Mount Evelyn DX Report

Here's a report on the shortest DXpedition I've ever done!…….complete with photos! The 30-Minute-Micro-Mini DXpedition!! Two days ago, I was out in the great Australian bush photographing waterfalls and wildflowers. A small box of radio gear came along, too. But during the four-day trip away in south western Victoria, very few opportunities presented themselves for DXing.  Finally, I found a lonely bush track high up on a plateau, inland from the little seaside town of Anglesea (This town is situated along the very popular tourist route known as the Great Ocean Road). So I put down the camera for a while and got out the radio, strung out the long wire antenna in amongst the trees and scrub, pulled out the folding chair, and set myself up outside the back of the "Orange Rocket" (i.e. the KIA Sportage).  EQUIPMENT:   Yaesu FRG100 receiver, 25 mt long wire antenna, antenna tuning unit.  Being a relatively small communications rece...

4781.67   ECUADOR.  R. Oriental, Tena, Napo. Finally heard this one for the first time this winter DX season! First noted at 1125 with songs and anncts, R. Oriental ID at 1130 and f/out by 1140. Not strong but in the clear on a night when Sth American signals were pretty poor, so this reception was a bit surprising!! Aug 24. 4971   INDIA.  AIR - Shillong. Plenty of carrier but not much audio at 1340 in Hindi with mainly talk and occasional local songs. This one has been irregular in operations, but now seems to be back again, as noted on Aug 15 and 20. 6000   CUBA.  R. Havana. English service first noted 0615, NF ex 6010 but poor signal, // 6125 which was the better option on Aug 23 6165   UNIDENTIFIED.  Suspect this may be Thazin Radio - Phin Oo Lwin, Myanmar. Noted at 1105 and monitored for 20 min before giving up. Asian style pop music for much of the time with occasional anncts. But very hard to hear with the much stronger co-c...

Why is it that shortwave broadcasters seem to put out such poor quality audio for their broadcasts, and do nothing to improve the situation? Here are just two examples reproduced from my logbook over the past few days: 13850   EGYPT. R. Cairo - Abis. The Daleks have invaded Egypt! They're commanding "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!". What a God-awful sound! Raspy rough audio bringing to memory all those wonderful Dr Who sagas. When I first noted this station moving to this frequency on April 2 (ex 9905), the audio quality was certainly not this bad!! Noted at 0607 till about 0610 ……. that was all I could take on Aug 22!! And again last night........ 7200.1   MYANMAR.  Myanmar Radio - Nay Pyi Daw. Seriously distorted audio at 1150 to past 1215. Someone described this as "over-modulation", but I don't think so. If you inject an SSB carrier on the freq, it reveals a very broken carrier from the transmitter, indicating a serious txer fault, not a studio...

My last post related to tropical band stations. This one features some DX back in the international bands. Highlights include Myanmar, Nigeria, and the "Naughty Radio Station!"  I also noted an opening on 17 mHz at 1130pm local time (1330 UTC) and 21 mHz at midnight local time (1400 UTC) - unusual for this time of year! 5952.43   BOLIVIA.  R. Pio Doce - Siglo Veinte, Llallagua. Discussion program first noted at 1035 but pretty weak by 1055. Reception of this station can be quite variable here, from very good to "missing-in-action"! Aug 14 5985   MYANMAR.  Myanmar R. - Nay Pyi Taw. Lovely instrumental music at 1155, Burmese ID at 1200 and a short news bulletin to follow. Fair but quite readable on Aug 14. 6089.86   NIGERIA.  R. Nigeria - Kaduna. Impressive signal at 2230 with ID and indigenous chants to multiple drums accompaniment, and occasional comments in Hausa. Monitored through to 2300 (9am local here) when final anncts and the na...

Local noise in the evenings and early mornings has been very low here at Mount Evelyn over the last few days. This has meant that a few usually hard to hear stations have made an appearance....very pleasing! And my best wishes to our Indian readers of the blog on the occasion of your Independence Day yesterday!! 3219.9   DPR KOREA.  KCBS - Hamnung. Usual endless Korean talks noted at 1420 but with a very weak signal on Aug 15. 3255   SOUTH AFRICA.  BBC - Meyerton.  I haven't heard this one for quite a while now, but popped up on a good African morning at 1914 with FS English service. Fair on Aug 10. 3320   SOUTH AFRICA.  R. Sonder Grense - Meyerton.  Afrikaans light music programming at 1920, fair on Aug 10. 3344.9   INDONESIA.  RRI - Ternate. Discussion program at 1425, then telephone talkback at 1430 at a good level. This station's operations can be quite intermittent at times. Aug 15. 3900   CHINA....

One of the best monthly radio-related video podcasts around is the one put out by the crew at AmateurLogic.tv/blog . This month, George Thomas W5JDX is taken on a wonderful tour of the transmitters and antennas at Bethany, Ohio. One of the former VOA engineers at Bethany, Dave Schneider, goes into quite some technical detail on how the transmitters first originated during World War II, and the operations of antennas, feed lines, control panels, switching procedures and transmitters at the Bethany site. George W5JDX is a former AM and FM broadcasting station engineer himself. So he asks all the right technical questions of Dave! This is a brilliant 45-minute video that should be watched by all DXers and SWLs! You can download the program: 1)  At iTunes by searching under Podcasts for AmateurLogic, 2)  In a variety of formats by going to  http://amateurlogic.tv/downloads.htm , or 3)  You can view it on YouTube at  http://youtu.be/3w_ZXRJol_4 . ...

Radio Free Sarawak is back! According to a press statement just released in London today, the station is back tomorrow Monday August 12 on 15420 kHz at 1100-1230 UTC. The press statement appears in full below. 73 Rob VK3BVW *********************************************** AUGUST 11, 2013:  Press release, Radio Free Sarawak back on air from Monday Sarawak’s independent radio station Radio Free Sarawak is back on air Monday 12 th  August following its holiday recess. The rural radio station, which broadcasts mainly in Iban, but also in Malay has received numerous enquiries from listeners eager for information about pressing issues in the state, including the on-going plans to dam key rivers and evict thousands of native people from their lands. “The state government has moved swiftly to try and take advantage of its dubious election wins by tripling Ministers’ own salaries (back-dating the increase by a whole year and a half) and pushing through further land g...

This morning I was up very early (around 4.30am local) tuning the bands and came across Radio Madagasikara, operating from it's transmitter site at Antananarivo, Madagascar. Theoretically, the station is supposed to be operating on 5010 kHz....but hasn't done so for years! These days, it's usually found on 5014 kHz instead (or thereabouts!). However, this morning it was up much higher on 5015.37 kHz when first noted at 1845 with African pop music and occasional announcements in the Malagasy language. The signal was not strong and it is not regularly heard - its operations are quite intermittent, but more regularly heard on the weekends. But, here's what's interesting! The station actually wobbles around on frequency during the broadcast. Firstly, here's a short recording of the station as heard here this morning. (WARNING: It's not exactly hi-fi quality but rather weak and subject to fading): Then, when listening in Upper Sideband and tuning sl...

A few interesting logs noted over the past week....... 3320   SOUTH AFRICA. R. Sonder Grense - Meyerton. Poor signal with Afrikaans programming with light music at 2047, but flattened by the PBS Pyongyang s/on 2100. Aug 2. 6180   TAIWAN. RTI - Hu Wei. Mandarin service with mainland program jamming 1130 with both broadcasts at good strength. NF from several months ago ex 6135, Aug 3 11775   GUAM.  AWR - Agat. Mandarin to EAs with religious talks at 1120. NF and // 2105 and 15515 also heard on Aug 6, but struggled against the massive CRI Vietnamese signal 11780. 13850   INDIA.  AIR - Bangalore. at 0215 s/on for the Kannaka service with a shocking hum on the audio. Something seriously wrong there needs urgent repair! Other than numerous Chinese outlets, the only other stations on the band at this time are 13850 R. Cairo-Abis (Arabic service to NAm/Eu) and 13750 VOIRI-Sirjan (Hindi service to SAs) Aug 4. 15090   THAILAND. R....

The ninth month of the Islamic calendar is observed as a time of fasting from dawn until sunset. It is considered a spiritually important time by our Muslim brothers. This year, Ramadan has taken place between July 10 and August 8, so we are now coming to the close of this period. I have made a few observations regarding the extended broadcasting services of several countries observing Ramadan, plus some additional transmissions that did not have schedule changes: 3324.89  INDONESIA RRI - Palangkaraya. A solid signal from 2040 till f/out 2140 with no sign of PNG. Islamic chants at 2110, earnest Indonesian talks from 2117. Good opportunity to catch this one on early for Ramadan (usual s/on is just before 2200, which is too late in the morning for reception here), Aug 2. Then again on Aug 5 with a mix of Islamic chants and pop music!! Fascinating listening from 2045 till 2100 when a short ID and sudden s/off! 4780   DJIBOUTI. R. Djibouti -Doraleh. On late for Ramadan...

Here's something I found a few days ago! An old cassette tape of part of Radio Australia's Club Forum  program, hosted by the legendary Keith Glover. The program went to air on February 4th, 1973 (over 40 years ago). It's only the first 6 minutes of the show, with Keith reporting on the Australian Radio DX Club's Convention '73 , held in Melbourne. Keith had been invited to the convention as a guest speaker, delivering a wonderful talk on Radio Australia's devoted listeners around the world and the role that the station played in presenting an Australian Voice internationally. For many years, the station was very popular, particularly in Asia. Keith's Club Forum  report on his visit to the convention mentions many names of enthusiastic Melbourne and Sydney DXers from that era. Keith's programs were always well-prepared, but he was able to communicate with listeners with a relaxed and very personal style......with a feeling that he was almost face-...