STORMS, STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK - September 17, 2017

STORMS, STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK

September 17, 2017

STORMS

Wow! What a couple of weeks it has been with constant solar storming for much of the time. On some occasions, his has made listening and communications on the shortwave bands quite difficult. Yet, at other times there has been the odd surprising reception of some unexpected station popping up out of the noise. You just never know what you'll hear when you turn on the radio these days.....And who said solar minimums were boring!!!

Dr. Tamitha Skov has just released her latest solar activity and propagation report, going into some detail on what has been happening in the past week, and what to expect in the coming days. Check it out:

STATION NEWS

HURRICANES
After the devastating hurricanes that struck the Caribbean nations and the southeastern US coast last week, affected broadcasters are gradually returning to the air. WRMI reports that many frequencies are up and running again after Irma wrecked transmission lines and several antennas. As of today, the following outlets are back in action: 5950, 9395 (now back at full power), 11530, 11580, 7780, 5985 and 21525. The situation in Cuba appears to be somewhat less clear. Radio Havana Cuba has been reporting for several days now that more than 70% of the island's power has been restored. However, RHC broadcasts appear to have variable operations (.....well, more variable than usual!). For example, I tuned into R. Rebelde on 5025 around 0730 UT to find a strong carrier but no audio. Other listeners noticed the same situation past 1000 UT.

SOUTH KOREA
Ron Howard  (Asilomar State Beach, Calif., USA) has been tuning the Korean broadcasters and notes the following:
4885 kHz   Echo of Hope - VOH, 1324 UTC, Sept 16. The usual one-hour program "Radio Broadcasting Guide," in Korean and not // to the other VOH frequencies; during the program they provide sample IDs from many stations that broadcast to Korea; VOA ("V O A World News") and singing KBS Hanminjog Bangsong ID ("Migug-e Soli Bangsong"); strong signal as usual; never jammed by N. Korea, but on some days is covered by OTH radar (from China?). My audio at http://goo.gl/1juQiR. The program is repeated again at ToH.

5920 kHz  Voice of Freedom, at 1328 UTC, Sept 16. Another day of good reception with no N. Korea jamming. My audio at http://goo.gl/2TUiCr. (Thanks, Ron)

SAUDI ARABIA
As posted in this blog a few days ago, the new service of Al'azm Radio continues to be heard quite well in many parts of the world on 11745 kHz between 0700 and 1700, with programs in Arabic. It's still unclear what transmitter site this is, but I suspect possibly Jeddah. One to check out!



SOLOMON ISLANDS
Ron Howard  (Asilomar State Beach, Calif., USA) reports:
9545 kHz SIBC at 0431 to s/off 0457, Sept 15. DJ in Pijin; pop Pacific Islands songs; 0456 DJ IDs singer, song title (Justin Wellington with song "Iko Iko") and local time check ("Time now is 4 minutes away from 4"); Honiara sunset to be at 6:16 PM SBT (0716 UT); seems to be on a timer, as once again cut off at 0457*; reception nicely above the norm, even with QRM (static).
http://goo.gl/fubEM6 - my audio of Justin Wellington singing "Iko Iko"
(Thanks, Ron. This one is certainly possible for many listeners on the western side of the US)

2017 WINTER DX SURVEY
My appreciation goes to all those who have shown an interest in my recent winter project, the 2017 Winter DX Survey between 0200 and 0600 UTC. There have been more than 300 downloads of the two PDF files in the past few weeks, which surpassed my highest expectations! Thank you to all the Facebook listeners who made some lovely comments about the project. I will leave the links up for a limited time for those still wishing to get the downloads. Full details are at:  http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2017/08/free-download-2017-winter-dx-survey.html

FROM THE LOG BOOK

Earlier this week, I made some observations of the 19mb in the period 1345 to 1430 UTC. This band has been very quiet all winter, especially around this time of night, being 11:45pm to 12:30am local here. But with elevated solar activity and solar flux levels, there were some interesting stations popping up on the band. Most of these signals should improve as we approach summer here.

15140   OMAN. R. Sultanate of Oman - Thumrayt. Arabic to Eu at 1420 with Arabic songs, weak signal, Sept 12.

15255   ENGLAND. RFE/RL - Woofferton. Turkman service to CAs at 1430, fair signal, Sept 12.

15490   GERMANY. Deewa R - Lampertheim. Pashto to Afghanistan at 1408, Good signal, Sept 12.

15505   BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar - Dhaka. Urdu service to SAs at 1411 with IS and news, good signal, Sept 12.

15523   TAJIKISTAN. V.O.Tibet - Dushanbe. Discussion program in Tibetan ar 1345 with occasional Tibetan musical snippets. Very good signal, Sept 11.

15575   KOREA REP. KBS World R. - Kimjae. Korean at 1405 with news to NAm, fair signal Sept 12.

15715   UZBEKISTAN. AWR - Tashkent. Mandarin to EAs at 1415 with preaching, fair to poor signal, Sept 12.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

 Subscribe!! Follow @robvk3bvw