DX QUICK TIPS - January 20, 2019


DX QUICK TIPS
January 20, 2019

Some interesting DX signals have reached Mount Evelyn this week.

👍 3325   INDONESIA. RRI - Palangkaraya, Kalimantan Tengah. Voice of Indonesia's Mandarin service at 1135 with talks and contemporary jazz ballads. A very quick ID in English (!) as "Voice of Indonesia" at 1143. A fair signal and no sign of NBC Bougainville this night, although NBC was there last night at this time. Jan 13.

👍👍 4765.06   TAJIKISTAN. Tajik Radio 1 - Yangi Yul. Distinctly Central Asian sounding music programming with Tajik anncts at 1930. The music reflects this country's position on the border with Afghanistan and close to Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir. The Tajik language is a dialect of Persian (closely related to Dari). Interestingly, many Tajiks also speak Russian - a throwback to the eras of domination by the Russian Empire in the 1870s+ and later the Soviets, where it was known as the Tajik Soviet Socialists Republic (Tajik SSR). A surprisingly good signal right up until the signoff at precisely 2000 UTC. Slightly off-frequency on Jan 19.

🎧🎧  4990   CHINA. PBS Hunan - Xiangtan. Listed at 10 kW output, this is one of a handful of lower-powered Chinese regionals. Fading in at 1110 with Mandarin news talk or commentary, fair signal and an even earlier f/in than when previously noted on Jan 4 (then the f/in was 1125). Pretty good for an evening with the usual summer atmospherics, although some adjacent channel QRM from the RWM Taldom time signal on 4996 kHz, which was putting in a strong signal tonight. Asian signals often appear to be better in our summer months in Australia, despite the noise. Jan 13.

★★  5050   CHINA. Voice of Beibu Bay Radio - Nanning, Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi. Mandarin music programming at 1045. At 1100, time pips and IDs in Mandarin including a very brief one in English as simply “Beibu Bay Radio”. Into Vietnamese programming at 1101 with lots of canned anncts, and extended commentary at 1106. Into pop music by 1110. A fair signal for its listed 15 kW. Also runs // 9820 kHz with a very good signal and overpowers the co-channel CNR 2. The city of Nanning is near the border of northern Vietnam (hence the Vietnamese programming.) The station is a joint project CRI and the local Guangxi PBS. Beibu Bay Radio draws its name from the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone of China’s southwestern coastal region, part of the infamous Gulf of Tonkin. Older readers and those interested in the Vietnam War will remember that on August 2, 1964, President Johnson claimed that Vietnam attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. This sounded the start of a significant escalation in the war between Vietnam and the US and its allies. Jan 19.

5055   AUSTRALIA. 4KZ - Innisfail QLD. Beatles “All You Need is Love”, and a mix of other ‘60s pops at 2020. Strings of adverts for retailers in Innisfail, Cardwell and surrounding districts. A fair signal at 2020 but pretty ratty by 2030 onwards. Fades out around 2115 (7:15am QLD time). Jan 19.

🔥🔥 6035   BHUTAN. Bhutan BS - Thimphu. English service at 1050 with music anncts and some rather low-rent contemporary pops. National news at 1100. A fair signal but severe local summer atmospherics made sustained listening difficult, Jan 17.

7254.94   NIGERIA. VoNigeria - Abuja. Hausa to WAf at 0602 with the news. Sometimes this is a strong signal into Mount Evelyn but not today! Jan 18.

7335   FRANCE. R. Kaduna Nigeria - Issoudun. Hausa to WAf at 0615. News with many mentions of Nigeria. A weak signal to start by gradually improved by 0645. Jan 18.

9440   GERMANY. Bible Voice (a.k.a. Dardasha 7) - Nauen. S/on 0600 in Arabic to NAf. A very weak signal for most of the 15 min broadcast. Jan 18.

9885   VATICAN. VoA - SM Galeria. French to Af at 0620 (weekdays only) until s/off 0630. Fair to good signal. The earlier services from VoA on this freq between 0330 and 0530 are via Pineira, Saõ Tomé. Jan 18.

★ 11601   TAJIKISTAN. Voice of Tibet - Dushanbe. S/on 1230 in Tibetan. Moves to 11605 at exactly 1235, right in mid-sentence and runs until 1300 s/off. Fair to good signal on Jan 17.

✅ 11665   MALAYSIA. RTM - Kajang.  May have been missing for several days according to one report, but currently on air now (@ 0530UT) playing some woeful pop ballads and occasional anncts. Interestingly, anncts are definitely NOT in Malay as reported in all the usual online frequency lists. Perhaps the language is Iban or Kayah? Not sure! ToH passed with continuous music, then news at 0502 for about 10 min. Nothing heard on 9835, but that's because there's currently no propagation to Mount Evelyn at that time. Jan 14.

✅✅ 11745   SAUDI ARABIA. Al-Azm Radio - Jeddah. Arabic for the Saudi troops on the Yemen border at 0635 with Qur’an prayers, a fair signal. YouTube video clip of Al-Azm below as recorded on January 18.



11790   MADAGASCAR. Bible Voice - Talata Volonondry. Some heavy American bible bashing at 0210 until s/off 0230, beamed to SAs on Thurs, Sat and Sun only. A weak signal for most of the time, Jan19.

11810    KOREA REP. KBS World R. - Kimjae. Japanese to Japan at 0225, a weak signal, Jan 19.

👍👍 11860   SAUDI ARABIA. Rep of Yemen Radio Sana’a. Saudi sponsored broadcast, probably via Jeddah or possibly Riyadh. Long Arabic songs (quite listenable, actually!) at 0645 until 0657 when it was flattened by a ridiculously strong mile-wide signal from CRI-Cerrik signing on for their 0700 Mandarin service to Eu. Interestingly, there was no propagation here of the 11860 kHz co-channel PBS Xizang Tibetan service on this particular afternoon. However, PBS was indeed operating according to several Asian KiwiSDRs. Jan 18.

12140   THAILAND. R. Azadi - Ban Dung. Pashto service to Afghanistan at 0235, rapid-fire talk, possibly news at 0240, fair signal and // 13860 but much weaker there, Jan 19.

15529.7   KUWAIT. R. Kuwait - Sulaibiyah. English to Eu at 0540 with preachings from the Holy Prophet. Into a pop rock song at 0545. A fair and clear signal but way off frequency, Jan 18.

13695   INDIA.  AIR - Bengaluru. Beamed to the ME in the Kannada language at 0243 with what sounded like story-telling in song, a fair signal here at Mount Evelyn, but well heard on the Qatar KiwiSDR, Jan 19.


Mahajanga Antennas

Recently, the Madagascar World Voice transmitters were "on the blink" (i.e. out of order!) due to a lightning strike and a resultant fire. Apparently, a transformer blew and took the station off the air for about a week on or around January 7. According to sources, a replacement part was required to be shipped to the Mahajanga site in Madagascar.

However, on a brighter note, World Christian Broadcasting has released a brief video of a drone's-eye view of the Mahajanga site, accompanied by the song Jingle Bells in an unidentified language.



And you can check out a world satellite view, courtesy of Google Maps by inputting these coordinates:  -15.727372, 46.445842


73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW




 Subscribe!!




QRZ callsign lookup:


© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2019

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. If your comment isn’t visible right away, it has been received and will be published shortly.

Popular posts from this blog

RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW # 21 - The Kenwood R-5000

Image
RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #21 (You can click on all photos in this article for a close-up view) KENWOOD R-5000 Performance and Innovation by ROB WAGNER VK3BVW This extended blog post first appeared as a feature article in the February 2024 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com I have always wanted to own a Kenwood R-5000 receiver. Perhaps I was dazzled by the mystique that appeared to surround this rig. Somehow, it had always been on top of my bucket list of pre-loved rigs that I wanted sitting on the desk of the radio shack.  Finally, one showed up at a local Sunday morning Hamfest, and I happened to have just enough dollars in my pocket to make a purchase. It appeared to have lived a hard life. The case looked knocked around and was pretty dirty inside and out. So, while I would have liked to have owned a unit in better condition, the price was right, and I decided to take it on as a l...
Read more

REVIEW: WELLBROOK ALA1530S+ LOOP ANTENNA

Image
PRODUCT REVIEW: WELLBROOK ALA1530S+ LOOP ANTENNA by Michael Stevenson (Guest Contributor) This is a review and my opinion of the Wellbrook ALA1530S+ P–1 Active receiving Antenna. For further information, details and specifications then please visit: www.wellbrook.uk.com Background I have been a keen shortwave listener since 1970 and have had many receivers and antenna types during this time. Currently I have two wire antennas, a PAR Electronics EF-SWL 15 meter with impedance matching transformer, made in the US; and a home made 17 meter wire with balun. I also have a dedicated multi-stake ground or earthing system to compliment my receiver and antennas. I live in suburbia Port Macquarie, New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. Even though all our electricity wiring is under ground in our housing estate, I live in an environment where there are all types of man-made noises coming from modern electronic and electrical equipment used by my neighbours The wire a...
Read more

RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #20 - The SONY ICF-5900W

Image
RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #20 SONY ICF-5900W by CRAIG SEAGER VK2HBT This time around, I thought we might direct our attention to one of the many portable receivers of yesteryear, and it is perhaps appropriate that we choose a manufacturer that continued to produce quality equipment featuring shortwave coverage until long after. I’m sure our Japanese friends will concur with the submission that Japan is a land of short-lived, but enthusiastically embraced fads.  Whether it be karaoke, yo-yos with brains, electronics pets or Pokémon, each craze sweeps the country in such a way that captures the attention of the rest of the world and is usually associated with some pretty smart home-grown technology.   In the mid to late 1970s, shortwave listening (or “BCL”) was the flavour of the month, with teenagers (and some older folk!) compiling large QSL collections and forming SWL and DX clubs all over the country.  Nowadays, you’d be fairly hard-pressed to find any external broadcas...
Read more