Mount Evelyn DX Report

STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK November 25, 2017 NEW AFRICAN BROADCASTER A relatively new station on the air from Ethiopia (YES! Another station actually transmitting from the African continent - always good to see!) is Radio Deegaanka Soomaalida Itoobiya, a.k.a "Ethiopian Somali Regional State Radio".  Here are my listening notes from this morning: 5940   ETHIOPIA. R. Deegaanka Soomaalida Itoobiya - Jijiga. Somali talks at 1915, groovy Horn of Africa songs at 1920. Generally, a fair signal with some deep fades at times. Monitored through until 2000 when the much stronger R. Algerienne signed on with its booming 500kW via Issoudun. Nov 24.  Transmitting room (photo courtesy Cakaara News) The transmitter is listed as Jijiga in far-eastern Ethiopia near the border with Somalia. The Somali city of Hargeisa is about 140km due east of Jijiga. A schedule has appeared (source unknown) which shows the following daily operating times on 5940 kHz: 0400-0510, 13...

THE USE AND ABUSE OF SINPO (This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for "The World of Shortwave Listening" column of The Spectrum Monitor magazine - August 2017 issue. Further details on this excellent publication is available at www.thespectrummonitor.com ) The SINPO code is usually found included in a shortwave listener's reception report to a broadcaster. And the code is often quoted in listings of stations logged when contributed to DX club newsletters, Facebook groups and other shortwave listener forums. But often, we find a few misunderstandings in the way the numbers are compiled for the code. Useful in describing the quality of radio transmissions, SINPO is an acronym for Signal Strength, Interference (from other radio stations and includes man-made interference), Noise (atmospheric), and Propagation (e.g. fading). Overall quality of reception is calculated after taking into account the previous four reception components (S, I, N and P). T...

Reach Beyond Australia announcer STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK November 8, 2017 STATION NEWS AUSTRALIA Ozy Radio has been back on the air since October 27 after an absence of several months. The 5045 kHz outlet is running 24-hours and has been widely heard in Australia and New Zealand. Reception has also been noted on the west coast of USA and irregularly in Europe and Asia. The format is antique rock music and news on the hour. Aerial view of the RBA Kununurra antennas (click to enlarge) Can't hear Ozy Radio? Then try Reach Beyond Australia (formerly HCJB Australia). Their 100kW Kununurra transmitters near the far northern Western Australian coast is well-heard throughout Asia in the evenings and early mornings. The RBA studios are in Melbourne, only 15 minutes away from my home here at Mount Evelyn. RBA replies promptly to reception reports with their QSL card.  I was going to give the schedule here, but it's a bit long and complicated - langua...

B17 MANY FREQUENCY CHANGES! WOW! There have been some massive schedule changes since the new B17 transmission season began last weekend. I have been checking out some of these over the past five days and that has kept me really busy! The main receivers I used this week were the Yaesu FTDX3000 transceiver and the Yaesu FRG100 receiver. The most used antennas this week for monitoring were a 58m (190 feet) horizontal loop and a 7 mHz coax (double bazooka) dipole. One listening session was conducted using a 13.8v SLA battery in place of the regular mains power. Here's a sample list of 92 changes I have noted so far. 5840   MARIANA IS. VoA - Tinian. Korean to EAs at 1215, NF and a fair signal, Oct 30. 5875   ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. English to WAf at 2006, NF (possibly ex 9915), fair signal, Oct 31. 5890   UZBEKISTAN. BBC - Tashkent. Burmese to SEAs at 1330 s/on fair signal, NF (ex 9585), Oct 30. The Yaesu FRG100 in use for this week's ...