Mount Evelyn DX Report: DX QUICK TIPS

Sheoak Falls, near Lorne, The Surf Coast

DX QUICK TIPS

December 19, 2016

Some of these "Quick Tips" are a more than a week old now. So, they are not especially quick! This is because we were on holiday for a week in an area of Victorian coastline known as "The Surf Coast", a wonderful part of the world and spectacular along some parts of The Great Ocean Road. However, I DON'T surf. I don't even swim much!

But this is a fabulous area for photography (my other passion!). So, in this post I have included two images of mine that were taken on The Surf Coast.

6145 ARMENIA. RMRC Radio (Rhein Main Radio Club) - Gavar. Special broadcast of the final DSWCI AGM at 2000. Poor signal into Mount Evelyn with local atmospherics. I ended up listening on the Twente remote receiver…..which I HATE! I'd much rather be monitoring it on one of MY radios! Dec 17.

9275.05 USA. WMLK - Bethel PA. American religious preaching, many mentions of Yahweh, weak signal at 1755 to past 1810. Rarely heard here at Mount Evelyn, Dec 18.

9325.06 EGYPT. R. Cairo - Abis. Horrible modulation, grossly distorted at 2050 with what sounded like possibly music in what was scheduled as the Hausa service to Nigeria (although you couldn't really tell!). Fair to weakish signal till s/off 2100 (they got that bit right!) on Dec 17.

9485 ENGLAND. Test Transmission - Woofferton. Babcock broadcasting broker testing on Dec 5 between 0840 and 0910 with the usual snippets of royalty free music and frequent short anncts, requesting reception reports. Fair signal and no QRM, just thunderstorm noise. Email duly sent along with 30 sec video clip. Here is the reply back in six minutes (!) from Dave Porter, G4OYX:

"Thank you for your report and I confirm the details are correct. These transmissions were to fault-find on a 250/300 kW sender at the UK HF transmitter station at Woofferton. Well done on that catch.

These duration of these tests can be variable as the engineers can sometimes need a long time to establish a fault or they may interrupt the test, make an adjustment and resume. This is particularly so if the fault is of an intermittent nature.

Babcock, Woofferton is the only remaining UK HF sender broadcast station and also is the only one with this transmission test audio and email address.

The audio is contained in a file play-out system and incorporates non-copyright music and voice announcements from one of the engineers, Martin 2E1EKX at the transmitter site.

Thanks for your interest.

Dave Porter G4OYX"
(Retired) Senior Transmitter Engineer Woofferton 1982-2012.

9495 MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga. Russian to EEu at 1925, with talks, excellent signal, Dec 17.

9545 SOLOMON IS. SIBC - Honiara. Noted here on Dec 5 instead of the usual nighttime frequency of 5020 kHz. Noted at 1050 and coming in quite well….until CRI s/on 1100 on 9540 kHz with Mandarin to Oc AND CRI s/on 1100 on 9550 in Vietnamese to SEAs - both powerhouse signals, squashing SIBC.

9570 MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga. Russian service to EEu at 1815, fair to good signal in the clear, Dec 18.

9600 BULGARIA. Bible Voice - Kostinbrod. Farsi with religious programming at 1735, good signal, Dec 18.

11550 MADAGASCAR. R. Publique Africaine - Talata Volonondry. Energetic French programming with occasional music and news at 1840, R. Publique Africaine ID at 1849. Eventual s/off at 1858. Very weak signal here and confirmed by the Twente remote where it was much stronger. Dec 18.

11600 TAIWAN. RTI - Paochung. Powerful signal at 1140 for English service to Indonesia and Pacific. Music magazine program, Dec 5.

11665 MALAYSIA. RTM Kajang. Limbang FM service with an interview show, 1145, fair signal on Dec 5.

11680 D.P.R.KOREA. KCBS - Kanggye. Korean ballad at 1155, fair signal and in the clear on Dec 5.

11735 TANZANIA. ZBC Radio - Zanzibar. Fair signal with long renditions of local music at 1953. Time pips at 2000 and short TC and ID in Swahili. Then a short burst of groovy African music with drums and flutes, then back to the female studio announcer. Nice listening on Dec 17.

11945 MADAGASCAR. Madagascar World Voice (MWV) - Mahajanga. Arabic to NAf at 1940 with preaching, ID 1945 and an Arabic song, fair signal, Dec 17.

11965 BULGARIA. Dimtse R. Erena - Kostinbrod. Horn of Africa song at 1710, R. Erena ID in the Tigrinya language at 1713. The broadcast is targeted to Eritrea. Fair signal until transmission suddenly interrupted and off at 1725 and never returned (scheduled s/off is 1800) on Dec 18.

13650 D.P.R.KOREA. VoKorea - Kujang. Mandarin to SEAs 0335, fair to poor signal, Dec 5.

13580 ENGLAND. R. Mashaal - Woofferton. Pashto service s/on 0500 beamed to Pakistan. Weak signal, Dec 7.

13600 OMAN. R. Sultanate of Oman - Thumrayt. Believed to be this with a weak signal in Arabic at 0525. Discussion program, checked against the Bassonia (RSA) SDR where it was much stronger. Dec 7.

13650 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. S/on 0530 in English to SEAs with the usual hoo-haa, stern ID and anncts, and some rousing martial music. Poor signal, Dec 7.

13695 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Hindi service to ME at 0345, fair signal, Dec 5.

13760 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. Spanish to SAm at 0350, Korean classical songs, poor signal, Dec 5.

15170.7 SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh. Arabic service at 0300 with Qur'an preaching and prayers. Fair to poor signal, Dec 5.

15320 TAIWAN. RTI - Paochung. English at 0325 to SEAs, fair signal, Dec 5.

15510 THAILAND. BBC - Nakhon Sawan. 30-min Hindi service to SAs at 0240, fair signal, Dec 5.

15575 KOREA REP. KBS WR - Kimjae. Spanish to NAm 0245, good signal, will s/off at 0300, Dec 5.

15755 THAILAND. BBC - Nakhon Sawan. Dari to AFG, 0255 to s/off 0300. Fair signal, Dec 5.

17530 MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga. Mandarin to EAs at 0432 with talks and occasional light music. Weak signal till s/off 0459 on Dec 7.

17640 MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga. English religious programming to WAf at 1825, fair to poor signal. Indeed, it was the only station audible on the band here at this time, Dec 18.

17690 KUWAIT. R. Azadi - Umm al-Rimam. Dari service with news reports at 0440, good signal, Dec 7.

17730 CHINA. CRI - Xian. English to CAs 0445, fair signal and // 17855 also heard, Dec 7.

73 and good DX everyone,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW