Mount Evelyn DX Report

Some great African stations feature in this week's DX logbook. 4880   SOUTH AFRICA.  SW Radio Africa - Meyerton. English ID at 1734 then into a science program. Fair signal but riddled with thunderstorm noise, Oct 22. 5950   ETHIOPIA.  VoTigray Revolution - Addis Ababa. Tigrinya programming with NE African songs at 1909, then a telephone talkback interview at 1912. Mixed with RFI's Portuguese service via Meyerton, which doesn't seem to be a good idea, although Tigray was generally the stronger of the two, Oct 22. 6030   ETHIOPIA.  R. Oromiya - Addis Ababa. East Afro dance music at 1757, ID for "Radio Oromiya" at 1800, then after some anncts back into songs using regional instruments. Uses the Oromo language, a rapidly spoken language where much of it sounds mono tonal with glottal sounds and clicks….to my ears anyway! Fair to good level on Oct 22. 6080   BELARUS.  Belaruskaye Radio 1 - Minsk. Discussion program in Belarusian domesti...

6135   MADAGASCAR. R. Madagasikara - Ambohidrano. Noted here on very late at 2010 UTC with wonderful East African pops and dance music, making for some most enjoyable listening! Occasional short announcements noted in Malagasy, clear ID for Radio Madagasikara at 2029. Still going strong at 2055, but with interference from R. Free Asia on 6140 kHz. Final s/off was at 2100. Believed to be on late because of the important presidential elections held there today, Oct 25. These are the first elections since the 2009 coup d'état by the former mayor. Radio Madagasikara's operations on this frequency are quite irregular these days, rarely heard here at Mount Evelyn. When it is in operation, s/off is usually 1500 UTC, although this time can vary also! There's an interesting online newspaper report about the elections at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201310250640.html My thanks to Mr Bernard Grondin , who lives on Reunion Island, for his help in confirming re...

A few weeks ago, radio broadcaster Keith Perron was bemoaning the lack of advice that international broadcasters give to listeners regarding frequency schedules, and in particular frequency changes, such as for the fast approaching new transmission period (B13) at the end of this weekend. He also pointed out just how hard it is to find any mention of existing frequency schedules on many (most?) of the station websites. I have to agree!  International broadcasters (the few that remain....) are doing nothing to inform listeners about shortwave schedule changes. Indeed, I got the impression that many sites were virtually  discouraging  shortwave listening in favour of online streaming.  Sure, people can download the HFCC data from their pubic access site  http://www.hfcc.org/data/ , but that's not the point! Nor is it in a format that the average listener could possibly handle......or WANT to handle! Long gone are the days when broadcasters would post (r...

I have prepared this article as part of an occasional feature series called Spotlight , focusing on smaller, lesser-known and interesting shortwave broadcasters. Look for more articles in coming months. Currently, Radio Miraya is providing great reception and pleasant listening during my afternoons on 11560 kHz between 0400 and 0600 UTC. Their Morning Breakfast Show has that unique feel of local programming that we used to hear regularly 20 years ago from tropical band African broadcasters -relaxed chat, great African music and listener input. The only difference now is that listeners communicates via telephone, email, SMS or twitter, with only the occasional letter being read out! So, what is Radio Miraya? The station's studios are located in Juba, the current capital and largest city of the very recently recognised (July 9, 2011) independent state known as the Republic of South Sudan. The station describes itself as a "generalist" radio station offering ...

TS2000 and ATU tuned to TWR - Moosbrunn on 5910 kHz This weekend, I have been away with my photography club to Wilson's Promontory , a coastal peninsula to the south east of both Melbourne and Mount Evelyn, approx. 225 km away from my home QTH. 20 photographers and a few spouses stayed on a farm on Friday and Saturday nights, and spent a sunny Saturday exploring and photographing some of the many attractive sights and natural features that the region has to offer. On Friday, as I was travelling by myself for the trip down to the Promontory, I took three hours to do another mini- DXpedition. I set up the mobile listening post in the Bald Hills Wetlands Reserve , near Walkerville. It's a fairly flat but bushy area with lots of native fauna and flora. It's also an out-of-the-way location. In the 3.5 hours I was there, I only saw one other car all afternoon! Being somewhat isolated and off-the-beaten-track, you can  imagine that the noise floor was extremely low, excep...

This Indian postage stamp above is one I held (in mint condition) for many years. Unfortunately, it has since become lost. Pity! Anyway, on with the listening report....... Some interesting stations heard last weekend, as noted below: 4990   INDIA.  AIR - Itanagar. Hindi service with a type of chanting and occasional anncts at 1345 and a fair to poor signal. The carrier was at moderate strength but the audio appears to be down somewhat. Oct 5. 5050   INDIA.  AIR - Aizawl. Always difficult to catch this one under Beibu Bay, but pleased to note it on Oct 5 with Indian songs in the Hindi service. I'd checked earlier around 1230 and heard nothing, so fade in must be some time after 1300. 5915   UNIDENTIFIED.  The station heard weakly at 1330 under CRI's Russian service is possibly Myanmar Radio, but with China's raucous music program it was impossible to tell the language of the other station, Oct 5. 7355.02   ALASKA.  KNLS - Anchor Po...

Loggings of 17 different countries this week - including Chad, Brazil, Belarus, Argentina, Israel and Nigeria! 5860   KUWAIT.  R. Farda - Kuwait. Farsi pop songs at 2144, strong signal Sept 30. 5915   ZAMBIA.  NBC Radio 1 - Lusaka. Great Afro dance music at 2138 mixed with some listener phone-in chat, very good level on Sept 30. 5965   COSTA RICA.  REE - Caiari de Pococí.  Weak at f/in around 0448 with Spanish commentary, Oct 1. 6030   USA.  R. Marti - Greenville NC. Spanish to the Caribbean at 0443, just starting to fade in at this time these days, Oct 1.  6115   PHILIPPINES.  R. Veritas Asia - Palauig.  Mandarin service 2124 with preaching and the occasional Chinese hymn. Very weak but in the clear, faded by 2145 on Sept 30. 6125   CUBA.  R. Havana. English to NAm 0505, very weak at this time but gets stronger by 0615, Oct 1. 6155   AUSTRIA.  ORF - Moosbrunn. S/on 0500 in German...