STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK - November 20, 2015


STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK
November 20, 2015


FROM THE LOG BOOK


3185   USA. WWRB - Morrison TN. Heavy American preaching at 1030, poor signal.


3289.98   UNIDENTIFIED. Definitely a carrier with occasional wisps of music and talk at 0935. Gone by 0947. Believed to be Guyana. Has short path greyline propagation characteristics of Guyana (sunrise 5:42am in Georgetown, sunset here around 8:30pm AEDT). Wasn't expecting anything to show up this late in the season and with summer almost upon us. AND with reception noted from home, not stuck in some God-forsaken forest out in the middle of nowhere (which was where I heard it from last time!!).


4055   GUATEMALA. Radio Verdad - Chiquimula. Uptempo hymns at 1020 with no anncts. Not a bad signal on the big 80mb double bazooka antenna, considering the heavy thunderstorm static.


4774.9   PERU. R. Tarma - Tarma. Music programming 1010, ID and TC, highly electrified music, twangy and very artificial sounds. Yuk! Very cheesy! Bring back the Andean pipes and acoustic guitars, I say. Poor signal with thunderstorm noise from northern Australia making reception difficult.


4869.91   INDONESIA. RRI - Wamena. News at 1002, music at 1005, poor signal, thunderstorms in northern Australia making noisy listening down south here.


4885   BRAZIL. R. Difusora Acreana - Rio Branco. A long ballad at 0953, ID at 0957 then telephone talkback, fair signal and no sign of Clube do Pará.


5050   CHINA. Voice of Beibu Bay R. - Nanning. Vietnamese service at 1035 with pop music and talk, fair signal. Nanning City is located about 200km from the Chinese/Vietnamese border.


9400   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Iba. Speech in Mandarin to EAs and CAs at 1045, strong signal.


9435   D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. The usual martial music in the English service at 1055….at least I think it was English. The female announcer appeared to have a mouthful of marbles while she was giving us a few words of wisdom from the kid president and then the title of the next song. Honestly, this station is a waste of electrons!


9450   CHINA. CRI - Urumqui. One of the very few remaining shortwave broadcasts in Esperanto at 1107 to EAs. So…how many Esperanto speakers are there in Asia??? The other station is R. Havana Cuba, which only has Esperanto on Sundays. Good signal.


13580   KUWAIT. R. Mashaal - Kuwait. Pashto ID at 1000 then news. Good signal.

 
13710    SRI LANKA. R. Farda - Iranawila. Light pop music program in the Farsi service at 1010, Fair signal.

 
13750   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Arabic discussion program to ME at 1017, fair.

 
15160   KOREA REP. KBS World R. - Kimjae. Korean service to ME at 0930 with an interview program. Good signal.


15260   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu with a weekends only service at 1020, good signal.

 
15300   FRANCE. RFI - Issoudun. French service to WAf at 0940 with news reports from Africa, fair signal.


17570   CHINA. CRI - Urumqi. English news to Eu at 0916, good signal but with some background QRM from co-channel Riyadh. Runs // 17650 also heard.


17615   SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh. Qur'an programming to SAs at 0925, a good clear signal and stronger than the // 17570.


17680   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. S/on 0930 with the Malay service, ID and news, good signal.


17720   THAILAND. BBC - Nakhon Sawan. Dari service at 0940, then Pashto at 1000, good signal. This transmission was previously via Al Seela.


17745   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian on Sat & Sun only to Egypt, noted with a fair to poor signal. Runs // 17775 via Tiganesti beamed to ME with an equally weak signal.


19010   KUWAIT. RFE/RL - Kuwait. Dari service at 0910 with chat and occasional musical items, a fair signal.



TELLING THE TIME

Also noted here was CHU, the time signal station in Ottawa, Canada with a good signal last night when the atmospheric static level was bearable. Running with an output of 10kW, this station is regularly heard during my winter DX season (April to September), but not often now as we head towards summer. Noted at 0924 UTC on Nov 19 (8:24pm local AEDT) - at sunset - with a distance of approx 16,500 km (10,200 miles) via the short path. Here's a short clip of that reception:

QSL CARDS - A Look at our Hobby

There's an ABC television program called The Collectors, which is very popular in my part of the world. Back in 2011, a segment in one episode of this show talked about QSL cards. Yes!.....the national broadcaster was telling its domestic viewing audience about these strange cards and bits of paper!!

 Amateur radio operator, Martin Luther otherwise known as VK7GN by radio hams, is Australia’s king of QSL card collecting. In the early days a QSL card would be sent by a radio operator to confirm that a transmission had been sent or received, as contact in those days was very uncertain. Today, although there is greater certainty, QSL cards are still a physical reminder of a radio communication and a collectable item for the receiver.

 You can read the rest of the story and view the actual TV interview with Martin at the following link:

 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s3278435.htm

LATIN AMERICAN DX SURVEY 2015

The number of downloaded copies of my 2015 Latin American DX Survey has exceeded my expectations. It's great to see that DXers are still finding it useful. In case you have not already downloaded it, here's a reminder. The survey covers many domestic South American stations as well as two international broadcasters between March and September this year. 

Also featured in this year's survey is an article I wrote for the August issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine entitled "Radio Verdad - Small Signal, Big Heart", which focuses on this very unique Guatemalan broadcaster.

DXers and shortwave listeners living in the northern hemisphere are now approaching their winter season, so this survey may be of interest and use to you. In previous years, there have been more than 2000 downloads of this document, so it appears to be very popular amongst MEDXR readers!

Read more about the survey and download the link at:


73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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