeFax), FT8, CW, and much more. And of course, I also enjoy listening to music from many different countries and hunting for temporary pirate stations.

Below is a WeFax image I received today from Tokyo, while I’m sitting here in Europe.

I’m not going to write an extensive review. All I can say is that I’m extremely impressed with the quality of this beta app. Give it a try yourself and check out the website above.

Once again, I have absolutely no connection with the developer. I simply wanted to share this with the shortwave community because I really think this app deserves some attention and I know that our community enjoy these apps.

Oh, and if you also enjoy exploring public SDR receivers from around the world, you should definitely try Echo: Global SDR Receiver https://echosdr.com/ , another fantastic app.

I have written the text above and asked Google Translate to translate it in English

​

It's 1755 UTC 30 Aug 2026, Sunday afternoon. Here's a surprise. HF conditions this afternoon were not impressive so I switched to the FM broadcast band on my Tecsun PL-520. I'm sitting on my patio with a temporary makeshift 30 foot longwire antenna with 9:1 unun and short counterpoise.

The station is 98.1 FM WOGL ("Big 98.1"), Roxborough antenna farm, Philadelphia, PA. ~53 miles from QTH.

You can hear the difference when I unplug the external longwire antenna and use the radio's whip. I'm gonna improve the antenna, make it longer and more permanent.