Friday, May 24, 2019

DX QUICK TIPS - May 25, 2019

Bird's eye view of Gangtok City from Ganeshtok - Courtesy of Subhrajyoti07
(Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)

DX QUICK TIPS
May 25, 2019

Despite alarmist predictions of propagation disturbances from solar activity posted in various Facebook forums recently, reception conditions have been most pleasing at Mount Evelyn this past week! I am delighted with these loggings below:


πŸ‘ 3219.9   D.P.R.KOREA. PBS Pyongyang Pansong - Hamhung. A range of instrumental and vocal musical selections at 1815, weak signal. Runs // 3320 where it was much stronger and bang on frequency! May 21.

πŸ‘πŸ‘ 3310   BOLIVIA. R. Mosoj Chaski - Cochabamba. Long Spanish talks from 1100 to f/out 1117, mainly female speaker. A weak signal in amongst the neighbour’s TVI hash, May 19.

πŸ‘ 3325   INDONESIA. VoI - Palangkaraya. German service at 1815 with softly spoken female announcer and occasional musical interludes. Fair to poor signal, May 21.

πŸ‘ 3910   KOREA REP. Voice of the People - Goyang. At 1825, Korean talks at an equal level with NK jamming, fair signal and // 3480, 3930, 4450, 6520, 6600, all with jamming, plus 3480 with no jamming at all (the best signal). 3255 kHz was not on air. May 21.

πŸ‘πŸ‘ 4747.61   PERU. R. Huanta Dos Mil - Huanta, Ayacucho. LA pop songs and announcer chat at 1130, fair to poor signal until f/out at 1205, QRM from VoI-Makassar’s Mandarin service on 4750, so listening to the Peruvian was best in LSB. May 19.

πŸ‘ 4750   INDONESIA. VoI - Makassar. German service at 1845, into Dutch at 1900. Some QRM from the co-channel Bangladesh Betar but otherwise a fair signal. May 21.

πŸ‘ 4750   BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar - Shavar. Test tone between 1900 and 1914. S/on 1915 with time pips and ID in Bangla and news. Good signal and overpowered the co-channel VoI-Makassar by this time. May 21.

πŸ‘πŸ‘ 4774.9   PERU. R. Tarma - Tarma, JunΓ­n. Mainly Spanish discussion programming at 1145 with occasional music interludes. The usual CODAR QRM a few hertz up on 4775 spoilt my listening, but tuning in LSB helped somewhat. F/out around 1210 on May 19.

πŸ’₯πŸ’₯πŸ’₯ 4835   INDIA. AIR - Gangtok. Pleased to hear this one at 1155 when it is still well into daylight hours at the transmitter site (5:25 pm Gangtok time). A fair to poor signal but still noted past 1240. Programming was a selection of chants accompanied by an Indian stringed instrument, interspersed with long talks. It was difficult to ID the language but it certainly wasn't Hindi. Perhaps Nepali or another local language? May 19.  NOTE: Thanks to Partha Sarathi Goswami VU3WPS who lives at Siliguri, about 115km south-west of Gangtok in West Bengal who got back to me with further information: "It is Indo-Tibetan, I will try to find the exact name to inform you, but here they mostly refer as Tibetan. AIR Gangtok air this programming regularly in the local evening. Otherwise, they transmit in Nepali." Thanks, Partha!

πŸ‘ 4895   INDIA. AIR - Kurseong. Lovely Indian song selections at 1215 with anncts in presumed Nepali or similar (but definitely not Hindi). English news at 1230 with an update on the Indian elections. Then into Hindi programming at 1235. A fair signal but with occasional splashes from Voice of Strait on 4900 kHz. No sign of Mongolia on 4895. May 19.

5900   BULGARIA. Bible Voice (Dardasha 7) - Kostinbrod. Arabic 1930-1945 to ME, good signal, May 21.

6005   ASCENSION IS. BBC - Ascension. English WS to WAf at 0625, weak signal and a good sign that winter-is-a-comin’-in. May 19.

πŸ‘ 6050   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic talks to CAf at 0440. This was a NF for A19 but I’m only just hearing it now as the 49mb starts to come alive for the winter afternoon DX season. Fair signal and will improve over the next few weeks, May 16.

πŸ’₯πŸ’₯πŸ’₯ 6070  CANADA. CFRX - Toronto. This low-powered 1kW station is just starting to make its annual winter visit to Mount Evelyn. The “Coast-to-Coast” show with a discussion on the sacred shroud of Turin at 0720. Advert strings at 0730. Currently, a weak signal but should hopefully improve in the coming weeks. May 22.

9400   BULGARIA. Bible Voice - Kostinbrod. S/on 1945 to NAf with ID in Arabic and Dardasha 7 programming (the same content that was heard 15 min earlier on 5900 kHz). Fair signal, May 21.

9490   BULGARIA. Bible Voice - Kostinbrod. At 1725 in Arabic to ME, noted until s/off 1745 on Tues. The sked says that it’s supposed to continue from 1745 to 1800 with Dardasha-7 programming, however nothing but an open carrier was heard until that was switched off at 1800 on this day, May 21.

9610   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish to SEu at 1910, NF (ex 13810), fair to poor signal, May 21.

9745   AUSTRIA. BBC - Moosbrunn. A thumping big signal in Hausa to WAf at s/on 0530 until s/off 0600, May 21.

πŸ‘ 9810   FRANCE. Koode Radio Int’l - Issoudun. Service to WAf in the Fulfulde language at 1920 until s/off 1930. Fair to weak signal, May 21.

11530   FRANCE. DengΓͺ Welat - Issoudun. Kurdish to ME at 1730, fair to good signal, May 21.

11830   FRANCE. Dandal Kura R. - Issoudun. Kanuri service to CAf at 1805. Several announcers with brief musical interludes. Technical issues notes with some long breaks in audio but the carrier was still on the air. A weak signal on May 21.

11880   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Arabic to NAf at 0645, but changes to French at 0700, fair signal, May 19.

11955   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Hausa to WAf/CAf at 0455-0525, lovely signal, May 21.

πŸ‘ 12050   ENGLAND. R. Ndarason Int’l - Woofferton. At 1935 to WAf in the Kanuri language with an interview/conversation. Weak signal, May 21.

πŸ‘ 13840   FRANCE. Manara Radio Int’l - Issoudun. Hausa to WAf at 0740 with long speeches and commentaries, a quick ID at 0759 with a bit of bad saxophone warbling in the background, then off the air. A weak signal on May 21.

15260   AUSTRIA.  R. Sama - Moosbrunn. S/on 0758 with Arabic preaching to ME until s/off 0830, fair signal, May 16.


A Message from YouTube......

A few days ago, YouTube sent me a message that read: "Your fans love this video!
Your video hit 10K views. Create a post to celebrate with your fans!"  The video was my Tecsun PL-680 Sensitivity Tests. So that was cool. 

But....there have been some other videos that have way more hits than that: Using a Mixing Console in the Radio Shack has had 15,000 views, A Visit to My Radio Shack has 23,700 views, and my Horizontal Loop Antenna Experiments is approaching 40,000 views. 

My very first video The Double Bazooka Antenna - A Review has just passed 82,000 views! That first video was technically the roughest in quality when I posted it in April 2013 ( I didn't really know what I was doing...). Hopefully, I've become a little more polished with the presentation these days. Also, you can see that there was less shack gear back six years ago! πŸ˜πŸ˜‰ 

So thanks to all who have checked out the video channel and taken time to watch some of my ramblings and DX clips. You can view all 97 (and counting!) videos at my YouTube Channel.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW








3 comments:

  1. Thanks again Rob for a lovely roundd up of stations. Your column sustains the hobby at a difficult time of poor propagation and dwindling SW signals. Please continue as we always appreciate each edition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your kind comments, Victor. Much appreciated. While it is currently more difficult to hear signals these days, I hope that my small contributions show that there are still things on shortwave to listen to even now. Best wishes. Rob

      Delete
  2. Thanks again Rob for a lovely roundd up of stations. Your column sustains the hobby at a difficult time of poor propagation and dwindling SW signals. Please continue as we always appreciate each edition.

    ReplyDelete