Hi folks. I am a little bit tired right now and apparently my computer needs to be updated. Or the Operating system needs to be updated. It’s not too late though, it’s only 11.30 a.m. Sure, that’s still way too late for me but I was writing my post the other day far later than this time. I am a little bit depressed these days, and I am sure that my ADHD medication and the fairly extreme blood sugar fluctuations have made me feel this way. Of course, in the evenings I do feel a bit down. I am still actually way too anxious and that just sucks. We’ll have to see. I did buy an antenna off a Chinese website and they are now offering me the money back because they can’t send it out. I guess I will have to do without a good antenna. The problem with this radio business is always the antenna. I was going to buy an active loop antenna but an active loop antenna made for apartment conditions. See, I can’t install a normal active loop antenna because I live in an apartment. There are two reasons why I can’t install a normal active loop antenna: number one, because such antennas have to be grounded and that's not possible when I live in an apartment; and secondly, I am not able to just put out stuff around the building without permission. So a little cheap SDR made antenna that had received good reviews for being an inside antenna seemed pretty good. They’ve asked me whether I want to wait or whether I want to cancel my order. I also bought a little Tecsun Radio, and I guess I could’ve bought that one off of Amazon. If I had done that I wouldn't have my little portable Short wave radio a long time ago. But since I kinda want that antenna I still want to keep waiting. But I guess it’s best for me to cancel the order because who knows when they have restocked the warehouse? I may be forced to wait a long time. So, this kinda sucks. A similar antenna was available on Amazon, but that was a cheap copy of the antenna available on the Chinese website, and yes I double checked and triple checked. I don’t want to be cheated and the one available on Amazon was actually more expensive. I guess I could wait a little longer, but my goal is to try to listen to BBC radio 4 on longwave during the night, and such an antenna may just be able to pick up BBC radio 4. Look, my current antenna is actually doing a pretty good job but a working active loop antenna, if it’s a good antenna, could dramatically improve my reception. I do have noise problems and that is actually the main reason I bought that little Tecsun PL-330 because that shortwave radio (and more) is mobile and that means that I could walk around with it inside my apartment and try to identify possible sources of radio noise. I’ve already dramatically reduced noise by turning off my main power supply when I’m listening to my SDR radio, but there is still more noise around. It’s fairly easy to identify radio noise on the SDR program because radio noise tends to be wide band and often it oscillates. Could be all sorts of electronic equipment, probably capacitors possibly in my television or in my computer screen. I can’t do that much about capacitors emitting radio noise in my computer other than puting the antenna far away from my computer. This is why I also need a portable antenna that is capable of being flexible and that I can move around to a room that is more suitable for perception. So you see, it does get a little bit tricky trying to listen to those very weak frequencies on long waves. I know that I could be able to listen ot 198 kHz here in Sweden, because I know some people that are able to pick up BBC radio 4 on 198 kHz, often during the night and I do need to get a move on because we’re getting into spring here and because of the ever lighter conditions outside the propagation will be affected adversely. So I have a window of about 3 weeks moving forward here before it really starts to get too light outside. When we’re getting into April properly it just gets lighter and lighter and lighter. By may it’s pretty much over. So my last chance here, knock on wood, to receive BBC on 198 kHz before they close down in September will be the next couple of weeks. They will close down their long wave programming on September 26, and for a variety of reasons it will just not be possible for me to receive anything on 198 kHz until maybe October or November. So between May and October long wave, medium wave, and some short wave propagation will just suck, because it’s just too light outside. See, 198 kHz is a very low frequency and those very low frequencies have very long waves and that means that they tend to propagate by ground wave during the day and by sky wave between the D-layer of the ionosphere and the ground during the day, but because the light conditions affect the D layer the most, it probably just won’t be possible for me to receive anything in the low frequency range until later this year. Again, conditions will probably be good enough through most of April but by May it’s probably too late and definitely by June. So, during the summer I’m just not gonna receive that much on shortwave and definitely not below. The higher frequencies are generally not, or very lightly, affected by sunlight, and that’s why you can hear long distance shortwave stuff during the day. But generally shortwave is just more alive between October and May. So that window between May and October just generally sucks for perception, and it’s not even an antenna issue at that point. Even if I had the lowest noise floor and the best antenna I’m still not going to receive anything because there’s just no propagation. Again, I will be able to receive stuff during the day on the upper bands of shortwave, but 198 kHz isn’t shotwave, it’s, again, long wave and the only possible way for me to receive BBC 4 is through skywave as London is way more than 300km away from me. ground waves can travel about 300 to 500km without D layer skipping, or sky waves. With skywaves, long waves can travel pretty much around the world, at least upwards of tens of thousands of kilometers. I guess you could say that my current antenna should be able to maybe recieve stuff on long waves and that I just need to reduce noise. That could be because I’ve been able to very faintly receive on 500 something kHz just the other day, my new record, but it was faint. Actually, my lowest recieved frequency was 23.8 kHz. I am not sure what it is but it appears that it may be some kind of submarine communication in the VLF band. But I am not sure of this so I am holding back. But the signal I received sounded like and had pretty much all the characteristics of submarine VLF communications. I received on 24 kHz and on 28 kHz as well. The only station actually transmitting on these frequencies that I was able to confirm was an American station out of Cutler Maine. It’s possible, especially during night, that I could’ve received that station. The best way of confirming this would be to try to see if I receive a steady and narrow signal on 24 kHz during daytime. Because the only way for me to pick up a station so far away in America would be through skywave during the night. If it’s still transmitting during the day, it may still be submarine communications but it’s unlikely to come from America, it’s just too far away. But that’s another issue. I need to go now as I’ve got less than 5 minutes left. I’m out. Signing out.
Reginald Drax – March 28, 2026.
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