Mount Evelyn DX Report

MOUNT BEENAK DXPEDITION VIDEO Mid-Winter Afternoon Propagation I made the following video on June 14, looking at the propagation of signals from Europe, USA, Middle East and Africa. Here is a portion of some if the stations heard on the 31mb in the four-hour listening period during that day, between 0200 and 0600 UTC (12 noon and 4 pm local time). The introduction at the start of the video explains more.... 73 and have a great weekend everyone, Rob Wagner VK3BVW   Subscribe!! Follow @robvk3bvw

RADIO AUSTRALIA - SENATE ENQUIRY (Ongoing) Last Friday, June 16, the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee met with representatives of interested parties to debate the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment (Restoring Shortwave Radio) Bill 2017. The transcript of the meeting is now available at the Australian Parliament House website. The transcript is 41 pages long and quite detailed. Indeed, the four members of the committee present really did a great job of "grilling" each of the witnesses! The discussion was both thorough and broad.   I'm not going to attempt to summarise the meeting, as the content is detailed and, at times, arguments presented were somewhat convoluted. Australian readers of the MEDXR blog may want to read the entire transcript to get a very good handle on the issues at play for why Radio Australia should be reinstated. However, it may take you a while to get through it (unless you are a speed reader).  ...

STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK June 17, 2017 STATION NEWS USA: A very interesting video was posted last week on the HamRadioConcepts YouTube page. Some radio enthusiasts got the opportunity to visit the transmitting site of WRMI, Okeechobee, Florida . There are some very impressive rhombic antennas and 14 powerful transmitters featured in the video. The visual footage is sometimes a bit shaky and fast, but the information will be of interest to amateurs and SWLs. There's also some humorous commentary at times. Worth checking out! FROM THE LOG BOOK Some more exotic DX logs noted this week: Indonesia on a revised schedule for Ramadan, some interesting Asian DX, and the two low powered Canadians making it to south eastern Australia for our mid winter! 👍3260 PNG - NBC - Madang. Nothing heard tonight at around 1000. Noted it around 1110 for several minutes and good strength, then it suddenly disappeared again. Tech problems or power outages perhaps....... Mo...

RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #10 Click on each photo for an enlarged view DRAKE SPR-4 by Craig Seager VK2HBT The transition from valve technology to solid state was a painful experience for many receiver manufacturers (and listeners!); a lot of early efforts were pretty awful, with birdies and other spurious products aplenty, as inferior front design failed to cope with strong signal levels and internal noise soared well above the acceptable. To be sure, semiconductors in the late 1960s and early 1970s were barely a patch on what is available today, but much of the blame can also be attributed to inferior engineering and circuit design. The Drake SPR-4 is one notable exception, and even by today's standards, this model can hold its head high in terms of performance and versatility. Yaesu's FRG-7 (conceived in 1976, some seven years after the first SPR-4) may well have been the "volksradio", but the Drake can do most things better and has held its resale ...

FROM THE LOG BOOK June 4, 2017 Hi Folks, It's been a busy week - putting up a new antenna (details to come), exploring possible locations for DXpeditions, looking at an old Yaesu FRG7 that has come my way (details also to come....) and other bits and pieces. But I did manage to find time to turn on the radio here at home. The Latins have been extremely disappointing so far this winter, but several signals did manage to make it through the noise. It was also good to hear the All India Radio regionals making the journey on the 60mb: 3185   USA. WWRB - Morrison TN. Overcomer Ministry at 1052, ID by "The Bro", talks and songs, fair signal but heavy local TVI on June 2. This frequency appears to have been recently reactivated. 👍  4055   GUATEMALA. R. Verdad - Chiquimula. Spanish programming with anncts, ID at 1058, then a short hymn. A talk at 1100, weak signal, June 2. 👍 4774.91   PERU. R. Tarma - Tarma, Junín. Weak signal with many rapid anncts a...

DANDAL KURA RADIO HELPING TO CHANGE NIGERIA I stumbled across an interesting article on the Public Radio International (PRI) website today. Entitled How a shortwave radio network is helping to counter Boko Haram , it focuses on the broadcaster Dandal Kura Radio: It’s easy to overlook the power of radio, when being hit by a firehose of apps, websites, video and social media.  But when you’re out in the sticks, especially if there’s crisis or unrest, radio saves lives. “In crisis situations, information is very, very important. Sometimes more than food, you need information," says Faruk Dalhatu, managing director of Dandal Kura Radio International in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a former Boko Haram stronghold. “Because, if you’re on the run, you need to know which direction is safe, before you even think of close family members that have been separated from you.” What’s more, you don’t need to know how to read to listen to radio. You don’t even need to...