Mount Evelyn DX Report

NEW TRANSMITTER FOR SOLOMON ISLANDS Japan Helps Out National Broadcaster The two articles below are very good news indeed for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation. They were posted on the SIBC website (  http://www.sibconline.com.sb)  in the past couple of days: JICA DELIVERED NEW TRANSMITTER TO SIBC The Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has delivered a new radio broadcasting transmission facility through the National Broadcaster, SIBC. Newly installed transmitter Photo - Nigel Kwaimani The more than 40-million dollars facility is donated under a project called “Improvement of Radio Broadcasting Network for Disaster Prevention” and is to improve early warning systems during times of disasters in Solomon Islands. Minister responsible for Disaster Management, Bradley Tovosia “turned the switch on” after receiving the equipment from Japan’s Ambassador to Solomon Islands, Kenichi Kimiya today. Speaking a...

"I Don't Feel So Good!" - Rob Wagner (Photographed at French Island, Victoria) STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK - No. 4 STATION NEWS SOLOMON ISLANDS Reception of both 5019.88 kHz and 9545 kHz have been somewhat erratic recently. Ron Howard (Asilomar Beach, CA), Mauno Ritola (Finland) and Bryan Clark (New Zealand) have all noted irregular transmissions. Bryan also noted that the 60 mb frequency is now measured at 5020.01 kHz. Mauno suggested that because the normal offset carrier of 130 Hz below the nominal 5020 kHz was missing, perhaps the station was scrapping the old transmitter and now using the new one that can also be heard in operation on 9545 kHz. Ian Baxter advised that the new transmitter was provided to SIBS through Japanese aid. Here at Mount Evelyn on July 22, I noted that station on 5020.01 at 0930 but nothing on 9545 earlier in the day. Then on July 23, I heard nothing from them at 2130 on 5020 kHz. So it appears that testing may be still continuing. ...

THE CHALLENGE OF TWITTER Can we teach an old dog new tricks? Well, I held off for as long as I could! But in the end the curiosity got the better of me. I have a Twitter account for my radio hobby.  ANNOUNCING:   @robvk3bvw But wait a minute!.....how do I work this thing?????? I've been to YouTube School and looked at a few videos by people who purport to be Twitter gurus. I've muddled up things a couple of times and didn't quite get my @ and my # right. Sometimes I can be rather verbose and so I've often been WAY OVER the 140 character limit - this part of the process has been hard to learn....being a retired teacher, I like correct grammar and punctuation!! BUT, I'm getting better........I hope! As of today (July 17) I've made 67 tweets. I'm following 181 other tweeters (is that the right term?). And a handful of people have chosen the risky path of following my tweeting waffle! So what am I going to do with this new-fou...

Snow Greenery - Mount Donna Buang (30 min from Mount Evelyn) STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK - No. 3 STATION NEWS: REBELDE REBELS! R. Rebelde - Bauta. I was travelling across the 60mb on July 11 and was surprised to find R. Rebelde - Bauta way off frequency, sitting on 5049.23 kHz (normally 5025 kHz) just after 1100 with chit chat, discussions and canned announcements. Occasional music selections and plenty of "Buenos Dias" sprinkled throughout the program. It was a booming signal until f/out around 1200. This seems like a frequency blunder. Apparently it was just a "one night stand"! Oh, Cuba! You're such a tease!! However, the Peruvian station on 5024.8, R. Quillabamba in Cusco, was producing a very nice signal at the same time due to Cuba's vacancy. This saw the frequency clear for the Peruvian to produce a great signal into Mount Evelyn. Quillabamba always offers wonderful music programming, so it's a pity they have to share this freq with C...

The Nobbies, Phillip Island (recent holiday photography) STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK - No. 2 STATION NEWS: RAMADAN 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 June 29 and July 27, so we are now about half way through this period. Obviously, broadcasters in the Islamic world are worth watching for additional services or extended schedules. Here are some observations made here, so far: 4780   RTV Djibouti. Scheduled in the Afar language on an extended schedule for Ramadan, noted at 2135 with some type of drama or radio play program, gone by 2200. Good signal. 5940   VOIRI - Sirjan. Special service in Kurdish for Ramadan, s/on 2248, poor signal. 6060   VOIRI - Kamalabad. Noted in special transmission for Ramadan in Azerbaijani 1930, good signal. 6090   VOIRI - Kamalabad. Special servi...

Winter Coastal Rainbow (another photo from our recent holiday) THE EXTREMITIES OF  THE INTERNATIONAL BANDS In this post, I cover both ends of the international shortwave bands with some very pleasing results. 6 and 7 MHz OBSERVATIONS: There has been some wonderful mid-winter reception over the past few days. The 49 and 41 metre bands have been alive during the early afternoons, and some big signals have been noted from Europe, Africa and the U.S. Also appearing has been Brazilian stations. In southeastern Australia, only at this time of the year do we hear these two international bands propagating at all during the 2:00-3:00pm. For the rest of the year, they are devoid of any signals. So, several days ago, on July 7, I made a quick band scan of both 6 and 7 mHz, and the results are below. 5910   FRANCE.  NHK - Issoudun. Big signal at 0400 (2pm local) with the Japanese service to CAm. This is the earliest I've heard this station in winter. 5935   ...

Winter Sunset STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK My wife and I have been away on holiday along the southeastern coast of Victoria over the past week. It was rainy and windy for much of the time, so we got a lot of reading done! However, on the last two days, things brightened up and we were able to get out-and-about. So, out came the camera as well. In this post, you'll also see several photos. STATION NEWS VOA CHANGES  For at least one VOA language, there's a bit of inaccuracy going around about the current cuts. Several DX sources appear to be saying that the Khmer service at 2200-2230 on 5905 kHz has been cancelled as part of the July 1 cuts to Asia. This is not the case, as noted today at s/on 2159 with a poor signal. Also runs // 9320 kHz, which was a better signal (July 5). What IS interesting is why they chose to delete some languages such as Lao and yet keep Khmer in operation (at least for the moment!). I wonder what the rationale was behind this decision-making…....

BBC ANTARCTIC TRANSMISSION Great Listening! Southeastern Australia is not really that far from the Antarctic Territories. So our reception of the special BBC Solstice broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey teams was probably a fair indication of how listeners in that region might have heard the broadcasts. Recording the Midwinter message at BAS, Cambridge, England As usual, there were many warm and heartfelt greetings to family members and colleagues. But, also included were wonderful greetings from English comedian Bill Bailey and a British astronaut who is currently training for duty on the International Space Station next year. Below are some snippets of recordings from all three frequencies used for the transmission, which will give you an indication of reception into Mount Evelyn.