Friday, November 18
Worth every penny
On November 18, 2005, 1000 GMT, on 7887 of the shortwave band, I finally heard a perfectly audible, perfectly tuned numbers station broadcast. Now, I have written about numbers stations on many occasions, and on one of those occasions I wrote that I had actually heard a numbers station recording and had recorded it. However, that recording was woefully weak, more noise than signal. I was using a Grundig YB-400PE, and while it is a good little machine, it's woefully inadequate when it comes to weak signals like most numbers station broadcasts.
However, today, I finally received my Grundig Satellit 800, the mother of all portatop shortwave receivers, the monster I'd wanted to get ever since I first heard The Conet Project (but didn't get because I didn't want to shell out the cash and because, when my wife and I were living in an apartment, the reception for shortwave was so low that I just didn't think it was worth it). Now we have a house, however, so I figured I'd indulge myself and get one. So, right away, I set it up in one of our spare rooms, flipped it on, and was instantly struck by the amazing variety of signals I was able to receive--despite having no antenna other than the whip comes with the device. I was able to pick up BBC broadcasts from Asia, the news from Austrailia, the German DeutscheWelle news broadcast, a Japanese broadcast of some sort, and, mother of 'em all, a Cuban numbers station signal. I'm guessing it is Cuban because it was in Spanish. It was simply a female voice reading off a list of numbers (what else did you expect from a numbers station broadcast?); it's nothing new for shortwave and DX fans, but it's a milestone for me--and, of course, I recorded it. I want to clean the recording up a bit (remove some of the noise and make it clearer and sharper), and then I'm posting it right here--so stay tuned, all one of you out there who actually care or even understand what I'm talking about.
However, today, I finally received my Grundig Satellit 800, the mother of all portatop shortwave receivers, the monster I'd wanted to get ever since I first heard The Conet Project (but didn't get because I didn't want to shell out the cash and because, when my wife and I were living in an apartment, the reception for shortwave was so low that I just didn't think it was worth it). Now we have a house, however, so I figured I'd indulge myself and get one. So, right away, I set it up in one of our spare rooms, flipped it on, and was instantly struck by the amazing variety of signals I was able to receive--despite having no antenna other than the whip comes with the device. I was able to pick up BBC broadcasts from Asia, the news from Austrailia, the German DeutscheWelle news broadcast, a Japanese broadcast of some sort, and, mother of 'em all, a Cuban numbers station signal. I'm guessing it is Cuban because it was in Spanish. It was simply a female voice reading off a list of numbers (what else did you expect from a numbers station broadcast?); it's nothing new for shortwave and DX fans, but it's a milestone for me--and, of course, I recorded it. I want to clean the recording up a bit (remove some of the noise and make it clearer and sharper), and then I'm posting it right here--so stay tuned, all one of you out there who actually care or even understand what I'm talking about.
