DX NOTES FROM BAR MOUNTAIN



 DX NOTES FROM BAR MOUNTAIN

My first week away from home, on the road up north of Mount Evelyn…..a long way north!! I took some time out to visit the Border Ranges National Park in northern New South Wales, very close to the Queensland border……hence the name of the park, I guess! Here is a mix of subtropical and temperate vegetation, depending on how far up the mountains you travel. 

The temporary "radio shack" at the Bar Mountain picnic ground
I stopped for lunch at a small picnic ground at a place called Bar Mountain. It's very popular for bush walking, although I saw no one during the time I was there! Pleasant weather at around 21˚C and with just a slight cooling breeze. Bright sunshine for most of the time.

The equipment used was the Kenwood TS2000 transceiver, a small antenna tuning unit and a longwire antenna, rolled out to around 25 metres, about 1.5 metres high (the perfect height for strangling someone!!) ;-) But, as I mentioned, not a soul was seen, which made for a very pleasant and relaxing time at the radio while munching my lunch.

Reception conditions appeared to be quite different compared to Mount Evelyn. Some signals were stronger than others, and some are not often heard back at home at this time of the year. Still, it was great to see a few stations being heard on the 31 and 25mb between midday and 2pm local time.


9470   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. English to Eu, just caught the s/off at 0200. Great signal Oct 17.

9490   FRANCE. R. Republica - Issoudun. Spanish to Cuba 0203, poor at first, but on later retuning at 0230 it had improved considerably on Oct 17.

9545   SOLOMON IS. SIBC - Honiara. Beautiful signal with pop music show and English anncts at 0205, Oct 17.

9710   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Big signal for the Spanish to SAm service at 0215, Oct 17.

9815   CHINA. CRI - Kashi, Fair signal in Mandarin to SAm at 0217, not as strong as 9710 (perhaps a different beam heading?), Oct 17.

9860   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Weak in Spanish to SAm at 0220, Oct 17.

11620   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Urdu service at 0125 with a music program, fair signal to past 0230 on Oct 17.

11710.7   ARGENTINA.  RAE - General Pacheco. At 0115 in Japanese to Am with talk show, a weak het from 11710 which was probably Cairo. Retuned later at 0232 for the English broadcast and some lovely Argentinian songs, and an even stronger signal! Great reception for midday in mid-spring, Oct 17.

11730  UZBEKISTAN. Vatican R. - Tashkent. Malayalam service at 0130 to SAs, weak till s/off 0140. Oct 17.

11740   INDIA. AIR - Panaji (Goa). Pashto service with a music program at 0240, fair signal on Oct 17.

11760   CUBA. R. Havana. Spanish to Am at 0135, fair signal at times on Oct 17.

11780   BRAZIL. R. Nacional Brasília - Brasilia. Music program peeping through at 0137, unusual to hear this around midday local time and still going strong at 0245. Oct 17.

11840   CUBA. R. Havana. Spanish programming with music and chat at 0140, variable signal, mostly poor level on Oct 17.

11870   USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. American religious programming at 0145, fair level on Oct 17.

11905   SRI LANKA. Sri Lanka BC - Trincomalee. A fair signal at 0148 with the Hindi service, featuring pleasant music and anncts, Oct 17.

11955   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish (beaming to CAm on 307˚) at 0250, fair signal. Interestingly, it was barely heard on the // 11945 (Galbeni) which has a different beam heading (245˚) to SAm, Oct 17.

Can you see the blue antenna wire heading down to the clump of trees and then in a 90˚ direction to the next clump of trees?

 11995   FRANCE. R. Taiwan Int'l - Issoudun. Surprisingly huge signal at 0247 in Spanish to SAm, Oct 17.

12025   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Spanish to SAm at 0155, fair to good signal on Oct 17.

12080   AUSTRALIA. RA - Brandon QLD. English to Oceania 0157, bigger signal here than at Mount Evelyn!, Oct 17.

15105   DPRK. VoKorea - Kujang. National anthem at 0302 for the Mandarin service, fair on Oct 17.

 15195   JAPAN. NHK - Yamata. Korean to As at 0300 with ID and news, good signal Oct 17.

 I'm not sure when the next blog post will appear. But I will be further along the road in another part of Australia. 

 LATIN AMERICAN SURVEY 2014 
 If you haven't got your copy of the latest survey yet, the link and some information about the survey is on a recent blog post at http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/latin-american-survey-2014-available.html 

 73 and have a great weekend everyone!

 Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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