Mount Evelyn DX Report: CLOSING THE LOG BOOK ON 2016

CLOSING THE LOG BOOK ON 2016

Over the last week, reception on the higher frequencies of the shortwave broadcast bands has been quite mixed. However, there's been some interesting DX on frequencies below 13 mHz, including some afternoon Brazilian signals here in the 25mb.

5820 MADAGASCAR. R. Telefis Eireann - Talata Volonondry. S/on 1930 with the RTE Radio 1 service, beaming to CAf, weekdays only. Fair signal Dec 30.

5875 THAILAND. R. Thailand - Ban Dung. S/on 1100 with English ID and then into the 15 min Vietnamese service. Into Khmer language at 1115. Beautiful signal, Dec 26.

7500 UZBEKISTAN. North Korea Reform Radio - Tashkent. S/on 2030 with Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, station ID and talk in Korean. Fair signal with local noise, Dec 30. Initial broadcasts were in December 2007. The English version of this website is http://eng.nkreform.com/. Frequency details on the site are incorrect!

7510 MOLDOVA. Sedoye Bahar (Voice of Spring) - Grigoriopol. Farsi to Iran at 1920, massed choral item at 1925 to s/off 1929. Still only offers a Thurs/Fri service, a strong signal on Dec 30.

7530 UZBEKISTAN. Stream of Praise Ministries - Tashkent. Cantonese at s/on 2100, then into Mandarin at 2115 till a sudden s/off 2129 with very little fanfare. Fair signal on Dec 30.

9895 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. R. Taiwan Int'l - Dhabayya. French to WEu at 1915, fair to poor signal, Dec 30.

11570 TAIWAN. Suab Xaa Moo Zoo - Tanshui. S/on 1130 with music and ID in the Hmong language. 30-minute religious programming. The website is http://www.sxmzradioministry.org/ Very good signal on Dec 26.

11610 MADAGASCAR. MWV New Life - Mahajanga. Preaching in Mandarin to EAs at 2135, fair signal, Dec 30.

11735 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. Serious Spanish talks (lectures?) at 0345, fair signal in amongst strong thunderstorm atmospherics, Dec 30.

11764.63 BRAZIL. Super R. Deus é Amor - Curitiba PR. I was surprised to hear this coming through at 0402 (3:02pm local here) with preaching in Portuguese. A weak signal down in the local summer atmospherics, Dec 30.

11780 IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Strong carrier at 0415, then dropped off significantly at 0420 when it was schedued to start the Hebrew service. Finally came up to a full booming signal at 0424 with the transmission well underway, and noted till s/off 0450. Dec 30.

11840 CUBA. R. Habana - Quivican. S/on 0500 in Spanish to SAm, fair to good signal, Dec 30.

11894.95 BRAZIL. R. Aparecida, Aparecida SP. Another summer surprise, noted at 0520 with mainly talk and occasional long pauses. Some quasi-military music at 0530 for several minutes, then back into talk. Possible live broadcast or recording of a live broadcast?? Not sure. Weak signal and faded by 0535, Dec 30.

11925.02 BRAZIL. R. Bandeirantes, São Paulo SP. Noted at 0536 with R. Aparecida relay, music programming, weak signal, Dec 30.

15370 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. Arabic service to Eu 2050 till s/off 2058, a weak signal on Dec 30.

17695 ARMENIA. SM Radio International - Gavar. Unfortunately, the 1200 service to Australia on this frequency was a poor signal. I also tried via Mark Fahey's remote SDR outside Sydney and it was about the same signal strength there, too. At this time when the smoothed sunspot numbers are getting quite low, reception on 17 mHz can be notoriously unreliable - one day good, next day poor, even on our summer evenings. I think they may have struck a bad day. 15 mHz MAY have been slightly better. Or perhaps use a transmitter site in Asia. Pity it couldn't be heard well because the program sounded quite entertaining, Dec 25.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Check out the latest episode of BBC's program The Fifth Floor. Entitled Watching the World, the operations of the BBC Monitoring Service at Caversham Park. Outlining it's history and how the service developed over the years in reaction to various world events is quite fascinating! It's demonstrates why the BBC is one of the premier and trusted news sources in the world. I found the program really interesting.

From the BBC website:

Caversham Park is the home of BBC Monitoring which for over 70 years has been the eyes and ears of the BBC, watching, translating and analysing the world's media and social media. David Amanor visits the former stately home to meet some of the journalists who've witnessed history unfold in their own countries, from the Cold War to the Syrian conflict.

Senior Editors Simona Kralova and Chris Greenway take us back in time to tell the story of how this grand house become a hub for information gathering, from the era of morse code and typewriters to satellites and social media.

Sifting information from misinformation has always been part of the service's DNA. Ukrainian Vitaliy Shevchenko, Iraqi Mina al-Alami, and Source Manager and morse code man Al Bolton discuss the challenges of sourcing reliable information in the past, and today.

Watching distressing news from home is part of daily life for many journalists. Vesna Stancic from Bosnia, Syrian Lina Shaikhouni and Pinar Sevinclidir from Turkey discuss the personal impact of living the story.

There are also lighter moments to be enjoyed at Caversham, particularly for the musical, including Co-ordinating Editor Tom Mulligan, and Iranians Arash Ahmadi and Mahtab Nikpour, who do a good turn on the guitar, jaws harp and drums when not analysing Iranian politics and tales of chubby Chinese squirrels.

You can listen to the program online at the BBC website: The Fifth Floor: WATCHING THE WORLD. Highly recommended!

73 and best wishes to you all for 2017.

Rob Wagner VK3BVW