DX QUICK TIPS - August 20, 2026

Plus the SINPO Debate Continues

I just realised it's been two months since my last DX Quick Tips blog post. Instead, I have been busy posting other things recently! So, let's remedy that right now. Here's what I have been listening to and monitoring over the past two months.

3250 KOREA, NORTH. KCBS - Pyongyang. 1420 Korean classical orchestral and opera selections. Fair signal, Jul 27.

👉 3310 BOLIVIA. R. Mosoj Chaski - Cochabamba. 1030 long talks in Spanish, possibly preaching. Occasional brief spasms of Andean music. Fair to poor signal, Aug 8.

👉 3945 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. 0920 Program anncts in Bislama, then island music selections. 0931 Time check for 9:30 pm, then into the “Christian Radio” program. Despite today’s 6.1 earthquake off the coast of the island nation, the signal is strong, and it sounds like normal programming. However, 5020 SIBS-Honiara is currently off air. Aug 16.

4775 PERU. R. Tarma - Tarma. 1018 Latin pops and long annct about events during “el fin de semana,” ending with a R. Tarma ID before Andean music vibes. Later, it ID’ed as “Radio Tarma International”. Fair signal, Aug 8.

4820 PERU. R. Senda Cristiana - Valle de Vitor, Arequipa. 1045 Spanish preaching. Fair signal in the noise, Aug 8.

👉 4940 VENEZUELA. Estación 4940. 0750 pops and frequent anncts. Seems to come in well at this time of year. I remember the same reception around 12 months ago. Jul 22.

5055 AUSTRALIA. 4DX - South Johnstone, QLD. 0940 Pop music tests with occasional 4DX IDs. Fair signal, Jul 22.

👉 6050 ECUADOR. HCJB - Mount Pichincha. 0940 Long talk in Spanish (not Quechua at this time as listed in WRTH). 1000 A burst of local music, ID. Then Quechua music with drums and vocals. Fair signal and doing well for its 1 kW at 4000+ metres high! Jul 27.

👉 6149.96 BRAZIL. R. Saturno - Belo Horizonte, MG. 1005 Pop music and occasional anncts. Easily checked and confirmed via the KiwiSDR in Goiania, Brazil. Pleased to finally hear this after much trying. I first noted a fair-to-weak signal 35 min after sunrise in Belo Horizonte. It faded by 1020. Reported power varies from 250 W to 1 kW. I was expecting the reception to occur earlier in the evening, not this late. Jul 22. See my recent blog post: BRAZIL VIA ANTARCTICA - Chasing Rádio Saturno

And later.....

👉 6149.96 BRAZIL. R. Saturno - Belo Horizonte. 0935 with pops and occasional IDs. Benson’s “Give Me the Night”, Bianco’s “More than I can Bear”, Mike and the Mechanics “The Living Years”, and other boppy stuff. Weak signal, as confirmed once again by the Goiania Kiwi. Best on LSB to avoid KBS Kimjae’s Japanese service on 6155 until that signs off at 1000. Then I can open it to sync AM. Eventual f/out at 1013, 7:13 am in Belo and 40 min after their sunrise. Interestingly, as I discussed in my blog last month, I still cannot get a trace of Saturno before 0915, which I find puzzling. I should be able to hear it from 0800 or thereabouts. Multiple attempts, but nothing until well after 0900. Anyway, glad to be hearing this low-powered Brazilian at all. Aug 8.

7260 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. 0243 Weak signal with gradual f/in in Bislama. Really only audible at this time via Sync AM mode. Aside from the Martís’, this was the only thing on the band at this time 12:43 pm here) Jul 28.

7780 USA. Polish R. via WRMI - Okeechobee, FL. S/on 0700 with English service program “News from Poland”. Not listed on WRMI’s convoluted and messy online skeds. Very good signal. // 7570 and 5850 but quite weak on both those freqs. Aug 15.

9275 USA. WMLK - Bethel, PA. 0230 American preaching. Fair to poor signal, but there’s still a bit of life in the wintertime 31m at 12:30 pm here! Jul 28.

9540 U.A.E. FEBC - Al Dhabbaya. 0215 Sindhi to SAs (Tu/We/Th). S/off 0230. Surprised to hear this at 12:15 pm here. Audible in Sync AM mode at a fair signal. Jul 28.

9590 TAIWAN. R. Free Asia - Paochung. 1400 Vietnamese to s/off 1415. NF (ex 9500 to avoid CNR 1-Shijiazhuang). Excellent signal and easily overpowering the QRM from the Vietnamese siren jammers on the high side of 9590. Jul 27.

👉 9635 VIETNAM. VoV - Son Tây. 1420 two anncers in an unidentified language. Occasional stringed regional folk music and songs. Very weak modulation but with a strong carrier. Slightly better, but not much, on the Hanoi KSDR. I’m assuming this is the VOV-4 Minorities service, although I note some lists identify it as VOV-1 or VOV-2, but I don’t think that is correct. Jul 27.

9670 GERMANY. Channel 292 - Rohrbach. 1236 Don McLean favourites and other old pops. Always fascinating to see this one make the distance in our early afternoons during winter. Jul 28.

👉 11885 MALAYSIA. RTM - Kajang. 2310 Sabah V FM relay clashing badly with co-channel NHK-Yamata’s Japanese to EAs. In Japan, a booming NHK, no problem. In numerous EAs KiwiSDRs, NHK is the dominant signal by a long way. And on the Mount Evelyn receivers, the channel is a mush of sound at fair level. Currently no remote SDR in Malaysia, but I suspect that, in some parts of Malaysia, this NHK service would be badly QRMing RTM. With all the empty channels on the spectrum these days, this is inexcusable! Later, Xinjiang-Ürümqi fades in and flattens everyone else! *Sigh*. Jul 29.

And later.....

11885 MALAYSIA. RTM - Kajang. 0405 Sabah V FM relay with pops. At 0409 an English annct about activities for Malaysia’s National Day on August 31. Ended with “And Happy National Day from RTM”. Then back to continuous music with punchy anncts. 0422 - Islamic prayer chants - a real contrast to the pops previously heard. Good signal. Some lists quote the English service as 0400-0700 and 1700-1900. Aug 9.

13640 ALGERIA. Ifrikya FM - Béchar. 2310 Arabic to CAf. Very good signal, but with severe co-channel CRI-Jinhua QRM from their Japanese service. A check of SDRs in Japan indicates that China is by far the dominant signal heard there (logical). However, a check of three Middle East SDRs (with no SDRs in Central Africa currently) shows that China significantly affects reception of Ifrikya FM until CRI signs off at 2400. July 6.

21720 PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. 0210 Long political speech with moments of applause (live?) in Filipino to ME (scheduled as the English service). A beautiful signal, and // 17750 and 15640 were just as impressive! Jul 28.

THE SINPO DEBATE CONTINUES......

Over the years, I have written about the advantages and disadvantages of the SINPO code. These include posts like:

A CLOSER LOOK AT SINPO - VIDEO

THE USE AND ABUSE OF SINPO

So, when I read Thomas Nilsson's comments in his excellent Shortwave Bulletin, it lined up with what I have always thought about SINPO. In SWB 2111, Thomas wrote:

"I’m not a fan of using SINPO code in the logs. Who cares about the signal strength of a signal received several days back? SINPO was intended for the broadcasting stations to see how the signal was received in various areas in the world. Today I think a lot of smaller stations have no idea at all what such a code means. Also, the use of male or female is of no use in the logs."

Exactly!

Let me make the following points:

As Thomas states, SINPO was invented to assist communication between listeners and shortwave broadcasters. From a listener's perspective, reporting SINPO to a DX magazine is of little relevance. If there is a comment to be made on the reception, this can be done in words.
I also see people listing SINPOs of e.g. 52343 - In this example, it indicating that the interference (QRM) was severe. I assume that the QRM is from another station on, perhaps the same or adjacent frequency. But, the DXer rarely bothers to identify the interfering station! Surely, that's an important piece of information!!
I see a poor understanding of the code. e.g. SINPO = 53234. If the interference is moderate, the noise is severe, and the fading is moderate, the overall result isn't going to add up to a "good" overall signal quality! Yet I repeatedly see lots of reported SINPO numbers that contradict themselves! What use is that to anyone else, let alone the radio station?
The long strings of "man talking, woman talking, man talking, song" are pretty useless. Far more relevant is the content of the talk, not the gender of the announcer!
Many domestic broadcasters have no idea about SINPO. You are wasting your time putting in a SINPO rating without any plain language description of the reception conditions.

Finally, some DXers and SWLs have a view of SINPO that borders on the mystical! They treat it as some special code that separates them from the rest of "the great unwashed" listeners. It's not mystical, believe me! And its misuse or overuse does nothing to contribute to the hobby in a meaningful way.

There! I'll step off my soapbox now!! 😉😼

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW