The 22 Meter Band - Alive and Well


Apparently, a number of people were interested in my last post relating to reception in the 22mb. One of those was Bob Padula, who wrote a response to my MEDXR blog in his World Shortwave Forum:

 The 22 mb was originally conceived as a multi-use band for daytime and night-time operations for regional broadcasting in Europe. The 22 mb was opened up for international broadcasting in 1986, and initial usage was sparse, due to older transmitters with limited frequency agility moving in to it.

 Yesterday afternoon (local time) I logged a number of other stations on the same band. Here's a summary:

13580   GERMANY.  Mashaal Radio - Nauen. 0605 in Pashto to Afghanistan, fair to poor signal.

13645   CHINA.  CRI - Xian. S/on 0600 for the English service to SE Asia, right through to 0800 s/off. Signal starts at a fair level but quickly becomes a dominant strength for the remainder of the broadcast.

13650   KOREA.  VoK - Kujang.  English service to SE Asia 0525 to s/off 0556. Fair signal. S/on again at 0600 with Chinese service.

13660   CYPRUS.  BBC - Limassol. Arabic service to the Middle East at 0500-0700. Scratchy signal for  most of the time, although it improved in the second hour.

13720  UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.  Sudan Radio Service - Dhabbaya. Tuned in at 0500 in time for ID and a program of north African music and talk. Fair signal and monitored right through till 0530 s/off.

13760   KOREA.  VoK - Kujang. Spanish service at 0530 with ID at 0534. The signal was quite variable - fair at 0530 to almost nothing at 0536, then back up again about 10 minutes later. Strange!

13765   MADAGASCAR. Vatican R. - Talata. Portuguese service at 0538. Fair strength.

13800   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. R. Dabanga - Dhabbaya. Weak level in Arabic at 0540. This is // 11940 which is via Madagascar and which puts in a much better signal than 13800 via UAE. Interestingly, at s/off 0557, 13800 got about a minute of orchestral music right at the end of the broadcast, while 11940 missed out!!

13840   MADAGASCAR.  R. Japan - Talata.  French service to Central Africa at 0530-0600. Good signal.

And if you hear any shortwave radio stations from the 22mb (13570 - 13870 kHz), feel free to share them here with other radio enthusiasts around the world!

73

Rob VK3BVW

Comments

  1. Arnaldo CoroFebruary 16, 2013 at 1:43 PM

    From Radio Havana Cuba
    We have used the 22 meters band for quite some time now...
    The ""intermediate properties"" that it has between the 25 and the 19 meters band do show up favorably
    during periods of low solar activity, when the 19 meters band is not in very good shape.
    The proximity with the 20 meters amateur band is something that could help hams that are also
    SWL's to move down a bit when 14 mHz is open and pick up international broadcast stations
    operating on 22 meters...
    73 and DX
    Arnie Coro CO2KK
    Host of Dxers Unlimited
    radio hobby program
    Radio Havana Cuba

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rob WagnerFebruary 16, 2013 at 3:01 PM

    Hi Arnie,

    Yes, I know RHC has been a big user of this band for a long time now. Agreed, there is much benefit for international broadcasters to use this band, and it's surprising that more stations don't appear here......although I suppose that's good for RHC as it probably means less interference, Hi Hi! It's certainly a pretty stable band in terms of reliable propagation, regardless of whatever part of the sunspot cycle we are in.

    Best wishes to everyone at Radio Havana Cuba and thanks for checking in!

    Rob VK3BVW

    ReplyDelete

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