DX QUICK TIPS - MAPLETON FOREST EDITION - August 10, 2016

DX QUICK TIPS

MAPLETON FOREST EDITION!

August 10, 2016

We have entered our sixth week on the road and are still travelling down the coast of Queensland, towards New South Wales. But in the past few days, we have driven inland about 30 km to a most beautiful region known as the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. The three lovely villages of Maleny, Montville and Mapleton sit on the ridge of the Backall Ranges, overlooking the southern Queensland coast. High rolling hills, deep valleys and some rugged terrain are features of the area. This is my second trip to this part of the world in two years - and I love it!

An early morning visit to the picnic grounds of the Mapleton Forest, not far from our accommodation, saw just myself and one (illegal) camper in a tiny tent. It was 6:30am, the sun was rising and the temperature was a comfortable 15˚C while I rolled out the long wire off the antenna spool to about 15 metres in length. A quick tune around the PL-680 radio dials indicated that I had chosen a very good spot to monitor the shortwave bands. No noise! None! No power lines and no houses. Just lots of lovely tall gum trees.

Here's some highlights from the morning's listening on August 10 between 6:45 and 9:00am local time (2045-2300 UTC), divided up into four specific listening sessions on different bands:

MAPLETON FOREST AUG 10, from 2045 to 2115 UTC

No man made noise on the tropical bands, but thunderstorm static crashes were very strong, a warning of approaching afternoon storms.

2325   AUSTRALIA. ABC - Tennant Creet NT. Morning breakfast programming, poor signal. 2485 - Katherine NT was also barely audible.

4800   CHINA. CNR 1 - Geermu. Chinese pop music, strong.

4820  TIBET. PBS Xizang - Lhasa. Different Chinese pop music, Strong.

4905   TIBET. PBS Xizang - Lhasa. Tibetan discussion then folk singing, strong and // 4920 also strong.

5011   MADAGASACAR. R. Madagasikara - Ambohidrano. Malagasy music program with very few anncts at 2045, fair signal.

5020   SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. English news at 2100, fair signal.

MAPLETON FOREST AUG 10, from 2115 to 2200 UTC

There was still some thunderstorm static on the 49mb, but not quite as ear-splitting as on 60mb!

5865   GERMANY. R. Farda - Lampertheim. US pop music program, strong.

5915   ZAMBIA. ZNBC - Lusaka. Telephone talkback program in a tribal language, good signal at 2130.

5960   ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. English to Eu, good signal.

6025   TIBET. PBS Xizang. Pop music programmng, good.

6100   CHINA. CRI - Xian. Arabic to NAf, strong.

6115   PHILIPPINES. R. Veritas Asia - Palauig. Mandarin religious programming, fair signal.

6135   CHINA. CRI - Beijing. Croatian to Eu, fair.

6180   BRAZIL. R. Nacional Brasilia - Brasilia. Mixed with another unidentified signal at 2150, causing a serious het.

6195   BOTSWANA. VoA - Moepeng Hill. English service to EAf with pop music, fair. 

6200   TIBET. PBS Xizang - Lhasa. Folk music, good level.

MAPLETON FOREST AUG 10, from 2200 to 2230 UTC

Atmospheric noise was almost non-existent on the 15mb, which allowed for some much enjoyable listening. Many signals were quite strong, especially from the Asian and Pacific stations.

15120  USA. VoA - Greenville. Just caught the s/off at 2158 following the Bambara language service to WAf. Huge signal.

15140   OMAN. R. Sultanate of Oman - Thumrayt. Arabic songs at 2201 with anncts and heard past 2210. Fair to poor signal. Scheduled s/off is 2200. Had gone or faded when I rechecked at 2230.

15215   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. Mandarin to EAs, strong signal.

15230   CUBA. R. Habana - Quivican. Spanish to SAm, poor signal.

15245   D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. English to Eu, band music programming, magnificent signal.

15280   NTH MARIANA IS. RFA - Tinian. Mandarin news reports and no evidence of the CNR1 jammer at 2213. Strong clear signal. Then suddenly at 2216, the CNR jammer returned with avengence!

15320   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. "How Great Thou Art" on wailing electric guitar and musical tidbits in the Indonesian service till 2230, then into the Javanese service. Strong signal.

15340   TAIWAN. Sound of Hope - Taipei. Mandarin, no jamming, fair signal but with deep fade cycles.

15435   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. Sundanese service with religious talks til 2230, then into Indonesian. Strong signal.

15610   USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. English, very good signal.

15625   SRI LANKA. AWR - Trincomalee. Vietnamese to EAs, fair to poor.

15685   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. Mandarin, very strong signal.

15720   NEW ZEALAND. RNZI - Rangitaiki. English to Oc, current affairs programming, strong signal.

MAPLETON FOREST AUG 10, from 2230 to 2300 UTC

A look down on 9mHz saw many Chinese stations coming through. They included 9610 (CNR 8 - Mongolian), 9640 (CRI - Spanish) 9665 (CNR 5), 9675 (CRI), 9685 (CRI - Portuguese), 9710 (CNR 1), 9755 (CNR 2), and 9775 (CNR 2). Most of these don't interest me. But here's some other more noteworthy signals:

9636   VIETNAM. VOV - Son Tay. Network 1 programming with news reports, beautiful signal.



9650   D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. Japanese, good signal.

9690   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. S/on 2245, English GOS, very strong signal.

9720   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Indonesian, very strong signal.

9735   TAIWAN. RTI - Paochung. Japanese, good signal.

9740   SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. English WS, fair signal.

9760   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. English to WEu, fair signal.

9790   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. English to EAs, fair signal.

9795   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Iba. Early interval signal 8 minutes before the scheduled transmission at 2300! Good signal.

9805   KOREA REP. KBS WR - Kimjae. Indonesian, weak signal and QRM CNR2 9810.

9820   CHINA. Voice of Beibu Bay R. - Nanning. S/on in English 2300, with "This is the Voice of Beibu Bay Radio….Well hello!" Unfortunately it was a weaker signal than co-channel CNR 2 and gradually got submerged within a few minutes.

9835   MALAYSIA. RTM - Kajang. Malay anncts and music.


While on this trip, I'm starting to form some firm opinions on the performance of the Tecsun PL-680. It's very good in some respects, but it does have a few bugs, too! I'll continue to test out this receiver during the remainder of our road trip across Australia. Watch out for a some detailed comments in a future post once we arrive back home.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW



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