SHORTWAVE ACTION ON 12 MHz

Graphic acknowledgement with thanks: Jamboree on the Air - Australia

SHORTWAVE ACTION ON 12 MHz

Over the years, I have noticed that some shortwave listeners tune just the lower parts of the 25-metre band, stopping just before they reach 12 MHz. I am not sure why this is so. But nevertheless, it is worth checking out the top end of the 25mb because there is plenty to hear up on 12 MHz.

Here in Australia, we are still officially in the winter season. At nighttime, the bands above 14 MHz have been largely devoid of signals, especially as we are going through this extended period of the absolute sunspot cycle minimum. But for listeners in the northern hemisphere, I expect that monitoring of the 25, 22 and 19mb during your summer months would have yielded a few good catches on those bands. Soon, the reverse will happen - the northern hemisphere listeners will find the higher frequencies going quiet during your coming winter evenings, but those bands will open up somewhat for us here in the southern hemisphere during our approaching summer season.

Across these seasonal variations, propagation characteristics will change somewhat, but overall the 25mb remains fairly reliable for long-distance multi-hop shortwave communications. For northern hemisphere listeners, many of the stations in the list below will be heard very well. Indeed, signals are often better than here in the southern hemisphere, purely because there are many more broadcasts beamed to northern hemisphere target zones. Down here in southeastern Australia, hardly any broadcaster beams to my part of the world these days!

The list below was developed over a few days in this past week and covered the listening periods of 1100 to 1530, 1600 to 2000, and 0500 to 0800 UTC. How many of these stations can you hear at YOUR location? Have you discovered other stations that are NOT on this list below? (hint: there are plenty to add to this list!)


12005   GERMANY. R. Farda - Lampertheim. Farsi to Iran at 1140, a weak signal, Aug 11.

12005   ENGLAND. R. Farda - Woofferton. Farsi to Iran at 1435, very good signal after it switches from the Lampertheim site at 1300. Can be heard right through to s/off at 1800, Aug 11 & 12.

12005   ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. S/on 1800 for the 30-min service in French to NWAf, weak signal, Aug 12.

12010   CHINA. CRI - Baoji-Xinjie. Vietnamese to SEAs at 1430, good signal, Aug 11.

12015 (nominally)  MONGOLIA & D.P.R.KOREA.  Two stations here. 12014.89 approx is VoMongolia - Ulaanbaatar at 1415 in Mandarin to Asia. A few Hertz up on 12014.98 is VoKorea - Kujang in Russian to Europe. Both were weak signals here at Mount Evelyn on Aug 11.

12015   CHINA & D.P.R.KOREA. CRI - Beijing in English to Eu at 1700-1758. Plus VoK - Kujang in Russian also to Eu at 1700-1800 a few Hertz off-frequency. CRI is the dominant station here, Aug 12.

12018.98   VIETNAM. VoV - Son Tay. English to EAs at 1135 to 1200, then into Japanese. The English service again at 1230-1300. A fair signal, Aug 11.

12025   CHINA. CRI - Urumqi. Mandarin to CAs at 1415, fair to poor signal, Aug 11.

12025   INDIA. AIR - Panaji (Goa). Hindi service to ME at 1615-1730, then into Malayalam 1730-1830. Squealing transmitter modulation is a feature of this audio and doesn’t ever seem to get fixed. A weak signal on Aug 12.

12030   THAILAND. VoA - Ban Dung. S/on 1130 in Slow English on Sat/Sun to SEAs until s/off 1200. A good signal, Aug 11.

12035   THAILAND. VoA Deewa R. - Ban Dung. Pashto to Afghanistan. A very good signal at 1412 and still going past 1530, Aug 11.

12035   GERMANY. VoA Deewa R. - Lampertheim. Pashto to Afghanistan, a fair signal after it switches over from the Ban Dung site at 1700 until s/off 1900, Aug 12.

12040   GUAM. KTWR - Agana. Burmese to SEAs at 1150, into the S’gaw Karen language at 1215, a weak signal, Aug 11.

12045   THAILAND. VoA - Ban Dung. Korean to EAs at 1410, fair signal, Aug 11.

12045   JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. Japanese at s/on 1500 to SAs, a weak signal, Aug 11.

12050   IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. The 60-min Hindi service to SAs at s/on 1420. Fair signal, Aug 11.

12050   ENGLAND. R. Ndarason Int’l - Woofferton. S/on 1900 in Kanuri to WAf, a weak signal to start and faded by 1930, Aug 12.

12055   CHINA. CNR 17 - Lingshi. Kazakh service to EAs from 0730 to past 1130, fair to poor signal, Aug 11.

12065   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Pashto to Afghanistan at 1105 and beaming 35˚. Then into English at 1200-1300 to SAs, beaming 63˚. A weak signal throughout, Aug 11.

12070   CHINA. CRI - Xian. Filipino to EAs at 1145, excellent signal, Aug 11.

12070   VATICAN. VoA - SM Galeria. Hausa to WAf at 0700-0730, a weak signal, Aug 13.

12070   THAILAND. R. Ashna (VoA) - Ban Dung. Pashto to Iran at s/on 1430, into Dari at 1500. A weak signal, Aug 11.

12080   PHILIPPINES. VoA - Tinang. Korean to EAs at 1215, a fair to poor signal. I checked again at 1405 and the signal had improved from a fair to good level, Aug 11.

12090   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. Russian preaching to EAs at 1110, a weak signal, Aug 11.

12095   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Bocaue. Hmong service to EAs at 1115, then into Lao at 1130. Fair signal, Aug 11.

12095   MADAGASCAR. BBC - Talata Volonondry. Somali to EAf at s/on 1400, a weak signal and faded by 1440, Aug 11.

12095   U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. S/on 1730 in Amharic to EAf, into the Oromo language at 1750 and Tigrinya at 1810 until s/off 1830. This service is weekdays only. Weak signal on Aug 12.

12095   U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. S/on 1500 in Urdu to SAs, fair signal, Aug 11.

12095   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Arabic to EAf at 0500-0700, Aug 13.

12100   TAIWAN. R. Taiwan Int’l - Paochung. Amoy to SEAs at s/on 1100, into English at 1120 with the news, and then Indonesian at 1140. A good signal, Aug 11.

12105   UZBEKISTAN. Adventist World R. - Tashkent. Amoy service to EAs at 1210, into Cantonese at 1230. A fair signal, Aug 11.

12110   GERMANY. R. Free Asia - Lampertheim. S/on 1500 in Tibetan to EAs, accompanied by CNR jamming, fair signal, Aug 11.

12120   GUAM. KTWR - Agana. Cantonese to EAs at 1125, into Hakka at 1130, and Mandarin at 1145 until s/off 1200. Fair to poor signal, Aug 11.

12120   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Bocaue. S/on 1200 in the Rawang language to SEAs, followed by various other Asian languages through to 1400. A weak signal, Aug 11.

12120   PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. Can be heard here occasionally between 1730 and 1930 in a mix of Filipino and English to ME. A weak signal at 1825 but faded by 1900 on Aug 12.

12130   THAILAND. R. Mashaal - Ban Dung. Pashto service to Pakistan at 0530, fair to poor signal until s/off 0700, Aug 13.

12130   KUWAIT. R. Mashaal - Umm al-Rimam. Pashto to Pakistan from s/on 0700 to past 1130, weak signal, Aug 11.

12150   NOT HEARD - Voice of Khmer M'Chas Srok - Dushanbe. Nothing heard between 1130 and 1200 on Sundays, as has been the case for a long time now. However, it still appears in the EiBi list and other frequency lists that source their data from Eibi. Aug 11.

12160   UZBEKISTAN. TWR - Tashkent. At 1345 in the listed Kurukh language, followed at 1400 by the Gamit language and various other Sth Asian languages up until 1545. A fair to good signal, Aug 11.


73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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