Mount Evelyn DX Report: DX QUICK TIPS - December 19, 2017

DX QUICK TIPS

December 19, 2017

Thanks to Three Guest Contributors!

Yes, there has been some solar geomagnetic activity that caused degraded reception conditions - temporarily! - in the past day or so. However, there have still been plenty of opportunities to hear some great DX. My thanks goes to three very experienced DXers - Rob Shepherd (Toowoomba, QLD, Aus), Ron Howard (Asilomar State Beach, CA), and Dave Valko (PA, USA) for offering some great observations and monitoring from the past few days.

ROB SHEPHERD
7182v 1800 Asmara, Eritrea. Top of the hour with talk (Tigrinya ?) and some place names mentioned, so possibly news? Fair to good level actually with some fading but no QRM or jamming from Ethiopia. Quite a nice signal, probably S3. Back into delightful Horn of Africa instrumental music at 1815. Left it to follow other leads but the station still there at 1850 at a fair level. Gone by 1900 (presumed too quick for fading), so presumably signed off. Dec 18.

11530 0500 Clandestine. Radio Biafra via WRMI. Sign on at 0500 with ID: “This is Radio Biafra broadcasting from London”. Program outline then into catchy African instrumental music from 0505. Good level, S3.5-4. Dec 17.

11530 2100 Radio Argentina al Exterior (RAE) via WRMI. German program to Europe. This day must have been their German DX Program with mentions of RBI / DW. DLF then followed by the unmissable RBI interval signal. Good level S4. Dec 16.

Rob Shepherd's setup is a JRC NRD535-D using an 80’ long wire, plus a NE – SW EWE antenna.

RON HOWARD
ANGOLA. 4949.74, R. Nacional de Angola, 0149-0205, Dec 15. Nicely above threshold level audio, but again with QRN (static); chatting on the phone; one caller mentioned "Radio Nacional de Angola"; 0200 time pips; brief news and series of IDs; 0203 played Xmas song "Jingle Bells"; recently doing fairly well.

BHUTAN. 6035, BBS (presumed), *0130, Dec 15. Suddenly on; YL announcer from 0130-0145, then seemed to be music/singing; extremely poor by 0145. Sign on times not consistent. Still with grey line reception (my local sunset at 0052 UT, while Thimphu sunrise was 0043 UT today).

BOLIVIA. 6134.82, R. Santa Cruz, 0208-0211, Dec 15, with "Santa Cruz" song; audio ended at 0211.

BOUGAINVILLE. 3325, NBC Bougainville, 1114-1202*, Dec 19. Better than the usual reception; various music; Pacific Islands songs, The Rolling Stones "Brown Sugar," Xmas songs - "Deck the Hall," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "O Little Town Of Bethlehem," etc.; 1201 usual bird call and into the NBC news in English; suddenly cut off. Unable to hear any RRI QRM.

INDIA. 5050, AIR Aizawl [non-log], checking here on Dec 18, after Beibu Bay Radio signed off (1602*), to see if I could hear any carrier at all from AIR, but the frequency was completely clear of any station; AIR has been off the air here for a long time now.

Still off frequency 7555.62v, AIR via Delhi-Kingsway, 1211, Dec 19. Daily I find them on a slightly different frequency; decent level carrier, but today unable to hear the AIR IS at 1213.

INDONESIA[non-log]. 9525.95, VOI, on Dec 19, at 1330, clearly was off the air; no carrier at all.

MYANMAR. 5985, Myanmar Radio, 1530-1548, Dec 18. In English with news and weather; song composed by Shelley Murley and sung by children, titled "Light a Candle for Peace"; 1540 "special talk program" about today being International Migrants Day; mostly fair.

SOLOMON ISLANDS. 5020, SIBC (presumed), 1205 and random checking till 1335, on Dec 19. Only heard a decent level carrier with no audio at all; just dead air during this extend transmission.

SOUTH AFRICA. 3320, R. Sonder Grense, 0310, Dec 15. Nice signal; assume in Afrikaans; dedications and ads, plus pop songs.

DAVE VALKO
4949.73 ANGOLA R. Nacional Angola End of PT nx at 0304, promo, TC by W, then cute 1 min. seasonal stn promo song sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (“Nacional, Nacional, Radio Nacional…”). Nice to see a SW stn getting into the spirit. Then immediately into Tropical song. Fair signal. Dec 16.To see a video of the reception of the station Christmas song, click on this link: https://youtu.be/CRbkk-7jVEA

6015 ZANZIBAR ZBC Long SW tlk by W, pres. nx from 0332-0342. Ments of Zanzibar. M w/Koran-like chant briefly, then W again w/ID, then choral singing briefly and studio W anncr returned. 0344 SFX of car horn beeping in traffic immediately followed by ZBC ID and tlk segment. Decent strength w/QSB and severe QRM from 6020 CRI Albania as always. Dec 16.

6180.03 BRAZIL R. Nacional Amazonia Usual M and W anncrs in PT hosting “Voz do Brasil” nx pgm from 2112 t/in. Some actualities. Ments of Brasil. 2120 t/in as it was getting stronger. Very quick QSB. First time hrd back on here. Dec 14.

7290.10 UNID. Found someone on this freq at 0903 playing the song “Those Were the Days” by Mary Hopkin. Went off immediately at the end of the song at 0907:02, before I could bring up a web rx to get an idea where it was coming from. I stayed on the freq to almost 0911 and it didn’t return. Given the poor conditions and the freq, I’d say it was a Ham testing his audio or just having a bit of fun. But the audio characteristics sounded like it was overseas. Dec 15.

9229.4v USA WWRB Found the spur of 9370 WWRB here again at 1844 during Bro. Stair pgm. Then found the weaker 9510.6v spur on the upper side. Upon generating a screenshot of the spurs, found that 9229.4v was in LSB and 9510.6v was in USB. Strange. Dec 15

9530 ASCENSION ISLAND R Akhbar Mufriha/HCJB OC on at 2144, then pgm start at 2145 w/organ and opening ID anmnts by M and W in Pulaar. Simple stringed mx of NW Afrrica like used to be common on R. Senegal. Soft-spoken M, then more of the same string mx. Fair signal. Dec 15.

11390 CUBA R. Havana Cuba Mixing product here after 1200. Thought this might be Marconi Radio Int. at first until Larry Yamron pointed out it sounded like Spanish. And that’s when the thought occurred that it might be more RHC junk. Indeed, looking in the 25mb, found that it’s a mixing product; 11670 minus the the difference between 11670 and 11950 (11670 - 280 = 11390). Disappointed it wasn’t MRI. Should’ve realized this was the mixing product here last weekend when I found the upper side mixing product on 12230. Dec 16.

11560 INDIA AIR Panaji Weak signal at 1528 w/tlk by M in mid-east lang. 1529 subcont. mx. 1530 apparent pgm intro by M, brief mx, then EG tlk by M. Could only get a few words here and there. Mx at 1544, and off at 1545:02. Is supposed to be Bengaluru to 1530, then Panaji, but I didn’t see or hear any difference in the signal over 1530. So is it Panaji before 1530 as well?? Dec 16.

11735 NORTH KOREA V.O. Korea Unsked xmsn, possibly a test, noted at 0305 w/melancholy vcl song. Found very strong on web rx in South Korea and Japan. Audio stopped at 0311, then just 100 hz rumbling. //15180. 1 khz tone started at 0320, still //15180. Back to the 100 hz rumbling at 1025. Usual IS and SP IDs at 0330 both on the web rx and weakly at home. Could barely tell it was //15180 too which was surprising as nothing has been propagating on 19m at that time here. Dec 15.

11780 INDIA AIR Delhi Found horrible 100 hz buzzing on this xmsn at 1330. Same as hrd on 11560 two days ago. Obviously the same faulty xmtr. 11560 goes off at 1140 and this comes on abt an hour later. 1330 M anncr, mx briefly, then possible W anncr. Very diff. to get any audio due to the buzzing. Dec 16.

Part of the Voice of Hope Africa antenna system in Lusaka, Zambia. (Photo courtesy VoH website)

13680 ZAMBIA V.O. Hope Africa Audible w/mx at 1333. Returned at 1457 and hrd mx once again. M annc at 1458 including ID, and back to mx. Sounded like spiritual tlk at 1504, then EG ID at 1506 before going back to mx. 1556 Jazz version of “How Great Thou Art”. Another canned EG ID by M at 1600, brief tlk, and into “That’s Just the Way it Is” by Bruce Hornsby. 1656 ID and spiritual message by M on recheck, Pop song, 1659 M w/anmnt w/website, brief instru. mx, and canned closing ID by M “With love from Zambia, this is the V.O. Hope Africa service broadcasting on 9680 and 13680 kHz, and streaming worldwide on voiceofhope.com. V.O. Hope is now closing down. Please join us again tomorrow with more music and ministries from the Word of God”. 1 kHz tone, and off at 1700:54. Best at the end. Dec 16.

Dave Valko uses a Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S loop antenna.

AND FINALLY.....a few early evening summertime logs from your trusty blogger (....err....me, Rob Wagner) 😁

2500 HAWAII. WWVH - Kokeo Point. Noted at 1015 (9:15 AEDT) with a very weak signal through the local atmospherics. Pretty darn good for this time of year (summer here). Nothing from Fort Collins CO though on Dec 15.

3185 USA. Overcomer Ministry via WWRB - Morrison TN. Noted through the summertime noise and man-made static at 1005 (9:10pm AEDT). Fair signal but readability was down, Dec 15.

3250 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Pyongyang. Japanese service fading in at 1030 (9:30 pm local AEDT). The time pips came through OK but dialogue and music were mixed in with the noise at this time of night. Improves in strength as the evening progresses, Dec 15.

3320 D.P.R.KOREA. PBS - Pyongyang. Korean anncts and sugary orchestral music at 1040, stronger than 3250….but not much! Dec 15.

3325 INDONESIA and PNG. RRI - Palangkaraya and NBC Bougainville at 1045 (9:45pm AEDT), both with pop ballad style programming and anncts. NBC was a touch stronger at a fair level with summer atmospherics in the background. Dec 15.

3300 CANADA. CHU - Ottawa ON. A respectable signal at 1052 (9:52pm AEDT), a fair signal strength but actually quite good for LF summer reception! Dec 15.

13710 GERMANY. Missionswerk Friedensstimme - Nauen. Russian preaching at 1206, good signal, Sats only, Dec 16.

My logs above were heard on the Yaesu FTDX3000 transceiver with a horizontal sky loop antenna, and coax dipoles for 3.5 and 7 mHz.

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW