STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK - No. 2

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 service in Tajik for Ramadan, Qur'an at 2220, good signal except for co-channel QRM from CNR 2.

 9610   VOIRI - Kamalabad. Special service in Arabic for Ramadan period noted at 2145, ID at meditations at 2102. Good signal and no sign of RFA - Tinian also scheduled here at this time.

 Although not heard here yet, other reports suggest that R. Hargeisa on 7120 is also operating an extended schedule till 2100. In addition, last year we noted several Indonesian stations, RRI - Palangkaraya and RRI - Wamena, operating after 2100 UTC, so watch out for these broadcasters as well this time around.

 WWV TICKING AWAY
Several days ago, while the 10.7 cm solar flux numbers were still very high, I noted WWV on 25000 kHz at 0050 and later at 0500. This is exceptional reception for midwinter in southeastern Australia. The website says that this is an experimental service on a limited schedule using 1 kW. Sometimes when the signal is quite weak, the 1 second ticking carry over the air much better than the announcements. No signal monitored since July 10.

SAO TOME
This morning, I was surprised to hear VOA - Pinheira. I haven't heard this frequency for a very long time, so it was great to hear it peeping though in its 30-minute Hausa service (English is scheduled on Sats and Suns only) at 2045 till s/off 2059 in Hausa. This used to be quite strong throughout the year, but not these days. I wonder if they are operating on lower power now. Weak signal on July 11. Also note that this is different programming from VOA's 4930 outlet via Moepeng Hill, Botswana which is English till 2100.

 THE BRAZILIANS
They might have been bundled out of the World Cup recently, but the Brazilian broadcasters are still heard nicely at this time of year into Mount Evelyn. R. Aparecida is occasionally heard in the evenings here on 5035 as noted on July 11 from 1040 to f/out 1100. Sometimes a het can be heard against this signal, which may possibly be coming from R. Educação Rural, Coari, AM, but there is never sufficient audio from the het to be able to identify the second station. Noted for the first time year in my local morning was R. Bandeirantes in São Paulo on 9645.41 kHz. Rapid football commentary at 2135, fair strength on July 9.

FROM THE LOGBOOK

The following observations should be read in conjunction with my last post THE EXTREMITIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANDS where I discussed the extraordinary wintertime reception conditions during our late morning, midday and early afternoon time periods. We are hearing stations right down as low as the 49mb through the entire day. Here are some further notes from three time slots, all noted on July 10:

 0000-0030 UTC (10:00-10:30am local time here)

 5920   USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. American religious programming at 0000, poor.
5935   USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. Bleating away with American religious programming at 0010, weak and fading.
6000   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Kurdish service for Ramadan noted at 0005 with a fair signal but fading by 0030, pleasing to hear this at 10:05 am local time…..impossible at any other time of the year!
6020   ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. English to NAm at 0020, interview with an American professor, poor and fading by 0030.
6115   USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. Financial Survival program at 0033, but very weak and fading.

 0200 - 0400 UTC (12 Noon-2:00pm local time)

 9420   IRAN and GREECE.  First noted at 0215 with VOIRI - Zahedan in Arabic to NAf mixing with Helliniki Radiophonia in Greek to NAm, at equally fair signal strengths. Greece then in the cleat at 0230 with Iran s/off.
9490   FRANCE. R. Republica - Issoudun. Spanish to Cuba with plenty of IDs at 0210, a very good signal for just after midday local time here.
9520   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Spanish to SAm 0225, good.
9535   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. Spanish to CAm with ID at 0231, strong.
9570   ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. Mandarin to NAm 0233, big signal.
9575   MOROCCO. R. Medi 1 - Nador. Arabic service with Moroccan pop songs 0237, poor level.
9620   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. Spanish T SAm with chit-chat and music 0240, fair.
9645   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish to CAm 0243, good..
9690   KOREA REP/ SPAIN/AUSTRIA. CRI/KBS/AWR - at 0247. See my comments in the recent blog post STATION NEWS AND THE LOGBOOK.
9710   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Spanish to SAm 0250 to s/off 2057. Poor.
9750   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Armenian at s/on 0250, weak level.
9790   CUBA. CRI - Havana. S/on 0300 English to WNAm, fair level.

0315-0430 UTC (1:15-2:30pm local time)

5910   FRANCE. NHK - Issoudun. First to f/in today at 0320 (1.20pm local here).Booming signal by 0415!!
5920   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. F/in 0410 in Romanian to SEu, poor signal.
5975   FRANCE. AWR - Issoudun. Bulgarian s/on 0400, 30 min broadcast to EEu, poor.
5985   USA. NHK - Okeechobee FL. Spanish s/on 0400, 30 min broadcast to CAm, poor.
6000   CUBA. R. Havana. English to ENAm f/in 0425
6020   ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. F/in 0335, Mandarin to NAm to s/off 0400. Fair level.
6030   USA. R. Marti - Greenville NC. F/in 0420
6125   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. F/in today at 0330
6175   USA. VoVietnam - Cypress Creek SC. F/in 0340
6180   BRAZIL. R. Nacional Amazônia - Brasilia. F/in 0350. This is exceptionally early for a Brazilian to fade in on an afternoon ((1:50pm) on this band.

Finally, as I write this (at 0200 UTC on July 12), after having been high all week, the 10.7 cm solar flux has dropped to 166, and corresponding A and K indices are 6 and 2 respectively. The higher frequencies may not be quite a "punchy" as they were over the past seven days.

 73 and have a great weekend everyone!

 Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Mangrove Swamp and Native Grasses (recent holiday photography)

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