A FRESH LOOK AT ONLINE SDRs

Part 2

(inc. Middle East, North America, Oceania and South America)

(This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for "The World of Shortwave Listening" column of The Spectrum Monitor magazine - April 2023 issue. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com)

Click here for Part 1 of this article

Middle East

Kuwait Amateur Radio Society: Runs multiband verticals and offers up to four SDRs. A quiet location, ideal for listening to Europe, the Middle East, East Africa and Asia.

Izghawa, Qatar: Located about 10km north of Doha, this is another excellent SDR for monitoring broadcasters from the Middle East and global broadcasters beaming to that region. Using the Chinese MLA-30 loop antenna, it offers a reasonably low noise listening environment on most occasions.

Cyprus Amateur Radio Society, Skourglotissa, Cyprus: A recent addition to the list of KiwiSDRs. Provides excellent reception of stations in the Middle East, North and East Africa, and Asia - an ideal low-noise location most of the time.

North America

KFS Omni, Half Moon Bay, CA: Many remote SDRs exist in the U.S. The Half Moon Bay setup is one of the better receivers. It uses the impressive TCI 530 log-periodic antenna. In addition, there are three other receive-only antennas, labelled “NW Sector”, “SW Sector”, and SE Sector”. Most of them cover 3-30 MHz. Expect good reception from Pacific, Asian, and South American broadcasters. The KFS facility also has an excellent separate WebSDR geared to the ham bands.

W3HFU, Westminster, MD: It’s worth checking out W3HFU’s extensive antenna farm of specialized listening antennas. Choose from a 36 m (120 ft) T2FD, a 76 m (250 ft) V-beam aimed at Europe, an 18 m (58 ft) T2FD, a 152 m (500 ft) Beverage to Europe, or a 274 m (900 ft) horizontal sky loop antenna. The location is rural with a low-noise floor. So if you are interested in tropical band DXing or Euro pirates, this is probably your first port of call!

Northern Utah, Corinne, UT: The TCI 530 omni log periodic antenna and a quiet location help provide reliable reception to most parts of the world. This is one of my favourite online SDRs.

VE6JY Lamont, Alberta, Canada: Part of the gigantic multi-multi VE6JY contest station, this SDR is located in rural Canada, about 50 km northeast of Edmonton. The antenna is a 76 m (250 ft) loop with the apex attached to a tower at 37 m (120 ft) and connected to a Wellbrook ALA100n, 26dB high gain amplifier. I can confidently report that it works just fine! Expect good reception from most parts of the globe. The only negative is that the Internet connection can be choppy at times. Just for fun, put “VE6JY Antenna Farm” into the YouTube search bar, hit play and dream!

Oceania

VK5ARG, Tarlee, South Australia: Located about 100 km north of Adelaide, the VK5ARG remote receiver is probably the most sensitive of the Australian SDRs. Maintained by the VK5 Amateur Radio Experimenters Group, there are two 4-channel receivers available for public access. The owners describe the antenna as a broadband J-Dart monopole design, approximately 8 m (26 ft) high and 4 m (13 ft) wide. 32 ground radials, each 15 m (49 ft) long, are used to lower the elevation pattern of the antenna. In addition, the antenna is located on top of a large hill, which helps to lower the elevation pattern even further. A 1.8 MHz high-pass filter prevents the KiwiSDR overloading from signals in the mediumwave band. Local noise below 7 MHz occasionally rises during local daytime hours, but this SDR has outstanding performance at night across the entire shortwave spectrum.

The success of the VK5ARG remote SDR can be attributed to its rural location and the broadband HF monopole antenna, making it one of Australia's most sensitive publicly available SDRs.

VK2AAK, Foster, New South Wales, Australia: Located in a rural district near the eastern coastal town of Foster, this SDR provides us with excellent shortwave reception from Asia, the Pacific, and North and South America. Some DXers may also like to explore the jewels in the mediumwave band at local nighttime. The antenna is a Hustler 5 band trap vertical. Access is occasionally unavailable when Andy VK2AAK is operating on the ham bands.

ZL1ROT, Rotorua, New Zealand: Recently returned to service after repairs. At an elevation of 285 meters (935 feet), this is a mostly quiet location in a semi-rural area north of the tourist town of Rotorua. Operated by the Rotorua Amateur Radio Club, this SDR is connected to an 80-meter dipole at 30 meters (98 feet). Great for the Pacific, Sth America and Asia on both shortwave and mediumwave.

South America

PY2-81502 SWL, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil: This is an excellent receiver for checking South American broadcasters, most Brazilian SW stations, and some of the hundreds of Brazilian MW (AM) stations. It is also helpful for monitoring transmissions beamed to Central and South America by global broadcasters. This receiver is a bit further south than some other Brazilian SDRs, so tropical atmospheric noise and static are not as intense, except in high summer. Uses a mag loop antenna.

LU1HCW Alpa Corral, Argentina: Located in a rural part of Argentina with nearby mountains, this SDR is well positioned to capture many signals from around the globe, especially during its local nighttime. Using dipoles for 20 and 40 meters, you can monitor stations throughout much of South and North America. Surprisingly, it can even hear into Asia quite well along the short path at certain times of the day. Unfortunately, it usually only offers two receiver slots available for online listeners. Plus, the local Internet connection appears to stutter and splutter somewhat! Will reward with patience!

Reminder:

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, these receivers may not always be available when you want them as they will be taken offline for software updates, testing or for personal amateur radio transmitting activities. And, of course, with limits to the number of users at any one time, a popular receiver will usually queue waiting listeners. Finally, if you spend too much time on any one receiver, you will possibly get booted off and need to log in again. Such is the fun of tuning the dials with the rest of the global radio community!

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW