THE STONY CREEK DXPEDITION

 THE STONY CREEK DXPEDITION

A one-night DXpedition into the eastern Victorian bushland proved very profitable on Tuesday August 11. Sunset was at 0729 UTC, so by 0800 it was pitch black in the forest! Armed with the Kenwood TS2000 transceiver, the MFJ 941B ATU, and around 40m of random wire wound through the heavily wooded bushland, some tropical bands and 49mb signals were picked up, including a couple of frequencies not regularly heard! In fact, many signals were noted during this evening listening session (too many to list here), but here are some of the highlights:

3185   USA. WWRB - Morrison TN. Religious song at 0745 and then into preaching, fair signal.

3215   USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. Americvan preaching at 0740, fair signal at 0740.

********  3289.93   GUYANA. VoGuyana - Georgetown. Believed to be this at a very weak level at 0750, fleeting moments of talk and music. Heavy thunderstorm noise made listening very difficult for most of the time. Came back to this freq at various times during the monitoring period but the signal never really improved. Still heard past 0915. I have not heard this station in many years! Great to see it back on air.

3309.96   BOLIVIA. R. Mosoj Chaski - Cochabamba. Caught the s/on at 0947. Audio level seemed well down although the carrier was quite strong.

3330   CANADA. CHU - Ottawa ON. Nice early f/in at 0750.

3365   PNG. R. Milne Bay - Alotau. At 0755 with a discussion program, fair level.

3904.96   UNIDENTIFIED. Believed to be RRI - Merauke. ID at 0800 but prolonged lightening crashes made ID impossible.

4869.88   INDONESIA. RRI - Wamena. News at 0807, weak.

4960   SAO TOMÉ. VOA - Pinheira. Just caught the last few minutes of the Hausa service before signing off at 0730, mainly news, IDs and closing anncts. The long path African signals of years ago are now a thing of the past, with the transition to FM. This Sao Tomé service is just about the last.

5035  BRAZIL. R. Aparecida - Aparecida SP. 0715 with mainly talks but occasional music items, weak signal but nice to hear it fading in so early.

5939.67.  BRAZIL. Voz Missionaria - Camboriú SC. At 0812, weak signal with portuguese preaching. Not heard very often this year.

6040.4   BRAZIL. RB2 - Curitiba PR. Weak signal with music at 0815, in the clear but atmospherics made listening difficult.

6070   CANADA. CFRX - Toronto ON. Amazing to still be hearing this low powered station as we begin to exit the winter months, . Registering NO MOVEMENT on the S-meter but clearly heard and easily copied with early morning discussions, plus ID's at 0825 for the MW outlet, and adverts. 

6115   JAPAN. R. Nikkei - Nagara. Japanese pop songs at 0828, fair level.

6135.21   BRAZIL. R. Aparecida - Aparecida SP. Noted at 0832 with talk program. Weak signal and first time herd this year.

Dusk falls on the bush track - around 5:30pm. Darkness closes in on the Orange Rocket (my car!).
Can you see the blue antenna wire? Click to enlarge.

The radio equipped cockpit of the Orange Rocket!

13 METRE BAND OPENING
The 13mb is usually very quiet during the southern Australian winter months. However, a brief opening was also noted while DXing in the bush on August 11 during the early evening period:

21525   IRAN. VOIRI -Sirjan.  Swahili talks at 0858 to EAf, no S-meter movement but quite readable. The // 21790 also audible and also via Sirjan was slightly better signal.

21600  IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Russian service to CAs at 0902, fair level.

21670   SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh.  Indonesian at 0905, fair level.

The location for the above station logs was about 20km north east of the holiday resort town of Lakes Entrance, part of the 90 Mile Beach tourist region. I drove along the road to the historic Stony Creek Trestle Bridge in the late afternoon. Here are two photos of the old bridge - no longer used, as the railway line has long since been discontinued and pulled up. The structure is HUGE! Built in the early 1900s, it's 276m long and 19m high.

My DXpedition location was on a track not far (about 3km) from the trestle bridge. Survival gear came along with me on this trip. This included a thermos of hot coffee, sticky buns, snack bars, and an apple! Plus the all important flashlights required to go and reel-in the antenna. Boy, it was dark out there!! And no other person nor car was seen. Talk about isolated! But…..there was absolutely no manmade noise on the bands, so signals could be heard unimpeded. It was just unfortunate that atmospheric noise (storm static crashes originating from other parts of Australia) was so high on this particular night.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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