THE EXTREMITIES OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANDS

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   USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. F/in 0455, English, poor to start but quickly improved on July 7.

5975   ENGLAND. NHK - Woofferton. S/on 0500 with English to Eu, weak.

5990.12   Brazil. R. Nacional Brasilia - Brasilia. F/in at 0555 with a music program, ID at 0600, appears to be only intermittently in use, as on July 7. Runs // 11780 also heard but the regular 6180 was missing on this day!

6005   ASCENSION IS. BBC - Ascension. WS news to WAf just after 0500 s/on, weak but readable.

6060   CUBA. R. Havana. Weak in English to ENAm at 0506.

6080   SAO TOME. VoA - Pinheira. English to Af at f/in 0435, weak to start with but improved somewhat later.

6090   ANGUILLA. Caribbean Beacon - Anguilla. American religious programming at 0515 f/in, weak at first but quite strong by 0545.

6100   CUBA. R. Havana. English to Am at 0510 with Arnie's DX show (was he phoning this report in? Certainly didn't sound like he was in the studio!), // 6060 kHz, poor.

6105   GERMANY. RFE/RL - Lampertheim. Early f/in 0410 in Belarusian to EEu. Later the signal was at fair strength before s/off 0500.

6125   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. Spanish to SAm at 0403, very strong.

6155  AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. S/on 0430 in French to NAf, weak at first but improved to a fair level.

6165   CUBA. R. Havana. English to CAm at 0523, // 6100, 6060 but barely audible in comparison to those freqs.

6175   USA.  VoVietnam - Cypress Creek SC. Spanish to Caribbean at 0420 with pleasant Vietnamese songs. S/off 0428 then back on again at 0430 for the Vietnamese service to CAm, fair on July 7. Caught the English s/off at 0527 with adverts for World Harvest Radio.

7250   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. S/on 0530 with the Latin Mass to Eu, fair.

7295   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Very solid signal at 0437 in French to CAf.

7350   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian service to SEu at 0440 with an impressive signal.

7360   SOUTH AFRICA. BBC - Meyerton. English to EAf with commentaries at 0442, poor signal.

7425   RWANDA. DW - Kigali. Noted at 0444 with English to Af, fair signal with some deep fades.

7435   GERMANY. RFE/RL - Biblis. Russian to EEu at 0447, fair to poor.

7455   USA. WRMI - Okeechobee. English discussion programming to WNAm at 0449, big signal  with RTTY QRM.

7555   USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. Massive signal at 0535 with Spanish religious programming.

7570   USA. WRMI - Okeechobee. American religious programming to WNAm at 0451, fair. 

PLUS:

9664.8   BRAZIL. Voz Missionária - Camboriu. Portuguese religious programming 0540, quite a good signal despite RA-Brandon hammering away on 9660.

17 and 21 MHz OBSERVATIONS:

As noted in my last post, the 10.7 cm solar flux numbers over the last weekend have been high. In fact, I noted at 0600 UTC on July 7 the solar flux broke the 200 mark, topping out at 201, with the A index at 5 and the K index at 1. Now, in case you're not sure what these mean, check out a brief description I gave in a blog post entitled IMPROVED DAYTIME RECEPTION. Indeed, the sf over the last few days has even topped the 177 I reported back in February when I wrote that post!

So, on July 7, after my excursion through the 49 and 41mb, I spun the dials to the other end of the international bands to investigate possible propagation up on these higher frequencies. Surprise, surprise….both bands were humming with signals. Here's a list of stations observed between 0600 and 0700 UTC.

NOTE: There were many Chinese (CRI and CNR) frequencies in operation on 17 mHz, too. I have not listed these here….we all know they are there!!!

17510  TAJIKISTAN. RFA - Dushanbe. Tibetan with CNR 1 jamming.
17540  IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Hausa to WAf, poor signal.
17550  IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Arabic with CNR 1 undeneath.
17595  IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Albanian s/on 0620, light QRM CNR 1 co-channel.
17635  KUWAIT. RFA - Kuwait, Tibetan with CNR 1 jamming
17660  IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad, Bosnian, s/off 0622.
17670  KUWAIT. R.Azadi. Pashto.
17690  GERMANY. RFE/RL - Lampertheim. Pashto
17730  SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh, Arabic
17740  SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh. Arabic under CRI's Mandarin service
17750  AUSTRALIA. RA - Shepparton. English to SEAs
17770  KUWAIT. RFE/RL - Kuwait. Russian
17780  IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. French s/on 0620
17800  RWANDA. DW - Kigali. EE
17840  SRI LANKA. R. Farda - Iranawila, Farsi to 0630. Changes to Biblis, Germany at 0630 with slightly improved signal.
17895  SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh. AA

21550  NTH MARIANA IS. RFA - Tinian. 0600-0700 Tibetan plus CNR 1 Excellent.
21690  UAE. RFA - Dhabayya. // 0600-0700 plus CNR 1 Very good
21725  AUSTRALIA. RA-Shepparton. English to SEAs.
21780  UAE. DW - Dhabayya. S/on 0630 for the 30-minute Hausa service to WAf, good.

So, although these observations will vary markedly when compared to your own location in other parts of the world, I hope you found these lists interesting.

P.S.  As I post this at 0300UTC on July 9, the solar flux has risen to 201, with A = 6 and K = 2. However, there may be some atmospheric disturbances around, so reception on the higher frequencies could be variable. Take a listen and and make your own list of observations. You are most welcome to post your results here. I'd love to read about it.

73 and good DX everyone!

Rob VK3BVW