Mount Evelyn DX Report: AUTUMN SURVEY

AUTUMN SURVEY - 6, 7 AND 9 MHZ

0300 TO 0500 UTC

It's late autumn at Mount Evelyn. Winter is fast approaching and officially begins on June 1. This means that daytime DX is very much present for those of us in the southern hemisphere. The international shortwave bands are alive for most of the day, especially the frequency range between 6 and 14 mHz.

During our local afternoons (1-4pm), 0300-0600 UTC, signals from Europe, Africa and the Middle East can be heard on 6, 7 and 9 mHz via the long path (predominantly in darkness at this time of year) across the Atlantic Ocean, Central America and the Pacific. For example, Radio Japan's service on 6105 kHz via Issoudun, France to Central America continues on and arrives at Mount Evelyn with a powerful signal by 0400 UTC.

Long path reception (grey coloured line) from Issoudun follows an almost all darkness route.
This map shows daylight/darkness zones at 0300 UTC on May 3.

And signals originating from North America arrive via the short path across the Pacific, such as in the case of WHRI's Cypress Creek transmitter in South Carolina on 7315 kHz at 0315 UTC.

Short path reception path (white coloured line) from Cypress Creek across the Pacific.

Of course, the situation is reversed for our neighbours in the northern hemisphere, with winter daytime reception conditions on the lower frequencies being enhanced in December-February.

So, on the early afternoons of May 3 and 4, I travelled about 10 minutes away from my home, into a bush clearing known as Eagle Nest picnic ground. The Tecsun PL680, laptop and hot drinks went with me. An antenna wire of 25m (approx 80 feet) was strung out across the clearing. And reception there was fabulous - so quiet - no noise across all bands, allowing those weaker signals to come though on 6 and 7 mHz.

Here's a summary of what was heard on those two days:

0300-0500 on 6 mHz:

5810 USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. F/in 0416, Spanish to CAm.

5890 USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. F/in 0450 with American preaching, weak signal at the start, improved a bit past 0500.

5935 USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. F/in 0450, American preaching, weak signal.

5975 GERMANY. AWR - Nauen. Bulgarian s/on 0400 to EEu, fair to poor.

5985 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. F/in 0445 with Spanish music programming, improved by 0500.

6000 CUBA. R. Habana - Quivican. English to ENAm f/in 0420, weak.

6020 ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. Mandarin to ENAm, 0325 to s/off 0400, weak.

6030 USA. R. Marti - Greenville NC. F/in 0405, Spanish. weak.

6060 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. Spanish f/in 0424, weak.

6105 France. R. Japan - Issoudun. Japanese to CAm 0330, weak signal at first but much stronger by 0430 till s/off 0500.

6145 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to CNAm f/in 0333, very weak and never much stronger during the next 2 hours!

6155 AUSTRIA. R. Austria Int'l - Moosbrunn. Good signal at s/on 0500 in German to Eu.

6165 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. English to ME, 0338, weak.

6180 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu 0408, fair.

0300-0500 on 7 mHz:

7260 VATICAN. VoA - SM Galeria. s/on 0330 in Somali to EAf, fair to good.

7260 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Port Vila. F/in 0415 in Bislama, became progressively stronger.

7295 FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic to CAf 0410, weak signal.

7315 USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. English religious programming 0315, good signal.

7330 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to EEu 0413, very good signal.

7350 PRIDNESTROVIE. Denge Kurdistane - Grigoriopol. 0330 to ME in Kurdish, fair to weak signal.

7360 VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. Swahili to EAf 0340, weak signal but strengthening till s/off 0400.

7375 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. English to WNAm 0345, good signal.

7385 USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. Weak signal with music programming at 0415. Suddenly off mid-song at exactly 0430.

7435 USA. R Marti - Greenville NC. Spanish weak. 0310

7445 STH AFRICA. BBC - Meyerton. English to EAf 0425, weak signal.

7490 USA. WBCQ - Monticello ME. Scratchy and weak signal in English to NAm at 0350. Sounded like Overcomer Ministry programming. Only heard one of the two days.

7570 USA. Overcomer Min. - Okeechobee FL. American preaching 0430 f/in. Weak signal.

0300-0500 on 9 mHz:

9410 UAE. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic to EAf, 0315, weak. Changes to the Moosbrunn txer site at 0400 with a much stronger signal till s/off 0500.

9420 GREECE. VoG - Avlis. Greek talks, 0316, fair,

9440 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English to ME, good.

9450 CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Mandarin to SAs 0350, very weak.

9480 PRIDNESTROVIE. BBC - Grigoriopol. Farsi to Iran. Good.

9490 GERMANY. R. Japan - Nauen. Japanese to ME, s/on 0300 till s/off 0500, fair signal at first but improved significantly over the two hours.

9500 CHINA. CNR 1 - Shijiazhuang. Mandarin at 0355. Weak.

9515 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. English news 0305.

9535 CUBA. R. Habana - Bejucal. LA music programming to CAm 0300-0500, fair.

9550 AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Farsi to Iran at 0330, into Turkish at 0400 till s/off 0430, fair signal.

9560 MADAGASCAR. R. Japan - Talata Volonondry. Swahili to EAf, s/on 0315, fair signal.

9570 ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. Mandarin to ENAm, good.

9600 VATICAN. R. Tamazuj - SM Galeria. Sudanese Arabic to EAf at s/on 0330 with ID and into music. Till s/off 0430. Fair signal.

9600 VATICAN. R. Dabanga - SM Galeria. Sudanese to EAf s/on 0430 to past 0500, good signal.

9660 MADAGASCAR. Vatican R. - Talata Volonondry. French to CAf at 0430 s/on then English from 0500. Fair signal.

9685 SAO TOME. VoA - Pinheira. Kinyarwanda service to EAf with news at 0334, weak signal.

9715 SAUDI ARABIA. R. Saudi - Riyadh. Qur'an at 0338, weak signal.

9730 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. English to WNAm, good.

9770 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Russian to EEu at s/on 0430, to s/off 0458, fair signal.

9790 CUBA. CRI - Quivican. English to WNAm, 0341 till s/off 0500, fair signal.

9790 FRANCE. RFI - Issoudun. French to EAf at s/on 0400, good signal but light QRM from co-channel CRI-Quivican. Then in the clear from 0500.

9800 GERMANY. Deutsche Welle - Nauen. Swahili to EAf 0344, weak.

9840 UAE. VoA - Dhabayya. Pashto at 0345 till s/off 0400, fair to poor.

9880 IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Arabic to ME, very weak 0347.

9935 GREECE. VoG - Avlis. Noted on May 4 at 0405 with good signal, but not heard here at this time the previous day!

9955 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. Spanish 0350, English at 0400, fair.

As we approach mid winter at Mount Evelyn, with the shortest day being June 21, it will be interesting to see if any signals can be heard earlier than 0300 UTC (1pm local) on 6 mHz. I'll be continuing to monitor the trends over the next few weeks and will publish an update of this survey after that time. I am also eager to see if I can hear the Mexican station, Radio Educación on 6185 kHz before it signs off at around 0500 UTC. Two years ago, I was able to catch this one on three occasions in mid winter, just before or around 0500. But it's a hard one and not regularly heard here.