Odd Signals From Here and There!

In the south eastern Australian mid-summer, in the early-mid afternoon, on say 7 mHz one can expect to hear - largely - nothing! The band is usually devoid of signals. 

However, there CAN be some freak 'summertime' reception around lunchtime (0200-0400) via an Asian daytime propagation mode, or even more rarely from Southern Africa. Weird signals that usually come up suddenly, stay for a few minutes and then gone again. Much research on these phenomena has been undertaken for years by fellow Melbourne DXer Bob Padula.

This year, however, odd propagation events have been spotty or non-existent here. Not much to report. 

But now that I have just retired from a 36 year teaching career, I'm planning to be around during the daytime to have the radio going in the background, waiting for anything that might pop up on 6, 7 and 9 mHz.

Two examples of unusual propagation have occurred in the last few days here at Mount Evelyn. Firstly, on January 25 between 0300 and 0345, the 31 mb was silent, except for interesting signals making their way from specific locations - Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Iran and Spain. Here's what I heard:

9335   SRI LANKA.  R. Azadi - Iranawila. Dari 0320. Gone at 0335.

9500   IRAN.  VOIRI - Sirjan. S/on 0330, Arabic, weak level.

9535   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. Spanish 0300 with news, fair signal. // 9620 kHz - Noblejas also noted at this time but not as strong (different beam heading).

9570   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Arabic first heard 0335. 

9690   SPAIN.  CRI - Noblejas. English 0310, fair level.

9835   INDIA.  AIR - Delhi. 0322.

9870   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0324

9895   IRAN.  VOIRI - Zahedan. Arabic 0315. Good level.

9905   EGYPT. R. Cairo, Arabic, weak, 0318

9930   USA.  WYFR - Okeechobee. 0316, weak in Spanish.

9965   EGYPT.  R. Cairo, Arabic 0332

That was it on that band on that day. Nothing else was noted e.g. no Europeans. Strange.

And then today, January 28, the 41 mb started propagating much earlier than usual from 0430 (early afternoon), but  only one signal at a time! Five stations in all, mainly European locations. I monitored the band for 90 minutes, continually scanning across to see what (if any) station would appear next. 

So, below are listed the only five stations on 7 mHz this afternoon between 0430 and 0600 - in order of appearance

7475   GREECE. Voice of Greece - Avlis. Surprised to hear this one so early, weakly in the middle of our mid-summer afternoon at 0430 (3.30pm local summer time) when nothing else seemed to be propagating on the band at that time. Greek music programming and // 9420 kHz which was not especially strong either. 

7555   USA.  WEWN - Vandiver.  Caught this signing on at 0500 for the Spanish service. This was the second station to pop up on the band in our mid afternoon with the Spanish service on this day. By 0520, signal strength had increased considerably, where the other stations noted continued to be at a poor level. 

7315   VATICAN. R. Dabanga - Santa Maria di Galeria. Very weak at 0505 and the third station to appear on this band. Difficult to identify the language, either Arabic or Sudanese with talks. Picked up strength before the close at 0557.

7220  ROMANIA.  R. Romania Int. - Galbeni. Fourth station to appear around 0525 in the Romanian service to s/off 0557. Never got very strong throughout the listening period.

7335   TUNISIA. RTV Tunisia - Sfax. S/on 0600 in Arabic weak at first but improved rapidly as the band began to develop its normal afternoon propagation behaviour. Fifth station to appear on this day.

But what was also interesting was that where there had been Middle East and Indian stations several days ago on the 31 mb,  today there were only a few Europeans on that same band. 

Moral of the story? You just never know what you'll find on the radio dials!

Rob VK3BVW