THE WINTER DAYTIME DX SURVEY - An MEDXR Special Report

Hi Everyone!

The list below represents work over the last four weeks monitoring the 49, 41 and 31 metre bands in the period 0100 to 0400 UTC. Here at Mount Evelyn we have been in the depths of winter. The shortest day passed a nearly a month ago and we see gradually more daylight hours. Winter in south eastern Australia means that daytime reception on 5.8 to 10 mHz has been possible and can almost be uninterrupted throughout the day. In the summertime, this type of propagation is impossible!

But it's interesting to note that conditions on the bands are quickly changing - there are less stations being heard now on 49 mb than there were a few weeks ago. As we head into longer daylight hours, already some of the stations on this list are now not appearing here on 49 and 41mb in the 0100-0400 time period, compared to only a month ago.

But still......it's a very good list, to have noted all these frequencies listed below at some point during the mid-day winter hours. 0100 to 0400 UTC is 11am to 2pm local time in Melbourne! In summer, you hear virtually nothing on these bands - except for the very occasional (and now rare) freakish reception that can occasionally occur on 9 mHz.

Propagation from Europe, Mid East and Africa swings around from short to long path, often with a dead spot in the middle of this time period. Asian stations are short path and can prove more unreliable, often because of E Layer propagation. Now that we are slowly coming out of deep winter, reception conditions can be remarkably variable at times - quite unpredictable and unreliable. This will be even more the case as we head into our Spring.

So......here's what's been noted at Mount Evelyn over the past four weeks.

0400+ indicates that transmission continues past the 0400 monitoring period.
s/on and s/off = sign on and sign off times
f/in and f/out = fade in and fade out times
All times in UTC. All frequencies are in kHz

49 METRE BAND:

5910   FRANCE.  NHK - Issoudun, Japanese 0240-0400+
5935   USA.  WWCR - Nashville. English f/in 0340-0400+
5995   COSTA RICA.  REE - Caiari. Spanish f/in 0340-0400+
6020   ALBANIA.  CRI - Cerrik. Mandarin 0320-0400 s/off
6020   GERMANY. AWR - Nauen.  Bulgarian s/on 0400+
6030   USA.  R. Marti - Greenville, NC. Spanish 0300-0400+
6125   SPAIN.  REE - Noblejas. Spanish 0245-0400+
6175   USA.  VoVietnam - Furman, SC. Spanish and English as early as 0310-0400+
6180   BRAZIL.  R. Nacional Amazonia - Brasilia. Portuguese f/in 0345-0400+

41 METRE BAND:

7205   SUDAN. R. Omdurman - Al Aitahab. Arabic f/in 0310- 0400 s/off. (occasionally heard)
7280   GERMANY.  R. Farda - Nauen. Farsi 0200-0400
7295   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. French s/on 0400.
7305   USA.  Vatican R. - Greenville, NC. Spanish 0200-0245
7310   GERMANY.  Bible Voice - Nauen. Arabic 0300-0315 s/off
7315   USA.  WHRI - Furman, SC. English 0200-0300
7325   SAO TOME.  VOA - Pinheira. Kinyarwanda S/on 0330-0400 s/off (0430 s/off Sat/Sun)
7340   BOTSWANA.  VOA - Moepeng Hill.  Kinyarwanda s/on 0330-0400 s/off
7350   ROMANIA.  RRI - Tiganesti. English 0300-0400, // 17830
7360   MADAGASCAR.  Vatican R - Talata Volonondry. Swahili s/on 0330-0400 s/off (0345 Sun)
7365   USA.  R. Marti - Greenville, NC. Spanish 0200-0400
7395   MADAGASCAR. R. Japan - Talata Volonondry. Swahili s/on 0315-0400 s/off
7405   USA.  R. Marti - Greenville. Spanish s/on 0400
7425   RWANDA. DW - Kigali.  Swahili 0300-0400
7435   GERMANY.  R. Liberty - Lampertheim. Russian s/on 0300-0400+.
7445   GERMANY.  R. Liberty - Biblis. Chechen and other Caucasian languages 0320 to s/off 0400.
7460   MOLDOVA.  R. Payam e-Doost - Kichinev. Farsi 0230 s/on - 0315 s/off
7475   GREECE.  VoGreece - Avlis. Greek 0215-0355 s/off
7490   USA. WBCQ - Monticello. English 0320
7506.4   USA.  WRNO - New Orleans, LA. English 0200-0400

31 METRE BAND:

9370   KUWAIT.  Deewa R. - Kuwait.  Pashto 0100-0150 f/out
9400   LITHUANIA.  RFA - Sitkunai.  Uyghur 0100-0200
9410   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.  BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic s/on 0300-0400
9420   GREECE.  VoG - Avlis. Greek 0100- 0400
9435   ARMENIA VOR-Yerevan, Spanish 0100-0400+ 
9465   TURKEY.  VoT - Emirler.  Uyghur s/on 0200-0255 s/off
9470   CHINA.  CRI - Kashi. English 0100-0200 s/off
9490   FRANCE. R. Republica - Issoudun. Spanish 0100-0255
9500   ENGLAND.  BBC - Woofferton. Farsi s/on 0230-0330 s/off
9500   CHINA CNR 1 - Shijiazhuang. Mandarin 0100-0130 f/out
9505   AUSTRIA.  AWR - Moosbrunn. Farsi s/on 0330-0400+
9515   TURKEY.  VoT - Emirler. English s/on 0300-0355 s/off
9525   ROMANIA.  RRI - Galbeni.  Romanian 0100-0200 s/off
9535   SPAIN REE - Noblejas. Spanish 0100-0400+
9550   IRAN.  VOIRI - Kamalabad. Spanish 0100-0330 s/off.
9570   ALBANIA CRI - Cerrik. English 0100-0200, Mandarin 0200-0400 s/off
9579.14   MOROCCO.  Medi 1 - Nador. Arabic 0100-0400+
9580   CUBA CRI - Havana. English s/on 0100-0200, Chinese 0200-0300 s/off. 
9595   CHINA CRI - Kashi. Spanish 0100-0300
9605   USA.  KBS - Cypress Creek.  Spanish 0100-0200 s/off
9610   IRAN.  VOIRI - Kamalabad. Spanish s/on 0330-0400+
9620   SPAIN.  REE - Noblejas. Spanish 0100-0400+
9635   INDIA.  AIR - Aligarh. Sindhi 0100-0200 s/off
9645   ROMANIA.  RRI - Tiganesti.  Spanish 0200-0300, English 0300-0400
9660   AUSTRALIA.  RA-Brandon. English 0100-0400+
9660   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. English 0300-0330, Swahili 0330-0400 (under RA)
9665   MOLDOVA VOR - Kishinev. English 0100-0400
9675   CHINA CRI - Kashi. English 0100-0200
9680.04   INDONESIA.  RRI - Jakarta.  Indonesian 0100-0250 f/out.
9690   SPAIN.  CRI - Noblejas.  Mandarin 0200-0300, English 0300-0400
9700   ROMANIA RRI - Tiganesti. French 0100-0200
9700   IRAN.  VOIRI - Kamalabad. Pashto s/on 0230-0330 s/off
9710   CHINA CRI - Kashi. Spanish 0100-0300
9715   IRAN.  VOIRI - Sirjan.  Kurdish 0330-0400+
9720   CHINA.  CNR 2 - Baoji. 0100-0400+ (sporadic reception here)
9720   EGYPT.  R. Cairo - Abu Zaabal. English f/in 0245-0330 s/off. (occasionally heard. Sometimes no audio, just carrier!)
9730   IRAN.  VOIRI - Sirjan. Turkish 0100-0130, Urdu 0130-0230
9740   GERMANY.  RL - Lampertheim. Caucasian languages 0300-0400
9760   OMAN.  R. Sultanate of Oman - Thumrayt. Arabic 0100-0200
9770   TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Spanish 0100-0155 s/off
9790   IRAN.  VOIRI - Sirjan. Kazakh 0130-0230 s/off
9790   CUBA.  CRI - Havana. English 0300-0400
9800   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Tajik 0100-0230 s/off
9810   CUBA.  R. Havana. Spanish f/in 0300-0400+
9815   CHINA.  CRI - Kashi. S/on 0200-0300 s/off.
9825   USA.  VOA - Greenville. English 0130-0200 s/off (Tues-Sat only)
9835   MALAYSIA.  RTM Sarawak - Kajang. Malay 0100-0145 f/out
9850   ALBANIA.  R. Tirana - Shijiak. English 0130-0200 s/off
9860   USA.  WHRI - Cypress Creek. English 0100-0300 s/off
9870   TURKEY.  VoT - Emirler.  Spanish 0100-0154 s/off.
9870   INDIA. AIR - Bangalore. Hindi (Vividh Bharati service) 0100-0215 f/out  (mixing with Turkey)
9885   TAJIKISTAN.  RFA - Dushanbe. Tibetan s/on 0100-0145 f/out
9965   EGYPT.  R. Cairo. Arabic 0100-0130 f/out, then  f/in 0245-0400+


NON-RADIO STUFF! ('cos there's more to life than just DXing!!)
Finally, I received some lovely comments on my photographic inclusion in last week's blog post. Thanks everyone for being so kind - much appreciated. I'm happy to continue including more of my photography as long as you are happy to continue looking at it!! Let me know when you have had enough!! 

So, here's another shot from the early morning visit to the nature wetlands during my recent holiday. (Click on the photo for an enlarged view)

73 and have a great weekend.

Rob VK3BVW