NASWA Journal Columns · NASWA Notes, February 1999

NASWA Notes, February 1999

March will be a busy month for shortwave listeners. First, the 12^th annual Winter SWL Festival will take place March 11-13 at the Holiday Inn in beautiful Kulpsville, PA. See all your favorite friends and not so favorite friends at North America’s premier radio gathering. In addition to numerous members being in attendance, you will also find much of the editorial staff and the entire Executive Council present. We look forward to seeing you there! (Note particularly that the dates on the registration form printed last month were incorrect; the correct dates are March 11-13. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

ANARC SWL Ham Net Tune in Sunday mornings at 10 A. M. Eastern Time on 7240 LSB for the latest in shortwave, medium wave and longwave listening, DX tips, and up to the minute hobby news. Contributors share their DX tips via their own amateur radio stations or by telephoning a “gateway” station who then broadcasts the relayed tips. Contributions are also accepted via the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel #swl while the net is in progress. Net Controls Dave N1DK, Bill WA2DVU, and Al NN2U host an always lively gang of DX monitors. (Best heard in the eastern half of NAm) Net info is also available at <http://www.trsc.com/Radio/SWL_Net/swl_net.html>. If you miss the net, you can hear it in RealAudio on the Internet, on Dave Kirby’s home page, <http://www.ncweb.com/users/dkirby/>. Dave also posts text versions of loggings.

Also, don’t forget the North American DX Championships coming up next month. The contest listening period will begin on Friday, 19 March 1999, at 1900 EST (0000 UTC) and end Sunday, 21 March 1999, at 2359 EST (0459 UTC). Our thanks to Harold Cones and the crack administrative committee for making the arrangements each year. Check January’s, and hopefully this month’s, Journal for the full details.

From time-to-time, members have asked questions concerning the use of the club’s country list. Country List Committee Chairman Don Jensen (5204 70^th Street, Kenosha, WI 53142 or dnjkenosha@acronet.net) would be happy to answer any questions you have. Simply send Don a postal letter (with a self-addressed stamped return envelope) or an electronic letter. If you’re having a problem with something, then there is a good chance so is another club member. While the list was developed to be “user friendly,” sometimes a little help is necessary. Please contact Don with any questions you may have.

Australian member Bob Padula advises that the HIGH FREQUENCY SPECTRUM STUDY #5 is now available from the Electronic DX Press (404 Mont Albert Road, Surrey Hills, Victoria 3127, Australia, Tel/FAX: +61 3 9898 2906, E-mail: bpadula@compuserve.com). The Study is a nine-page A4 booklet, summarizing the results of the 1998-coordinated monitoring project by several Australian DXing hobbyists. The Study was made in June 1998, during the Australian mid-winter period, corresponding to a yearly smoothed sunspot number of 60, during the ascending phase of Sunspot Cycle #23. The purpose of the Study was to monitor and document actual reception of HF broadcasting stations operating in the frequency range 2300-9999 kHz between 0000 and 0400 UTC, corresponding to local time here in eastern Australia of 10am to 2pm. The Study concentrated on commercial broadcasting stationsamateur and utility broadcasters were excluded.

Each winter, extraordinary midday reception is observed during eastern Australia on frequencies as low as 6 MHz from all continents, over transmission paths of up to 30,000 km! This reception is locally known as the “Antarctic Mode”, due to many signal paths crossing the Antarctic region; the precise propagation mechanism is unknown, and has been vigorously debated for some 30 years! The 1998 Midwinter Study resulted in several hundred entries, and shows transmitter country, organization, site, reception time, and language.

The Study includes a discussion on possible propagation mechanisms and general background information, and will be of value to anyone interested in HF propagation over long distances. Hard-copy versions of each study are available for a small charge to cover costs of printing and mailing: to Australian addresses: A$5; elsewhere via economy airmail: US$5, 5 IRCs, A$8. Payment please by cash, (Australian or US), IRCs, checks in Australian currency drawn on Australian banks, GIRO, money orders or postal orders. Payments should be for the credit of Robert J. Padula.

Finally, Dario Monferini of PlayDX (via Davanzati 8, 20158 Milano, Italy) is offering a new souvenir pennant celebrating 1,000 issues of PlayDX and 23 years of free radio in Italy. It’s a multicolored, cloth pennant measuring 20 cm. by 14 cm. You can obtain your own copy of this special pennant by sending him three (3) International Reply Coupons, or US$5 in cash, to the above address. Also, toss in another IRC or another dollar and Dario will probably send along a sample copy of his weekly PlayDX newsletter. With Fine Tuning retired from the weekly paper DX scene, PlayDX is the only weekly paper publication available addressing shortwave broadcast DXing.

That’s it for this month. Enjoy this month’s edition of the JOURNAL; it’s another good one.

FRENDX: Twenty Five Years Ago.

Charlie Loudenboomer designated February as NASWA Month. Details of the special March 12, 1974 Radio Maldives NASWA courtesy program appeared. Work was underway for a book that would be an introductory reference about SWBC. In Ed Shaw’s Shortwave Center, Perry Ferrell wrote about noise blanketers and Charles Foxx wrote about the Vatican Radio. Don Jensen wrote about Radio Euzkadi in Larry Magne’s Clandestine Bulletin column. Frendx contained a special clandestine and revolutionary station band survey. Dan Ferguson mentioned that the club will be holding a convention July 19-21 in Columbus, Ohio. There was no Log Report A due to editor Elliott Straus being in the hospital. Also, Log Report B was typed too light for publication. From Larry Yamron in the QSL Report: “Inflation hits Dxers! The price of international reply coupons have risen to 26 cents.”

Welcome to the following new NASWA members

• Rich Bisignano, Chester, NJ
• Jesse Bruner, Raleigh, NC
• William L. Burton Jr., Lynchburg, VA
• Larry Carroll, Tallapoosa, GA
• Yoshinori Chiba, Osaka, JAPAN
• Alan Chipkewich, Beulah, MI
• Mark Clark, Pottstown, PA
• Garfield Clarke, Brooklyn, NY
• Mr. Stephen N. Coci, Florence, SC
• Mr. W. D. Compton, Aberdeen, SD
• W. M. Galeener, Gardner, KS
• David J. Hines, Lynn, MA
• David Hughes, Kansas City, MO
• William W. Hugueley, Tinley Park, IL
• Leonard Koleski, Toledo, OH
• David G. Munoz, St. Louis, MO
• Dr. Karen Murphy, Newport, RI
• Charles Nord, Lompoc, CA
• Jack T. Pickering, Madison, NJ
• Bryan D. Price, Lexington, KY
• Jim Sadowski, Erie, PA
• John Sawyer, New Orleans, LA
• Richard L. Shelby, Danville, KY
• Dennis Tackett, Indianapolis, IN
• Donald Larry Webber, Clinton, TN
• Jennifer Weinbrum, Denver, CO
• Robert Wiseman, Stone Mountain, GA

Musings

This column provides a forum wheras members can express comments, ideas, and thoughts about NASWA or the SW radio hobby. Please feel free to comment on anything presented this month (or previous months). Opinions expressed here are are soley those of the submitters. Please submit all Musings to Richard A. D’Angelo, 2216 Burkey Dr., Wyomissing, PA 19610 or via email: rdangelo3@aol.com.

David Baird wa9pds@soltec.net, Catlin, Illinois

Christmas Eve 1998 was a bit different in our household. My wife and I spent most of the evening listening to Christmas programs from around the world.

Such stations as Vatican Radio, Voice of Greece, Radio Tirana and Radio Australia were four of several broadcasts we heard. We tuned in to many that were not broadcasting in English. But the classic Christmas carols sung in various languages made it clear what the broadcasts were about.

Although this may be a common practice for more seasoned DX/SWL hobbyists, it was a first for us and one I recommend as a refreshing change. Again, world band radio bridged the miles that separate various cultures geographically. What a wonderful hobby!!

Robert E. Montgomery RMonty3@worldnet.att.net, Levittown, PA

If you are one of the growing users of computers in shack, you might want to check out Mark Fine’s web site. After several Journal issues with the English schedule listing, I found them of great value but difficult to read due to the print size. So I thought I would try the source and subscribed to the listing. After using for some time now, I noticed several offerings of computer control software for table top receivers. Mostly Drake units. I have a JRC 535Db and the programs were of no use to me. I had been reading about a few of the programs on the internet and decided to send an email and ask if it was possible to use this program on a 535. Turns out, Mark was in the process of producing such a program. I placed my order and waited till the testing was completed. After receiving the program, I managed to have it up and running within 30 min. I was really surprised as it does a little more than I had expected. There are a number of data bases that are part of the package. If you are a ute or a program listener, or just looking for English broadcast stations, they are all listed here. A matter of a couple of key clicks and you have access to the database and your favorite shortwave or medium wave stations. Editing of the files is possible to add your non-English stations. Logging reports can be produced to submit to the Journal and other favorite groups. The program is very professionally done and I still have not discovered all the features of this very computer friendly program.

I think it would be worth having a look at this web site and read about what is available. <http://www.erols.com/fineware/> I had a number of questions and have to say Mark was rather patient with me.

73, Bob

Contribute!

Send your loggings and QSL information off to our Distributing Editor, Fred Kohlbrenner (2641 South Shields Street, Philadelphia, PA 19142). He will forward them to the appropriate editor. Remember, Fred has now expanded his business to include QSL report information and totals for the Scoreboard column. He can also be reached through the Internet at: fkohl@ix.netcom.com. 

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