IBOC is going to kill my mediumwave DXing hobby and DRM as well as BPL
will kill my ham radio and shortwave DXing hobby. I still hold out
some hope that things might not be as bad as I have heard but just in
case I would like to hear as many of the NASWA countries that I still
have not heard before I retire permanantly from the hobby.

I have been away from NASWA for about 12 years now and don't know what
is still active on shortwave but these are the countries I still need
to hear DIRECT.

I would appreciate any tips, logs, or help in hearing these. Also,
does anyone have any idea which of the NASWA countries in the complete
NASWA Countries List are still active? Better yet, which are off the
air.

Georgia (Georgian SSR)
Abkhazia (Georgian SSR)
Armenia (Armenian SSR)
Kazakhstan (Kazakh SSR)
Kirghistan (Kirghiz SSR)
Tajikistan (Tadzhik SSR)
Turkmenistan (Turkmen SSR)
Uzbekistan (Uzbek SSR)
Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR)
Bahrain
Bhutan
Cambodia (French Indochina)
China, People's Rep. - Manchuria
China, People's Rep. - Tibet
Eritrea (Ethiopia)
India - Andaman and Nicobar Islands
India - Kashmir
India - Sikkim
Somali, Dem. Rep. - British (British Somaliland)
Indonesia - Kalimantan (Borneo)
Indonesia - Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands)
Indonesia - Sumatera (Sumatra)
Laos (French Indochina)
Malaysia - Sabah (British North Borneo)
Malaysia - Sarawak
Myanmar (Burma)
Nepal
Croatia (Yugoslavia)
Russian Rep. - Kaliningrad (Konigsberg)
Wales
Azad Kashmir (India)
Belau (Palau)
British Indian Ocean Territory

Estonia (Estonian SSR) active?
Indonesia - Bali (Bali) active?
Indonesia - Timor Timur (Portuguese Timor) active?
Vietnam - South (Rep. of Vietnam) (French Indochina) active?
Northern Ireland active?
Russian Rep. - Karelia (Karelo-Finnish SSR) active?
Yugoslavia, Fed. Rep. (Serbia-Montenegro) active?
Afghanistan active?
Greenland active?

You may e-mail me direct and thanks for your help.

Can't help you with the countries list, but don't let QRM kill your enthusiasm
for BCB DXing. Just because it's harder, doesn't make it any less rewarding !

Heck, I'm wiring up a homebrew BCB pre-amp right now for EWEs, loops, and BOGs
!

jw
K9RZZ
Milwaukee

J999w wrote:
Can't help you with the countries list, but don't let QRM kill your enthusiasm
for BCB DXing. Just because it's harder, doesn't make it any less rewarding !

Heck, I'm wiring up a homebrew BCB pre-amp right now for EWEs, loops, and BOGs

What sort of overload protection will you be using to prevent damage to
the radio? The preamp amplifies background noise too, so it would be a
good idea to stick a preselector between it and the radio.

Some random thoughts...
Some benefits can be had by feeding the audio into a proper audio
amplifier, where you can play with the sound quality more. Something
with a bandwidth adjustment..

antennaamplifypreselectradiosound processspeaker


mike

Tom Laskowski wrote:

IBOC is going to kill my mediumwave DXing hobby and DRM as well as BPL
will kill my ham radio and shortwave DXing hobby. I still hold out
some hope that things might not be as bad as I have heard but just in
case I would like to hear as many of the NASWA countries that I still
have not heard before I retire permanantly from the hobby.

I have been away from NASWA for about 12 years now and don't know what
is still active on shortwave but these are the countries I still need
to hear DIRECT.

I would appreciate any tips, logs, or help in hearing these. Also,
does anyone have any idea which of the NASWA countries in the complete
NASWA Countries List are still active? Better yet, which are off the
air.

Georgia (Georgian SSR) active
Abkhazia (Georgian SSR) active as a 'station' not sure as a country
Armenia (Armenian SSR) active
Kazakhstan (Kazakh SSR) not sure
Kirghistan (Kirghiz SSR) not sure
Tajikistan (Tadzhik SSR) active
Turkmenistan (Turkmen SSR) active
Uzbekistan (Uzbek SSR) not sure
Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR) active
Bahrain active
Bhutan active
Cambodia (French Indochina) reportadly active
China, People's Rep. - Manchuria I believe so
China, People's Rep. - Tibet I believe so
Eritrea (Ethiopia) some clandestines to Eritrea
India - Andaman and Nicobar Islands active
India - Kashmir active
India - Sikkim active
Somali, Dem. Rep. - British (British Somaliland) active
Indonesia - Kalimantan (Borneo) active
Indonesia - Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands) active
Indonesia - Sumatera (Sumatra) active
Laos (French Indochina) active
Malaysia - Sabah (British North Borneo) I believe so
Malaysia - Sarawak not sure
Myanmar (Burma) active
Nepal active
Croatia (Yugoslavia) not sure
Russian Rep. - Kaliningrad (Konigsberg) active
Wales used to be pirates, none lately as far as I know
Azad Kashmir (India) not sure as to transmitter site whether active or
not , as a station, yes.
Belau (Palau) not sure
British Indian Ocean Territory AFN has not been heard for some time

Hope that helps a bit.

Steve
Holland, MI
Drake R7, R8 and R8B

http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm

j999 wrote:

Heck, I'm wiring up a homebrew BCB pre-amp right now for EWEs, loops, and
BOGs

Mike answered:

What sort of overload protection will you be using to prevent damage to
the radio? The preamp amplifies background noise too, so it would be a
good idea to stick a preselector between it and the radio.

Here's my thoughts. I often phase a 55' vertical against a 3' box loop to dig
out Mexican and Caribbean stations, and when I do that, I have to attenuate the
vertical. So, instead of attenuating the weak DX on the vert, I'll amplify the
pests on the loop!

Same goes for the EWE antennas. I can sometimes hear European or Caribbean
carriers on split channels at S5 or S7, but that's too weak to pull out any
audio. If I put the pre-amps at the antenna, it shouldn't add much noise to the
system. Heck, it's done on 80 and 160 meters all the time.

Nothing cooler than nulling out WBZ and hearing nothing but weak, distant
static from who know's where ... just waiting for some juicy DX to fade up.

As far as overload protection, the two radio's I use most are the Icom R71a,
and the Palstar R30. Both are almost bomb proof. I had the Palstar on a 700 ft
wire, 2 miles from a 5 kw local (a bit off the side of their main pattern) and
had no trouble (TX 1290khz, RX 1620khz). If I do need some preselection, I have
a homebrew LC passive preselector I can throw in line to knock down the
background images of locals (sometimes real weak in the noise).

Some random thoughts...
Some benefits can be had by feeding the audio into a proper audio
amplifier, where you can play with the sound quality more. Something
with a bandwidth adjustment..

antennaamplifypreselectradiosound processspeaker


I have the MFJ752B that I use at times, but normally I'll record the audio and
later manipulate it on the computer with Cool Edit 2000.

Here's a few audio clips from the last season:

http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX

Neil Kazaross of Illinois has recently set up a summer home right on Lake
Michigan and is logging some pretty good stuff ... I'm gonna have to step it
up a notch to keep up with him on my limited space antenna farm. Hard to match
800 ft wires on a 150x150' lot ! Looks like a summer of burying radials and
building pre-amps.

John Wilke
K9RZZ
Milwaukee

J999w wrote:

I have the MFJ752B that I use at times, but normally I'll record the audio and
later manipulate it on the computer with Cool Edit 2000.

Here's a few audio clips from the last season:

http://members.aol.com/j999w/DX


All good stuff. You seem to have it all well under control.
Have fun!



mike

I heard Croatia waking up last sunday morning here in orlando 5 by 5 on a
ATS 909
with 20' random wire

quite a surprise

Yodar


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"N8KDV" wrote in message
...

STEVE WROTE snip
Croatia (Yugoslavia) not sure
Hope that helps a bit.

Steve
Holland, MI
Drake R7, R8 and R8B

http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm

Joe Strain wrote:

I heard Croatia waking up last sunday morning here in orlando 5 by 5 on a
ATS 909
with 20' random wire

quite a surprise

Yodar

Voice of Croatia? That's a transmission via Julich, Germany.

Not from Croatia.