• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Post your latest DX

I'm hearing something AC-ish or 70s/80s soft pop on 1220 tonight.

Are there any stations within 100-250 miles of SF that would play this sort of music on 1220?

I also heard, through all the slop from 1050 and 1070, something in English on 1060. Probably not KYW, but what could that be?

c
 
Last edited:
KHTS Canyon Country CA. At least on 1220.

The 1060 - maybe KDUS Tempe (SportsMap)? Or KGFX Pierre SD?
 
Looks like the Es season is starting to signs of life. There was some 6M out in the west yesterday. Also some FMlist reports in Europe of FM ES.

Also, The other day there was a strong 6M beacon on a NH SDR from GA.

This year we'll have to see how useful the DXmaps MUF plot is because there ionosphere is cooking with SFIs now over 200 and increasing number reports of 6M F2.

Looking more at old I/Q files and I found more multihop From June 11th last year. 96.7 KCMQ Columbia, MO 1624 Miles. Was very weak but herd the call ID.

Also, Here is somebody getting FM TEP over 4000 miles.
 
Last edited:
Also, Here is somebody getting FM TEP over 4000 miles.
"Cayo Hueso" or "Bone Island" is the original Spanish name for Key West. It was Anglicized quite literally. Cayo means Island, Hueso means Bone.
 
Seattle-Tacoma area:

Last night I got station #612, WLAC Nashville, 1510, behind (and a few times overtaking) KGA Spokane. There was also a weak KSFN Piedmont, Calif., underneath. First time I've heard Tennessee in a long, long time. WLAC was playing Gordon Deal, and there were two IDs. Super clear on my PR-D4W (with a loop, although WLAC came in strong enough that a loop was probably unnecessary). I also heard it on my GE Superadio II (also using the loop), which I've dusted off and been using lately. Heard an ID on both.

The SRII is a terrific MW DXer, but the PR-D4W seems to have the edge -- the DSP brings out a lot of clarity, and the adjustable bandwidths are helpful. I had my PR-D4W on 2.5 kHz bandwidth, which is 2 kHz with wider 'skirts' to the filtering -- you get a bit more treble information from the signal than you do on 2 or 3 kHz, but it's still narrow enough to cut most of the splash from adjacent channels.
 
Seattle-Tacoma metro:

Heard KOKC, 1520, behind local Classic Country station KXA Snohomish (yeah, it's officially KKXA, whatever). I heard it the night before last, as well as earlier last night, on my GE SRII and loop. Couldn't hear any IDable spots but when Red Eye came on, it fit the schedule. I've heard them long ago when they were still KOMA, and probably since then without noticing it, but the last week or so conditions seem to have opened up to the East and SE.

Still rediscovering my SRII. It's a great radio, that's for sure.
 
Great reminder for me to get my January Es DX clips FINALLY uploaded. Which I will do in the coming days.

Life has been unbelievably crazy lately, and now the icing on the cake: I'm likely moving this summer!
A school district is offering me an elementary teaching job in the small town of Cascade, Idaho (pop. 900), 28 miles south of McCall, and 63 miles north of Boise. That would put me in the DN14 grid. I'm very likely accepting this job and leaving Yakima (and WA) in July.

I now have a TEF-6686 FM radio...probably one of the best things that China has ever made (besides fireworks). This radio is a firecracker. I get KLGW-98.5 Grand Coulee 24/7 on this radio and that has never happened before from my Yakima location. It's possible on the higher hills and in Selah, but not in this valley location. At the Cowiche Uplands a couple of weeks ago (1600 feet), I had KPLW-89.9 Wenatchee (with Air 1 translator phased), KZAL-94.7 Manson, KWRL-102.3 La Grande, and KAAP-99.5 Rock Island through the HD hash of KHHK!! This is a freakin' firecracker. Any more signal gain on this radio and it might spark a fire 🔥🔥
The caveat is the AM isn't as great as it could be. Either my apartment has become unusable for AM DX or it's creating RFI inside the radio. The old Grundig G5 did SO much better.
 
Great reminder for me to get my January Es DX clips FINALLY uploaded. Which I will do in the coming days.

Life has been unbelievably crazy lately, and now the icing on the cake: I'm likely moving this summer!
A school district is offering me an elementary teaching job in the small town of Cascade, Idaho (pop. 900), 28 miles south of McCall, and 63 miles north of Boise. That would put me in the DN14 grid. I'm very likely accepting this job and leaving Yakima (and WA) in July.

I now have a TEF-6686 FM radio...probably one of the best things that China has ever made (besides fireworks). This radio is a firecracker. I get KLGW-98.5 Grand Coulee 24/7 on this radio and that has never happened before from my Yakima location. It's possible on the higher hills and in Selah, but not in this valley location. At the Cowiche Uplands a couple of weeks ago (1600 feet), I had KPLW-89.9 Wenatchee (with Air 1 translator phased), KZAL-94.7 Manson, KWRL-102.3 La Grande, and KAAP-99.5 Rock Island through the HD hash of KHHK!! This is a freakin' firecracker. Any more signal gain on this radio and it might spark a fire 🔥🔥
The caveat is the AM isn't as great as it could be. Either my apartment has become unusable for AM DX or it's creating RFI inside the radio. The old Grundig G5 did SO much better.
It's apparently known not to be great on AM.

It looks like the FM band in Cascade, ID should be pretty quiet with most things miles away.

If you want to go the extra mile a modest yagi and a SDR can do wonders. Plus you can record I/Q files for playback later. Kind of hard to beat a 8 or 10 Mhz swath of spectrum and recording all of it :)

You might want to upgrade the firmware on your TEF radio. It seems they generally ship with old versions.
 
the radio is useless with AM on the whip.. does great on my loop..... freakin screams on SW. I hear amazing stuff with it, my amp, a big ass loop and an antenna tuner.
 
Yup. Time for me to get my 909 fixed for MW DX.
 
The caveat is the AM isn't as great as it could be. Either my apartment has become unusable for AM DX or it's creating RFI inside the radio. The old Grundig G5 did SO much better.

The TEF6686 is heavily affected by RFI on AM since it only has a whip antenna, so it’s useless for DXing on that band inside my house. If I take mine into the front yard away from the house RFI, I find that its sensitivity rivals that of my CC-2E, G.E. SRII, and other top tier portables. However, its AM reception is also affected by hand capacitance, which further complicates things.
 
Again...the 909X won't turn on. The battery compartment is loose and will not accept batteries. I tried putting foil in to force the batteries in, but it got very hot and I immediately took them out.
Sangean should be able to repair it, or Radiolabs.
I don't have a loop with a connector that I can use for the TEF. If I did, I would use one like what Paul has.

Since the countdown is on to Cascade, Idaho, I wonder what the best antenna arrangement would be for that little radio.
 
Again...the 909X won't turn on. The battery compartment is loose and will not accept batteries. I tried putting foil in to force the batteries in, but it got very hot and I immediately took them out.
Sangean should be able to repair it, or Radiolabs.
I don't have a loop with a connector that I can use for the TEF. If I did, I would use one like what Paul has.

Since the countdown is on to Cascade, Idaho, I wonder what the best antenna arrangement would be for that little radio.
Might want to try something like a MLA-30 to improve AM. Tho replacing the loop on that really helps for MW.

I assume yours has a SMA port?
 
Again...the 909X won't turn on. The battery compartment is loose and will not accept batteries. I tried putting foil in to force the batteries in, but it got very hot and I immediately took them out.
Sangean should be able to repair it, or Radiolabs.
I don't have a loop with a connector that I can use for the TEF. If I did, I would use one like what Paul has.

Since the countdown is on to Cascade, Idaho, I wonder what the best antenna arrangement would be for that little radio.
Can you take the back off, and are you good with a solder gun? It might be a loose terminal, and if your battery compartment is "loose", it may be the spring on the negative side of the battery terminal is loose.

I have a DX-398 / 909 and the radio went intermittent on my around 2012 or so. The negative terminal -- the one with the spring -- had become a little loose. The only thing holding it on is the solder pad it is soldered to, and apparently there wasn't enough solder applied at the factory to make it last 15 years..... I had to hit the solder pad with more solder. It's been fine ever since (except when there was some corrosion that developed on the positive terminal plate, which -- after I found it -- I cleared it off.

Although if you can get Radiolabs to fix your 909, by all means, do it. The 909 is a 'sleeper' MW DX radio. Mine probably outperforms my PR-D5, and I was surprised when it did.

Until then, try cutting a plastic shim and using it to hold the batteries in place instead of the tin foil. I have to do that with two of my radios where the batteries naturally rattle around a little bit (Tecsun PL-398, Sangean PR-D5). Any piece of cut plastic from a bottle of plastic cap should do.
 
the radio is useless with AM on the whip.. does great on my loop..... freakin screams on SW. I hear amazing stuff with it, my amp, a big ass loop and an antenna tuner.
Have you tried rigging an open loop (maybe 3-4 ft of wire) between the whip and a radio ground? That's how my Sony XDR (with TEF chip inside, although it's a different number) receives the AM band. A simple one turn loop. DXes very well.
 
Back
Top Bottom