For a DXer, UNIDs are the equivalent of throwing your hands up in the air in defeat :). But yes, some reception defies logic and expectations- otherwise there’d be no fun in the hobby after all.
A UNID that is still nagging at me is a BBC style relay on 93.7, received from Boambee Head during intense tropo to NZ. No Kiwis listed. I suspect this may have been from Lord Howe Island but I cannot ever confirm it. I did receive a reply from the Lord Howe tourist office after I enquired , but they only identified 100.1 MHz. I did not get 100.1 because Rodney NZ was blasting away on that frequency.
Today I had some time to do a bit of groundwave tests on MW using the new KiwiSDR. Turns out a longwire gets quite the stations, even if not directly heard.
531 - Radio Italiana Adelaide (weak)
549 - 2CR Orange (weak)
567 - 2BH Broken Hill (weak)
621 - 3RN Melbourne (weak)
639 - 5CK Crystal Brook (fair)
675 - 2CO Corowa (fair)
729 - 5RN Adelaide (fair)
774 - 3LO Melbourne (very weak, in null of longwire)
891 - 5AN Adelaide (fair)
945 - HPON / 3UZ Bendigo (very weak, narrow bandwidth)
963 - 2RG Griffith (weak)
999 - 2NB Broken Hill (weak)
1089 - 3WM Horsham (very weak, in null of longwire)
1332 - 3SH Swan Hill (fair)
1557 - HPON / iHeart Country Renmark (fair)
Improvements will appear over time, as I angle the longwire for best coverage on MW and the majority of HF.
As the Kiwi shows the waterfall spectrum, it also shows station carriers even if not heard. Carriers were seen on the following frequencies, with the most likely source being based off my own prior catches:
I reckon you should get some weak audio out of this at least. There was a Kiwi SDR at Strathbogie VIC (not sure if still running) that could receive this in the daytime, albeit with a huge beverage. Certainly at Broken Hill 2WEB is easily heard on the car radio; I didn’t try it at Mildura and my loop wasn’t working with the radio I had at the time.
2WEB I’ve found suffers from being right next to 3WV, as Mildura is right in the full power direction for 3WV I’ve never had much luck with receiving 2WEB during the day on anything I’ve tried to date. This is even with placing 3WV in a null.
That being said as soon as it got to late afternoon 2WEB came up rather fast on the Kiwi, and as of right now is listenable - abiet with splatter from 2RN Sydney on 576.
Earlier today I extended the longwire loop. I started receiving WA, at first 6WA on 558 (confirmed by matching the livestream, playing Madness’ Our House). Then I noticed 1449 came up again, this time much stronger than before. Under the splatter from 3ML it became strong enough to ID, which presented itself as 6TAB.
It has now since faded back again but it’s nice to have closure on what it is
I have not included stations marked as being present during the day, with the scan taken from my new KiwiSDR. While I have not seen CNR6 over on 909khz, it has popped up from time to time. At the time of scanning a weak carrier is present.
Looks like it’s good to the west as well from Buxton, and you mentioned that you had Launceston the other day so even Tassie might be OK when conditions allow. As you probably know, summer days are hot that side of the range and so coastal tropo only reaches there overnight.
Yes, some RDS present. When I come back, I’ll pack a small Tecsun loop in with the work equipment so I can have a better search of AM from Indonesia. I was delighted to listen to RRI 7290 in parallel with 729, they were speaking in Papuan creole and playing that Melanesian pop like you hear on Radio Vanuatu. The SW went off around 0830UT, they had been going later on SW but now back to close around sunset.
Wow, you can’t get a more exotic location than that.
MW DXer Craig Edwards was based there about 20 years ago , you can read his reports from Nhulunbuy here:
A lot has gone QRT since then unfortunately.
It’s probably a bit too late for FM TEP unfortunately (peak is March/April) and the solar cycle is waning anyhow. Certain Japanese DXers have reported FM from Nhulunbuy and Galiwinku (Elcho Island) via TEP in previous years.
Thanks for the link. Rio Tinto was a huge employer here but the Refinery has been completely demolished, the main activity involves bauxite mining/processing & exporting
Interesting that shortwave is still active in Indonesia.
That is very odd. I’m guessing this is the RDS PS ‘station name’.
Is this portable radio capable of displaying any other RDS attributes like PTY, RT, PI codes etc?
Also is any other FM station up there using RDS? If so, any details greatly appreciated by several of us.
Also helpful for dxers; which of the FM stations are transmitting with a stereo pilot carrier? I think this radio is capable of showing MONO or STEREO with the absence or presence of a stereo pilot carrier.
A question for you all. Now I have the KiwiSDR up and running, one issue I’ve been facing is the very strong signal from River 1467 causing splatter spikes that stretch a long way. I’ve tried orientating the receive antenna in different directions but have largely been unable to null it out much if at all.
