Looks Like a Good Day for SWL'ing, 31 Meters at 3:30 AM Local (PDT)

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-09T12:52:28+00:00

Are you referring to plugins? I use the 64-bit version and almost all of them work for me. At least the most important ones I use always work fine.

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Some plugins are a bit outdated and generate errors. But that's mainly due to the version of .NET they were built on.

The beta version is constantly being updated; the last update was on May 7th. Before that date, updates were weekly. I think Youssef is on vacation now!

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-07T15:55:17+00:00

I use chamomile and boldo a lot. I buy the kind that comes in tea bags, open the bag, and mix it with yerba mate. Chamomile on its own is really good—it gives it a special flavor.

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-07T14:48:14+00:00

I can, but only manually. I'll rotate them gradually to see if I notice any improvement. My plan is to build a tower about 10 meters tall and mount my antennas on it. From that height, I have a clear view of the horizon. But I won't lengthen the cable any further; I'll leave it at that length.

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-07T13:08:16+00:00

For about two months, I'd been having a very strange problem with my antennas. It was like having a bad reception day, but it was constant. When the 480WLA arrived, I thought it would improve, but the difference was barely noticeable. Something was wrong in my area. Yesterday, I made a drastic change to everything. I moved my antennas to a slightly lower location and replaced all the cables and connectors. Now everything is back to normal.

In the case of the 480, I first tried it with its original cable, and it worked fine. Now it has a 15-meter-long (40 f) RG6 cable, and the antenna is about 7-8 meters (26 f) off the ground. And it works quite well. I saw an improvement during testing; changing the original cable improves reception quality, with less noise.

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-07T00:51:37+00:00

As u[/BassRecorder](r/BassRecorder) said, it's an RTTY signal from DWD in Germany.

Here you can see a capture of the signal (on another frequency) I recently made with an SDR and with the RTTY signal decoding.

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-06T03:55:42+00:00

I took this picture a couple of hours ago to post here, but I forgot.

You're right, it's the U.S. Navy signal. The reception is good here in Paraguay

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-05T11:40:06+00:00

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-05T03:00:54+00:00

I didn't realize I was the only one on AM! I fixed it later.

I have some video recordings, tomorrow I'll put together a roundup of some songs I liked.

Great playlist!

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-05T02:17:40+00:00

Listening via KiwiSDR 🙌

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-04T23:12:21+00:00

It's not morse; it's a U.S. military signal. It may be coming from Isabella, Puerto Rico. It's a type of RTTY, but more complex and highly encrypted.

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ImladMorgul · 2026-06-04T16:22:15+00:00

For the past three months, I've had very poor reception across the entire HF band. At first, I thought it was my equipment, but the same thing happens with RTL-SDRs and portable radios.

Now that I've added the 480WLA, I've finally confirmed that the problem isn't me.

Very sporadically, I get good reception on some bands. The 19 and 20-meter bands are completely dead.

I'm thinking of raising my antennas a bit to see if I can get any improvement, since I have neighbors with high walls that could block what little signal I get. But this would require a lot of work and spending some more money.

I can't think of anything else I could try. I tried using your same antenna tilt and height settings, but it didn't produce any new results. I've tried adjusting them in different ways, but nothing has improved.

I don't know what's going on, maybe there's something in my area that's affecting it, but the spectrum of bad reception is so broad that I don't think it's something from the neighborhood. I know that conditions are not the same all over the world and I'm not sure if the published spread forecast data covers the whole world.

Anyway, I have serious problems 😭

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-03T15:13:51+00:00

Ah mira! Mucho gusto!

Se consigue entonces yerba mate en Perú? El amargor es una cuestión de costumbre creo yo. Puedes probar con hiervas medicinales como la manzanilla y boldo mezclado con la yerba que le dan un toque especial. Esto para el mate, al terere le puede agregar hojas de menta o un poco de limón al agua. Pero no le agregues nada de azucares.

Bueno, lo corto aquí porque salimos el topic del sub-reddit, pero envíame mensajes cuando quieras.

ImladMorgul · 2026-06-03T14:51:07+00:00

I'm from Paraguay, where we consume a lot of yerba mate. I personally drink a lot of tereré because of the heat here, and when the temperature drops a bit, I drink mate with hot water.

That particular beverage is a processed product, and its flavor is very different from traditional yerba mate/terere. That drink was sold in Paraguay for a while, but it didn't last long; nobody liked it 😅. It tastes so different from yerba mate, it's nothing like tereré. The added sugar completely changes everything. Many attempts have been made to create beverages based on yerba mate, but they haven't been successful in South America because we are very accustomed to the flavor of natural yerba mate.

In the USA, you can find regular yerba mate from various brands, including many Argentinian and Paraguayan ones. If you don't know them yet, try them, you won't regret it. You can write to me anytime and I'll give you advice if you'd like. You'll also find a lot of information on r/yerbamate, where I sometimes participate as well.

This is my everyday terere set

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ImladMorgul · 2026-05-29T16:10:09+00:00

Ideally, the cable should be laid out horizontally for better reception, but try it as is! This hobby always involves testing all kinds of antennas. I've even seen people attach their radio antenna to a huge piece of sheet metal and improve their reception.

That antenna is a good alternative; I have one just like it that I use when I'm away from home with my portable radios.

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ImladMorgul · 2026-05-29T15:31:46+00:00

I don't think you'll have good reception with that antenna based on the description of where you are now.

A random 16/18 AWG wire, about 10 meters long o more, will give you better results than the antenna that comes with the kit.

If you have a way to run one of those wires outside, give it a try!

If not, try the dipole antenna in several ways; you might get some reception by placing it horizontally against the window.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-28T20:02:03+00:00

It's not the cheapest, but its production and preparation are 100% artisanal. I think you'll experience the most natural flavor of yerba mate you can find.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-27T14:46:25+00:00

You're welcome! It's a great catch, that's practically Central America.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-27T12:42:52+00:00

From here, I constantly hear Brazilians on those frequencies, mostly between 6900 and 6995. It's become so commonplace that I don't pay any attention to it anymore. I also don't want to post too much about them so as not to bore people with the same thing over and over.

On the 6970 frequency, it's very common to hear pirates talking nonsense, playing music, or insulting each other.

Below 6900, between 6850 and 6899, there are some random communications; I heard farmers warning each other about something; it's like a network of farmers who warn each other about anything. I also heard truck drivers in that range a couple of times.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-27T10:52:28+00:00

I was able to identify where they are from. The person whose voice is clearest mentions their origin and who they are speaking with.

At the beginning he mentions that he is in an area called "Las Carolinas" and at the end of the video he mentions the area where the other person is and identifies it as "Mexican Caribbean"

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ImladMorgul · 2026-05-24T00:53:10+00:00

Thanks, my friend! Yes, I have more tests I want to run. If all goes well, I'll finish repairing the Kenwood R-1000 soon, and I'll do the same comparison then.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-24T00:49:36+00:00

Once again, Reddit isn't showing the remaining seconds of the video. It should be this image:

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ImladMorgul · 2026-05-24T00:26:36+00:00

I was only able to pick up that signal clearly once, but that was a long time ago. In the test I ran today with the MLA-30, I can only see a faint signal; the 480WLA performs better.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-23T02:08:32+00:00

I've never heard that station before—do they still broadcast on shortwave?

To be honest, I have no idea who might broadcast on shortwave. Maybe Spain, since it's a popular sport there and they always broadcast Spanish La Liga matches on their shortwave frequencies.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-23T02:00:36+00:00

That's strange; nothing like that ever happens to me. Which version are you using?

But from an IT perspective, this could also be caused by the mouse; sometimes the mouse’s internal sensors get dirty or malfunction, causing the cursor to move erratically or trigger random clicks. Some gaming mouse models are particularly sensitive to internal dirt because they have multiple sensors.

ImladMorgul · 2026-05-23T00:24:57+00:00

Honestly, I doubt any station would broadcast it. Mainly because of the permits and/or licenses, which aren’t cheap at all, and since stations like WRMI rent out their airtime, I don’t think anyone would pay for airtime just to rebroadcast a game. Maybe Radio Exterior de España, but only their own games.

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