STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK - May 22, 2015

STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK

MAY  22, 2015

FIRSTLY!

There has been a very strong and encouraging response to some of my recent MEDXR posts. Topics that seemed to have struck a positive chord with regular readers include the following posts:

THE QSL CARD....AT WHAT COST? (posted May 15) has received many comments via Facebook and in personal emails. Thank you to everyone who passed on their praise for the article, which first appeared in The Spectrum Monitor magazine in April. SHORTWAVE RADIO IN  WORLD WAR 2: "VOICE OF VICTORY" 1944 - HALLICRAFTERS (posted May 10) created quite some interest in the wartime manufacturing process of this grand old radio. The SURVEY OF ENGLISH BROADCASTS ON SHORTWAVE - A15 (posted May 8) has been heavily downloaded in the past few weeks and enjoyed by many shortwave listeners. Again, thanks to everyone who let me know that the survey was a help in their DXing pursuits. And finally, the other big response came from my discovery of the 1993 video of the CONSTRUCTION OF THE ISSOUDUN TRANSMITTER SITE (posted April 19). Thank you to everyone for your support of the Mount Evelyn DX Report. It is much appreciated!

STATION NEWS

VANUATU
Paul B. Walker Jr. on the Facebook page I Take Pictures of Transmitter Sites reports some very recent correspondence with a representative of the Broadcasting Corporation in Vanuatu:

"...Radio Vanuatu's shortwave signals are still on the air but are not running full power.
Warren Robert, Team Leader of the Vanuatu Broadcasting & Television Corporation tells me that they are running about 1500-2000 Watts. They are doing this because Energy Onix, the company that made their transmitters has gone out of business (as we all know!!) and with Vanuatu's extremely humid air, they don't want to damage the transmitters HF power amplifier and risk damaging it and with the company out of business, be unable to get parts for it.

Warren tells me the schedule for Radio Vanuatu is as follows:

Radio Vanuatu broadcast hours are from 0530am to 2315pm.
3945 khz 0530am-0930am and 1630 pm to 2315 pm (1630UTC to 2030UTC and 0330UTC to 1030UTC)
7260 khz 0830am-1730pm (1930UTC to 0430UTC)"

The station's transmitters on both frequencies are listed as 10 kW. Thanks to Paul for supplying this information.

USA:
Radio Martí is celebrating it's 30th anniversary of operations. The online news source RadioWorld reports:

May 20 marks the 30th year Radio Martí has been broadcasting uncensored news and information to the island nation. The Office of Cuba Broadcasting oversees both Radio and TV Martí. OCB is under the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. government-supported civilian overseas broadcasting. Radio Martí went on the air in 1985, and its TV counterpart began broadcasting in 1990.

Read the full story at: http://www.radioworld.com/article/radio-mart%C3%AD-turns-/275974


And if you want to know about the history of Radio Martí, there is an excellent book out called An Air War With Cuba: The United States Radio Campaign Against Castro by Daniel C. Walsh. I reviewed this book back in 2013. Check it out HERE!

FROM THE LOG BOOK

4800   CHINA. CNR 1 - Geermu. S/on at 2025 for it's local morning service with many anncts, healthy carrier but not particularly strong audio on May 19.

4869.91   UNIDENTIFIED. Possibly RRI - Wamena at 2020 but the signal was too weak to ID the language. Music programming on May 19.

4930   BOTSWANA. VOA - Moepeng Hill. English to SAf with an African music program at 2015, entertaining listening on May 19.

4940   SAO TOMÉ. VOA - Pinheira. S/on 2030 for the 30 min Hausa service to WAf, poor signal on May 19.

5810   USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. Fair signal at 0350 (1:50pm here) with Spanish to CAm, weak at first but stregthened considerably by 0424 on May 19. A good wintertime DX signal.

5865   KUWAIT. R. Farda - Kuwait. Pumping Persian pop music in the Farsi service at 2150, good signal on May 17.

5910   FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. Last year, this was always one of the first to appear on 49mb during our winter lunchtime listening. Looks like it will be the same again this year. First noted at 0340 (1:40pm here) with a weak signal but rose rapidly to S9 +10db by 0425! Impressive on May 19.

5915   ZAMBIA. ZNBC - Lusaka. Now that R. Rwanda has gone for good, I get my African fix from ZBC. Usually a great signal in my mornings, and noted on May 17 at 2145 in a local Zambian language with talkback program.

5920   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu at 0428, good signal on May 19.

5935   USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. Female preacher at 0430, poor signal at May 19.

5995   MALI. RTV du Mali - Bamako. The usual problem of a strong carrier but weak audio at 2125. Long talk past 2130 in the Bambara language (or similar) with plenty of French words sprinkled throughout. Finally heard a groovy Malian song backed by flutes and drums at 2132. Signal comes via the short path across Africa, Madagascar and the southern Indian Ocean. Gets flattened at 2155 by the CNR 1 Jammer intended for VOA's Mandarin s/on at 2200. May 17.

6060   CUBA. R. Havana - Bauta. Spanish to ENAm at 0434, poor signal but should improve in coming weeks, May 19.

***** 6070   CANADA. CFRX - Toronto. Very pleasing to hear this for the first time this winter DX season with Sunday morning chit-chat at 1015, then a string of adverts, ID for MW CFRB 1010 at 1030, TC as 6:30am, traffic and weather reports, then more chit-chat. Its listed 1KW non-directional signal was doing well with no QRM on the channel until around 1040 when co-channel VoKorea faded in. CFRX faded out by 1050 (6:50am Toronto time), May 17.

6080   BOTSWANA. VOA - Moepeng Hill. English to Africa with a discussion program on Middle East affairs at 1945, good signal but with co-channel and slightly off-frequency QRM het from R. Belarus with their Belarusian service to EEu, May 17.

6100   BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. R. Serbia Int'l - Bijeljina. Jazz program in the English service at 2115. Entertaining program with great music, but heavy QRM from CRI's co-channel Arabic service, May 17.

6155   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. French to NAf at 0436, good signal on May 19.

6180   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Russian service to EEu at 0445 till s/off 0457, poor signal on May 19.

***** 6185   MEXICO. R. Educación - Mexico City. First noted at 0440 with a weak inconsistent signal (fading in and out) and a talk program. Outro music to end the program, then a series of anncts. Music and ID and s/off around 0500. The carrier remained on till 0503. This station is usually only heard at this time here in mid-winter, just before it's scheduled s/off. It was strange that I could not hear the Brazilian on 6180 after Romania's s/off at 0457 on May 19.

7205   A DOGPILE !!  Three stations going "hell-for-leather" on this frequency at 2045. Choose from Sudan Radio - Al-Aitahab in Arabic to EAf, or R. France Int'l - Issoudun in French to WAf, or VoTurkey - Emirler in English to As. All three stations were about equal strength here. A quick check on the Twente receiver indicated that all three are also easily heard in Europe. A pity when there are so many vacant frequencies available these days! May 17.

7255   BELARUS. R. Belarus - Minsk. S/on 0359 with ID and anncts in Belarusian, time pips 0400 then into news. Weak signal at first but strengthened by 0420. This is 1:59pm here and is a good example of the big swing to wintertime DX conditions for SE Australia, May 19.

7270   GERMANY. RFE/RL - Lampertheim. Service in the Avar language with news at 0402, fair signal on May 19.

7295   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic service to CAf, fair signal at 0406, May 19.

7315   MADAGASCAR. R. Tamazuj - Talata-Volonondry. Sudanese Arabic with news commentary at 0410, fair signal on May 19.

7330   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Best signal on the band at 0412 (2:12pm here) in Romanian to SEu, May 19.

7375   TAJIKISTAN. Voice of Wilderness - Dushanbe. Korean talks at 1953 till s/off at 2001 after two rounds of their orchestral interval signal, good reception on May 17.

7375   AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond Aust. - Kununurra WA. One needs to be careful in identifying languages here! At 2200-2230 on Sundays, the service is in Malayalam, but other days of the week it's in Indonesian (these two languages sometimes sound similar!). Big signal on May 17.

7450   GREECE. Helliniki Radiophonia - Avlis. Light music program at 2035, nice signal and easy listening on May 17.

7455   USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. Religious programming, possibly WYFR, at 0415. Horrendous RTTY QRM centred right on the frequency made listening almost impossible on May 19.

7495   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Qur'an at 2220 beamed to WAf, big signal on May 17.

7570   USA. Overcomer Ministry - Okeechobee FL. Weak signal at 0420 but should become stronger as our winter DX season develops, May 19.

9420   GREECE. Helliniki Radiophonia - Avlis. Running a different program from the 7450 kHz outlet at this time, with a classical music program at 2040. Heavy QRM from VOIRI-Zahedan's Arabic service on the same frequency, May 17.

9505   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Farsi service at 0335, nice signal at 1:35pm here, May 19.

9505   SUDAN. Voice of Africa - Al-Aitahab. CAf service at 1915 with Horn of Africa music program and long Hausa anncts. S/off at exactly 1930, excellent signal on May 19.

9535   CUBA. R. Havana - Bejucal. Fair reception at 0340 with Spanish service to CAm, May 19.

9545   SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. English with afternoon studio chat at 0345, fair on May 19.

9685   EGYPT. R. Cairo - Abis. Russian service noted here at 1935 with the usual distorted and hummy audio, fair signal strength on May 17, and same again at 1910 on May 19. Recently reported by another listener as using English at this time, but I only hear the scheduled Russian.

9685   KUWAIT. R. Free Asia - Kuwait. Mandarin at s/on 2100, good signal but so was the CNR 1 jammer, May 17.

9689.9   NIGERIA. VoNigeria - Abuja. Hausa service to WAf with talks at 2050 till suddenly off at 2057 after ID, weak but readable signal on May 17.

9760.03   GUAM. KSDA (AWR) - Agat. S/on 2000 for the 30-minute Russian service to EAs, a booming signal but slightly off-frequency on May 17.

9835   MALAYSIA. RTM - Kajang. Sarawak FM relay at 2025, nice clear signal on May 17.

11670   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. English GOS to Eu at 1940, then into the Hindi service at 1945, a fair signal on May 19. 

11730   BELARUS. R. Belarus - Minsk. Noted at 2000 beginning the English service, which is scheduled to start 20 min earlier at this time on Tues, Wed and Fri, 20 min (other days scheduled to start at 2020). News and economic reports with a fair signal on May 19.

11770   ASCENSION. BBC - Ascension. English WS at 0730 beamed to WAf, fair on May 19.

11780.07   BRAZIL. R. Nacional Brasîlia - Brasilia. Mucho excitement with football commentary….increasing the excitement level by giving the commentary some echo! Noted at 2030 with a weak signal. Still going at 2245 on May 17.

11985   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. English to Eu with ID at 2010, then a commentary on the political situation in Yemen. This frequency was brought in for the A15 season and is NOT Oman's English service as reported recently by another listener, May 17.

12060   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Earnest Arabic commentary at 1950 for the WAf service, fair signal on May 19.

15220   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. French service to CAf at 1935, nice signal on May 19.

17715   SPAIN. REE - Noblejas. Extensive weekend sports reports at 2015. Also noted on 17855, and with the strongest signal on 15490, May 17.

I hope you find something of interest from the log book. Space weather and solar conditions look relatively quiet this weekend, so there may be opportunities for some good DX listening over the next few days. Good luck and happy listening!

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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