JOCF - Minami-nihon Hoso (MBC)

I am posting this note from the balcony of my house as the weather here in Saitama is just excellent. Feel so good on being outside in the morning of weekend :-) Just forget all the tough works on the weekdays, yeah.

It has unexpectedly taken so long for me to obtain this QSL card from JOCF - the Minami-nihon Hoso. They are located in the southern island called Kyusyu - and are more than 1,000 km away from here in Saitama. With some heavy interference with other stations on 1107kHz - they cannot easily be observed in our area. Don't you think this QSL card is cool?

The Radio St. Helena Day

I had a successful monitoring of Radio St. Helena this morning. Nothing was first heard on 11092.5kHz (USB) when I tuned in this frequency at 20:00 UTC - but from the past experience, I knew the reception condition would be getting better as the time goes by. My guess was just right and the whole situation changed all of the sudden at 21:15 UTC. Here in Saitama, Japan, the best condition had observed for approx. 45 minutes, from 21:15 through 22:00 UTC. I would say SINPO at the best point was 45343. According to the website of the station, their transmission was beamed to Japan from 20:00 through 21:00. Just like the past years, the result was that the later transmission was received much better (in compare with the earlier one beamed to Japan) even if Japan was out of their target. I wish the transmission to Japan would be set up for an hour from 21:30 UTC in the future if they ever make this special transmission in this time of the season. Considering the fact that the current sunrise here in Japan is at 6:17 JST (21:17 UTC), the broadcast starting at 20:00 UTC is a little too early. I plan to make the suggestion of this to the station in my reception report.

Radio controlled watch

Radio controlled watch - yeah, cool! This is absolutely what you need for your radio monitoring. Why don't you get one for yourself?

FM Kashima - a low-power community FM station

So much things were going on with my family & myself - and I was unable to update this blog at all for a while. Sorry folks...

I have just finished scanning a lot of recent QSLs for this blog. Will let you see one by one.

This one is from FM Kashima, a low-power community FM station of Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. I had a chance to listen to their program while I was staying at the beach of Oarai in Ibaraki last month.

B08 schedules

Most major international shortwave radio stations have turned into the B08 schedule from last Sunday, the 26th. Due to the seasonal condition changes of the propagation, they have usually shifted their frequencies to the lower bands like 60, 49, and 31mb. The higher bands like 25mb or above have been much more quiet than before - and on the contrary, the lower ones are now so crowded with a lot of stations. This has resulted in creating severe interferences here and there. In Japan, Chinese stations are the biggest headache for DXing. They are of course allowed to use the shortwave frequencies for their regular broadcast -- but not for the meaningless jamming against other stations.

I am planning to make a weekend radio monitoring in this coming weekend. Here in Japan, next Monday - the 3rd of November, will be the national holiday, and it will be the 3-day consecutive holidays. Look forward to spending the weekend in my shack. Hope the human jamming of my 3-year old daughter also gets quiet :-)

Busy days :-(

It has been a looooooooooong week so far with a lot of tough works. There are so much headaches. One more day left for the weekend - but you know, I am quite sure that it will be another busy day tomorrow :-(

Just be a little more patient, and I will be running into the weekend for more shortwave listening :-) The A08 schedule will be over shortly, and most of the major international stations will be turning to the new B08 one in a few days. Look forward to seeing how the whole bands are changing next week.

9525kHz - Voice of Indonesia

It is 11:45 UTC (=20:45 JST) now. The Japanese program of the Voice of Indonesia is currently being observed on their usual frequency, 9525kHz. The reception condition is excellent here in Japan - SINPO44433. There are some slight fading on this frequency - but the signal itself is strong enough to cover this, and there is no major interference. Just like a local radio station :-)

Weekend shortwave monitoring

It is so much fun to play with my fellow radios. The recent newcomer, the FRG-7700 of YAESU, has been playing an important role for my shortwave monitoring since this joined in my shack last week :-) I especially love the mild sound of this old receiver. The above photo was taken when listening to the Radio Djibouti on 4780kHz.

Radio Sweden - MDG relay on 7395kHz

It is a few minutes after 21:00 UTC. I just finished listening to the English program of Radio Sweden on 7395kHz. The program was for 30 minutes from 20:30 UTC. There was also the Swedish one for 30 minutes before that. The reception condition was generally fair - SINPO45433. According to their website, this transmission was being sent out from MDG (Madagascar). There are so much chances to observe the MDG relay of Radio Nederland on various shortwave frequency bands - but not so much with Radio Sweden. To be honest, I had never realized the existance of their MDG transmission at all :-(

FRG-7700 - Welcome to my shack!

The used FRG-7700 of YAESU recently purchased through the Yahoo! Auctions safely arrived yesterday in a good condition. There are some tiny scratches on the case - but the overall condition as the old veteran radio is quite well. There is no special quality problem either with this radio as a result of my immediate quality test. At this moment, RX-340 of Ten Tec, NRD525 & 535 of JRC, AR7030PLUS of AOR, IC-R8500 of ICOM, and FRG-7700 of YAESU are sitting on a desk of my shack. I love each of them so much! :-)

Radio Varna on 6000kHz

I am now enjoying the weekend shortwave listening. It is Monday morning - but the 13th is the national holiday here in Japan and this makes me feel as if it was still the weekend :-)

Radio Varna, the weekly Bulgarian program from Varna, is now fair on 6000kHz. Since 21:00 UTC when they started the program, they have being observed with relatively strong signal without no major interference, noise, and fading. Of course, I am currently writing a Reception Report.

FRG-7700

I happened to see the used FRG-7700 of YAESU being sold on the Yahoo! Auctions several days ago. Remembered it when connecting with the Internet last night, and the time remaining was less than 10 minutes at that time. As the price was still under my budget (means the maximum acceptable price), I immediately put a tender in and waited for a completion of the Auction. I had no intention to be involved in a severe price competition - and had decided that I was willing to give it up if the price ever exceeded to my budget.

The end-time was extended for another 10 minutes as someone else made further bids in the last 5 minutes. This happened a couple of times.

The result was ... good to me :-)

This FRG-7700 was knocked down by me for a little less than JPY30,000. Not too bad as long as trusting all the statements the seller prepared. It is nice that the good condition of this old veteran will be joining in my shack shortly :-)

Radio Belarus

Belarus used to be a part of the former Soviet Empire, and their capital is Minsk. I am unable to recall exactly when they changed their station name - and the current Radio Belarus was called Radio Minsk at that time. I still remember that I was successful to catch them on the lower frequency bands mostly in winter.

According to my recent monitoring, there is a chance of receiving them on 7390kHz. They are on the air in various languages by using this frequency. Try at 20:40 UTC for their English program for 20 minutes :-)

Voice of Nigeria

This is a QSL card from the Voice of Nigeria. The mountain behind the road looks like a huge rock - judging from this particular photo. It is hard to tell exactly how tall (or big) this is but seems that it is as big as the Stone Mountain in Atlanta, GA, U.S.A. or even the Ayers Rock in Australia. Does anyone know the truth?

9330kHz - Radio Damascus

It is a few minutes after 21:00 UTC now, and I am just listening to the English program of the Radio Damascus on 9330kHz. Their audio quality used to be extremely poor before - but this seems to have been much improved. The overall reception condition here in Japan can be evaluated as SINPO 44433 with strong signal, no interference, low noise, and some fading.

TWR-Swaziland

I am not confident at all to point to the right place of Swaziland in a white map. As one of the shortwave listeners, I believe I am still good at the geography (in compare to other people) - but this fact seems to show that my knowledge is quite limited. Are you confident to answer the correct locations of other African nations like Chad, Niger, or Cameroon? Maybe we need to build up more studies in geography :-(
It is also a lot of fun to actually catch the wave from those unknown countries. Through this experience, we might be able to 'pretend' as if we were a geography expert (only if we refuse to have any further geography question from someone else).

CRI - China Radio International

The China Radio International now offers wide variety of special QSL cards for the recent Olympic Games in Beijing. I do not know exactly how many different ones they have - but it seems that the series consist of more than twenty different cards. It will be a kind of challenge to collect all of them :-)

CVC

CVC is the Christian broadcast organization owns some transmitting facilities in Australia, Zambia, and Chile. This QSL card is from the one in Chile, the South America. This station can easily be heard with good signal in the evening here in Japan :-)

RFA - Radio Free Asia

Radio Free Asia is such a friendly radio station for DXers. In fact, they issue a new series of QSL cards every two months at regular basis. This is the one I received for my reception report forwarded in February, 2008. Seems to be the special QSL card for the Chinese New Year :-)

DLF - Deutschlandfunk

DLF is the medium wave station of Germany. I was successful to identify their German language program from 19:06 through 19:27 UTC on September 21, 2008. They are the high-power station on 1422kHz - but it is still amazing that they can be observed here in Japan without any major interference, noise, and fading (only while the local Japanese station was off the air in the night of most Mondays).

Their response was extremely quick, and the envelope was filled with a complete QSL card (see the above), sticker, and an advertising material.

New QSLs coming soon :-)

I know - it has been quite a while to leave a new post here in this blog :-(

In spite of my busy days with a lot of tough works, I had not stopped devoting my effort on collecting QSL cards. This is absolutely a part of my life now - and receiving replies from radio stations around the world always helps me to keep the good motivation on my QSL collecting activities.

Will post some QSL cards recently received shortly :-)

Radio Tirana

The English language service of Radio Tirana have been observed with a good condition for two days in a row.

Just happened to find them yesterday on 7465kHz - and according to their broadcast schedule, they are on the air in English at 20:00~20:30 (actually, ~20:27*) on this frequency.

Here in Japan, the overall reception condition is fair with a strong signal, without any major interference, noise, and fading.

Severe HUMAN jamming :-(

I could not afford at all to spend time for updating this blog in the past several months - as too much things had been going on. I will TRY to improve this situation and leave as many posts as possible at regular basis.

I was successful to wake up at 04:50 (JST (Japan Standard Time) - 19:50 UTC) in this morning and immediately went into my shack for a weekend radio monitoring. Following stations were observed here in Japan as a result of concentrating on sweeping the 49mb for an hour.

7390 R.Belarus (Belarus, EG) 8/1, 19:58~20:12, s/24332
7465 R.Tirana (Albania, EG) 8/1, 20:13~20:27*, s/34333
7450 R.Mekedonia (Greece, GK) 8/1, 20:28~21:03, s/33333

My 3-year-old daughter woke up at 06:00 JST (=21:00 UTC) and run into here to see me. I was forced to give up continuing my radio monitoring, as she was just like a strong human jamming. My ALA-1530S+ is capable for efficiently getting rid of noise and interference with a right angle - but even this excellent antenna does not work at all for her. I would like anyone reading this blog to let me know how to effectively and efficiently shut her mouth out while I am on the radio monitoring :-)

New A08 schedules

Effective Sunday, March 30, 2008, most international radio stations will go into the new A08 schedule. This is for a purpose of replacing their old frequencies for the fall-winter with new ones for spring-summer to meet with the latest propagation. In general, most of them will be shifting to higher frequencies like 25, 19, and even 13 meter bands. It would be a lot of fun to explore the shortwave bands to find new stations on new frequencies. Will see what can be observed :-)

Stop selling / buying QSL cards on the auctions!

I have just sold a couple of old radios and equipments on the Yahoo! Auctions. They were sleeping in a warehouse of my house for a long time, and I just wondered if it would be better for them to be used by other people rather than just sitting in deep of the darkness. I did not feel good about making too much money for them and therefore set up the start-price at only JPY100.- (=USD1.00). This way, the final price would be determined by a competition of bidders without my control. Thus, my old radio has gone to the final bidder at the price of JPY6,000.- (USD60.00).

We are allowed to sell whatever we want UNLESS they are any illegal or prohibited items. HOWEVER, I am not comfortable at all to see a lot of QSL cards actually being sold on the auctions now. This is just ridiculous. What is more unbelievable, uncomfortable, and unacceptable is that there are some silly people bidding for these QSLs with the name of someone else. What a shame! Tell me what that QSL card means.

I understand that the trade can always be completed as long as the seller and the buyer come to an agreement on the price. But, any QSL card issued to a specific person should NOT be used for a purpose of making money. I strongly wish they would realize how shameful they are to do such silly thing and withdraw all the QSL cards from the Internet auctions right away.

Tatarstan Wave QSLs

According to the recent public research conducted to various generations in the metropolitan Tokyo area, far less than a half people were able to give a right answer about the geographic location of Miyazaki. Miyazaki is one of the Japan’s 47 prefectures (like the States of the United States) located in the east coast of the Kyusyu - the south-western island of Japan. They have become popular as a result of electing the well-known comedian as the new governor. My wife and I laughed at this news and the fact that so many people had a hard time answering this easy question.

Now, I just received two QSL cards from the Tatarstan Wave. I asked my wife if she knew where Tatarstan was located. She honestly said that she had never heard of the name. If I were not a shortwave listener, I would have been the same. In fact, I had NEVER known the name of Tatarstan either until I had a chance to hear the Tatarstan Wave a few years ago. Both my wife and I still cannot tell the exact location of their country in the blank map.

Are you laughing at us? Well, you had better not. Guess if you were selected for the same public research in Tokyo about the geographic location of Tatarstan :-)

The latest VOA QSLs

The VOA is now sending us a new series of QSLs with designs (actually, photos) of their transmission sites around the world. The ones I have received so far are the Delano and the Germany. I personally have never seen anything else but am sure they have more in this series. I would like to have one of the Greenville as I used to visit them several times in the past when I was in the United States. Also, I am interested in seeing the one of Sao Tome since nothing comes up to my mind as the image of this mystic country. It must be a lot of fun to actually see how they look like :-)

Radio Slovakia International QSL

The English program of the Radio Slovakia International can be observed with good reception condition at 07:00 UTC on 15460kHz. This is the latest QSL card I just got a few days ago.

My shack

This is a photo of my shack taken in the middle of January, 2008.

I just bought a brand new house last June, and one of the rooms on the 2nd floor has been occupied as my shack :-) My wife agreed that I would use this best room with a large balcony until my 3-year-old daughter becomes in need of a private room (maybe 16 years old after she is graduated from a junior high school). I still have more than 10 years left of the 'official right' to occupy here for my dairy shortwave listening activities, though :-) Maybe I should have bought a larger house with more rooms, so that I would have had the permanent shack just exclusive for me :-(

Anyhow -

At this moment, ONLY four (4) tabletop receivers are sitting on a big desk. This American-size manager desk was purchased when I was in Atlanta several years ago and brought back to Japan with me. It is not easy for us to find this kind of big desk (especially with the deep depth) here in Japan - and as you can see, this is just ideal size for putting several receivers and a desktop PC due to the sufficient depth.

RX-340 of Ten-Tec, AR7030PLUS of AOR, and NRD525 / 545 of JRC are the main receivers in use for my monitoring. I own a lot more and they are sitting on the cabinet but there are too many to be used all the time. I sometimes change the layout of my shack and replace some of them with different ones.

These four (4) receivers are all connected with the latest version of the ALA-1530S+. This active antenna is, of course, intended for an outside use - but I still hesitate to set it up outside of my house. I am satisfied with the performance of this antenna even in an inside use. I added a pole with a base to this antenna, and this allows me to rotate the ring manually to obtain the best angle. This is one of the reasons to use it in my shack.

There are so much other things to mention about my shack - but that's it for today :-)

China Radio International QSL

This is a QSL card of the China Radio International received in the middle of February, 2008. This year is the rat year in the lunar calendar, and the CRI have taken a rat in the design with a Chinese character meaning “happiness” or "good luck". We, Japanese, also use the same letter in the same meaning and this makes us feel a fact that we have a close cultural relationship with China. Through the programs of the China Radio International, we are also able to feel directly how people in China are excited about the Olympic games held in this coming August :-)

Radio Free Asia QSL

Just received a new QSL card from Radio Free Asia today. Same design of the U.S. 41-cent stamp is used at the exact timing of the Chinese new year holidays. A note in small letters on the bottom says "Used with permission". It is so funny that Radio Free Asia applied (to the U.S. Mail) for the use of this design on their QSL card :-)

By the way, I personally have not had a chance to monitor the new medium wave transmission of their Korean service. I am too busy especially in the weekdays to do so :-( Hope I will be able to take some time for the monitoring in this coming weekend.

More lighthouse radio stations

These are QSL cards from the lighthouse radio stations of the Nyudou, the Tappi, and the Hachijyojima. All of them are on the air every hour for approx. a minute on 1670.5kHz, just like other stations. They can be observed well all through the night here in Saitama, Japan. The Japan's lighthouse radios share the same frequency of 1670.5kHz, and transmissions of each station go out in turn.

The Todogasaki lighthouse radio station

Let's go on with more Japanese lighthouse radio stations. This is a QSL card from one of the Todogasaki in Iwate, the northern part of Honsyu - the main Island of Japan. They are on the air at 28 minutes of every hour for approx. one minute. The frequency is 1670.5kHz, and the power is 50 watts.

Weekend Latvia Relay Result

The weekend Latvia relays of last night was unfortunately NOT good at all here in Japan. Observed a kind of strong carrier on 9290kHz at 08:58 UTC but this was NOT one of R.Joystick but the unknown Chinese station. They had occupied this frequency for a while and finally disappeared at 12:00 UTC. Something could be heard on 9290kHz after that, but it was too weak with a lot of noise to be verified in my location. Anyone confirmed SA? According to the schedule, this should have been R.Casablanca at or after 12:00 UTC.

Weekend Latvia relays on 9290kHz

The weekend Latvia relays on 9290kHz will be carried out as follows.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

09:00~10:00 R.Joystick

10:00~11:00 R.Nord Evergreen

11:00~12:00 Latvia Today

12:00~13:00 R.Casablanca

Sunday, March 2, 2008

14:00~15:00 Latvia Today

Wish the propagation condition would be fine so that we will be able to enjoy these programs tonight and tomorrow night here in Japan.

RFA Korean begins MW broadcasts on 3/1/08

Just received an email from Mr. A J Janitschek, the Director of the Production Support for Radio Free Asia, saying that they would launch a new medium wave broadcast for their Korean service. 1350kHz will be the frequency used, but he does not mention anything about the transmission site in his note.

The following is a copy of his original email.

------

Hi all: Radio Free Asia announces the start of medium wave broadcasts for it Korean program. The broadcasts will begin this Sunday, March 2,on 1350 kHz. As of Sunday, our Korean listeners can tune in daily from 1500-1900 UTC and 2100-2200 UTC to the following frequencies:

1500-1600 UTC: 1350, 5860, 7210, 9385

1600-1700 UTC: 1350, 5860, 7210, 9385

1700-1800 UTC: 1350, 5860, 9385

1800-1900 UTC: 1350, 5860, 9385
2100-2200 UTC: 1350, 5835, 7460, 9385

You have received this email as you have expressed interest in our programming and QSL cards in the past; please let us know if you would like to be dropped from our distribution list.

Best wishes from all of us at RFA. Thx AJ

T.G.I.F.!

The weekend is just around the corner! :-) It has been a long week AGAIN with a lot of tough works :-(

Today is February 29, 2008. Considering the time difference for 9 hours between JST and UTC, we still have chances to get QSLs with a date of the leap day until 08:59 a.m. of tomorrow, March 1, 2008, in our time. It is so lucky that today is Friday as I will be able to spend all through the night for DXing! :-)

The Awashima lighthouse radio station

More Japanese lighthouse radio stations go on. This is a QSL card from one of Awashima located in Niigata facing with the Sea of Japan (other side of the Pacific Ocean). This station is one of the strongest one here in Saitama all through the night. The frequency is 1670.5kHz, and the power is only 50 watts. They are on the air every day at 47 minutes of every hour for approx. one minute.

The Japan Coast Guard celebrate their 60th anniversary this year, and the recent QSL card has the special logo like the above.

RRI on 9525kHz tonight

RRI is now being suffered from heavy interference with both 5kHz upper and lower. Very poor condition (SINPO22432) here in Saitama, Japan. The current program is in Japanese.

The Japanese program of RRI appears on 9525kHz!

I am just tuning in 9525kHz now for the Japanese program of RRI. The reception condition is unfortunately not as good as one of last night due to some interferences with the stations on both 9520kHz and 9530kHz. I missed the opening announcement and was not able to know exactly what time they started their Japanese program tonight (probably some time between 12:00~12:20 UTC, though). It is so funny that nobody knows, maybe including themselves :-), how their transmission goes on. In fact, they announce that their Japanese program is from 11:30 through 12:30 UTC but it is still being broadcasted now at 12:55 UTC.

The Nojima lighthouse radio station

Here is a recent QSL card of the Nojima lighthouse radio station in Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo. This station also can be heard well here in Saitama all through the night. The frequency is 1670.5kHz, which is same as others, and the power is only 50 watts. They are on the air every day at 21 minutes of every hour for approx. one minute.

Radio Tirana is active on 7430kHz!

7430 R.Tirana (Albania, English / Albanian) 2/26, 21:13~21:27* & *21:28~21:37, s/32432 * Suffered from a heavy QRM but the signal itself had got stronger as the time went by. Observed the English program till 21:27. Signed off after the closing announcement & music at 21:27, and re-signed in with IS shortly at 21:28. The Albanian program followed. The paralleled 6005kHz could not be observed today as far as I monitored, although this frequency was heard with relatively good condition last weekend.

All times in this blog are described in UTC.

F.Y.I., there is a time difference for 9 hours between UTC and JST (Japan Standard Time). We are 9-hour advance of UTC, and 15:00 UTC and / or after would be the ‘next day’ in our local time. Just keep this in your mind to find out the local time of Japan as per the time described here in UTC.

Radio Republik Indonesia is back!

RRI on 9525kHz is finally back on the air today. I am now listening to their program in Korean, and the reception condition here in Saitama, Japan is just excellent (SINPO54444). I do not remember well when I heard them on this frequency last time. Maybe it was back in December, 2007. There is no guarantee that they will stay on the air from now on but let's hope they will do so.

I just realized them a few minutes ago and I missed the chance to check if their Japanese service was also on the air today. In December, 2007, it was scheduled at 12:00 UTC for one hour. Will see what will happen tomorrow.

Jack

The Erimo lighthouse radio station

Here is one more QSL card of the Erimo lighthouse radio station in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. This station can be heard well even here in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo, all through the night. The frequency is 1670.5kHz, and the power is only 50 watts. They are on the air every day at 33 minutes of every hour for approx. one minute.

The Shionomisaki lighthouse radio station

I am also an enthusiastic collector of verification cards and letters from radio station around the world. I am not familiar with how the shortwave listening had expanded in Japan as one of the great hobbies and became a huge boom back in the 70’s. However, I am quite sure that a lot of young people at that time were fascinated with colorful and exotic QSL cards from various countries. I started my QSL collecting activities back in 1982 and my collection has reached so far to over 2,000 from nearly 200 countries. It is no longer easy for me to develop a completely new (means newly verified) country but my interest and motivation to this wonderful hobby has never die. You know how many radio stations, including MW, FM, SW, and even LW bands, are existing in today’s world, and even I have ever heard only a small percentage of the whole number. This hobby is unlimited. I even have no particular goal in my QSL collecting activities. I just do what I feel like to do, and this could be a part of reason why I have been enjoying this hobby for nearly thirty years without any major interval. Just feel free to do anything I want - this is my attitude and policy.

This year, I am once again trying to collect QSL card or letters from ALL the Japan’s ‘lighthouse radios’. The first one to introduce here is the Shionomisaki station in Wakayama. They are on the air every day at 15 minutes of every hour for approx. one minute. The frequency is 1670.5kHz, and the power is only 50 watts just like other lighthouse radio stations of Japan.

Welcome to the ATLANTA DX ONLINE JAPAN

Welcome to the blog version of the ATLANTA DX ONLINE JAPAN.

This blog is developed, owned, and operated by Jack, the active Japanese DXer in Saitama, Japan. I have been an enthusiastic shortwave listener for nearly thirty years. The shortwave listening is unfortunately no longer popular here in spite of the historical boom back in the 70's. However, I am still in love with this fascinated hobby even though today's technology enables us to easily access with back of the earth instantly through the Internet. The shortwave listening has kept on bringing so much fun and interests to me still now. The ATLANTA DX ONLINE JAPAN is the blog introducing a part of my shortwave listening activities from Japan to the world with a lot of articles, photos, and audio clips.
It would be nice if you would join in this blog as a regular visitor.

Enjoy, and welcome aboard! :-)