CONGRATULATIONS on your first long distance catch. Technique and experience
will get you many more of much lower transmitter power and you will find
that quite exciting. Radio DXing is an enduring hobby and you can expect to
get many more exotic catches. Meyerton to Philadelphia, PA is 8,050 miles

You can try e-mailing them for a QSL verification

and look at www.channelafrica.org

Some MW catches I got the other day:
a good opening from USA on 040205
1600 khz 0352 utc WWRL New York, NY, 5 kw night power (Afro-American news on
presidential primaries)
1660 khz 0400 utc WWRU Jersey City, NJ, 10 kw power
1540 khz 0409 utc WPTR Albany, NY, 50 kw (7,933 miles away)
all above with very clear ID's
Local sunrise was at 0404 so it was already quite light!
1570 Khz 0404 utc WISP Holy Spirit Radio, Doylestown, PA, (Next to
Philadelphia) 0.9 kw night power. Catholic radio reciting the rosary.
This station was not ID', but a web search showed this to be the only
likely Catholic radio station and its sched confirmed they were reciting the
rosary at 11.00 p.m. EST (0400 utc)
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa

"BCcubed" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I listened to Channel Africa on 15.265mhz yesterday, February 12, 2004
from
1800 to 1954 UTC. The signal ended very abruptly, no fading on this one.
Passport lists the station as broadcasting from Meyerton. A glance at a
Brittanica Atlas shows Meyerton to be somewhere near Johannesberg South
Africa.
Passport also lists the intended area of broadcast as Central and West
Africa at 500KW. I was picking it up extremely clear with a radio shack
longwire clamped around my whip antenna. I have the antenna, approx 7 to
8
meters in length, approx 4 meters above the ground from a window to a tree
branch and facing in a northeastely direction. I reside just a few miles
southwest of Philadelphia, PA.

Is it possible that I was listening to a signal that is maybe 8 to 10
thousand
miles away? If anyone knows the exact distance could you share that
information?

I am relatively new to shortwave so this would be my first real long
catch.

My meter is digital on a Grundig Satellit 700 and is graded from 1 to 5.
I was
recieving a strong 4+. The signal was extremely clear. I unplugged the
RCA
jack from the antenna where it slips over my whip antenna and the signal
all
but disappeared. I could barely make it out over very low static, the
volume
dropped considerably.

After what seems like eons listening to static and fading signals it would
feel
very satisfying if this is the real McCoy.

Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Neil