Mount Evelyn DX Report: DX QUICK TIPS

DX QUICK TIPS

September 20, 2019

The September (Vernal) Equinox for the Southern Hemisphere will take place on September 23. This is one of two times in the year when there are roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. In the Northern Hemisphere, the September equinox is called the Autumnal or Fall Equinox. The Sun shines directly over the equator. It is during these times of the year when we often find that propagation can change and improve to certain areas of the world.

Let me give you an example from the past. Here in southeastern Australia, for decades we were able to monitor improved signals from Brazilian domestic broadcasters nearing the equinoxes (March and September). At these times, using a path over the Antarctic, there is just enough daylight and darkness over the South Pole to allow shortwave signals to propagate between South Eastern Australia and eastern South America. Brazilian stations could often be heard at their best during these times, particularly in the 49 and 31-metre bands. These days, most of those small domestic stations from Brazil have left the shortwave bands, BUT the propagation path still exists....of course!! 😉

Listen out to see if reception improves for some of your favourite shortwave broadcasters during the September Equinox!

DX QUICK TIPS

In a recent blog post, I spent some time focusing on that part of the 25mb above 12 MHz, an area that is not commonly tuned by some listeners. This past week, I spent a little time concentrating on the 22mb - the spectrum between 13570 and 13870 kHz. Again, this is an often neglected band. Yet, it offers year-round reliable propagation across the globe. Below are just a few observations from that band. Also noted was continuing good daytime reception on 9 MHz between 0200 and 0400 UTC, which is midday to 2pm local time here. And, finally, some observations from South Asian stations on the 60mb.

4750 BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar - Shavar. Time pips for 1315 and the start of the Nepali service…..I think! The audio was so distorted that it could well have been any Sth Asian language!. Fairly strong carrier, but some background co-channel QRM from RRI-Makassar and CNR 1-Hailar. Sept 19.

4800 INDIA. AIR - Hyderabad. Hindi service at 1305, fir signal but under the stronger co-channel CNR 1-Golmud. Sept 19.

4810 INDIA. AIR - Bhopal. Pleasant Hindi programming at 1323, very good signal, Sept 19.

4920 INDIA. AIR - Chennai. Hindi music program at 1330, fair signal under the stronger co-channel PBS Xizang-Lhasa in Tibetan. Sept 19.

5020 SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. Listening to local music at 0732 when the stations suddenly disappeared from the air. Reappeared about 4 min later. A good signal prior to and after the absence. Sept 9.

9410 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic go EAf at 0310, weak signal at first, but improved by 0345, Sept 13.

9440 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English WS to ME and CAs at 0305, good signal, Sept 13.

9490 GERMANY. R. Japan - Nauen. Japanese to ME at s/on 0300, fair signal, Sept 13.

9515 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. English to NAm at 0120, fair signal, Sept 13.

9525 FRANCE. Dengê Welat - Issoudun. Kurdish to ME at 0315, fair signal, Sept 13.

9535 CUBA. R. Habana - Bejucal. Discussions in Spanish at 0235, music programming at 0327, weak signal at first but improved later, Sept 13.

9545 SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. Pop songs (such as Love Me Anyway by Pink) and community anncts with frequent mentions of Honiara and the islands at 0235. A very weak signal at first but gradually improved to a fair level around 0340. SIBC hasn’t been making it to Mount Evelyn in recent times, so nice to hear it again. Sept 13.

9570 ALBANIA. CRI - Cerrik. Mandarin at ENAm at 0225, fair signal right up to past 0355, Sept 13.

9790 CUBA. CRI - Quivican. English to WNAm at 0325, weak signal, Sept 13.

9830 BULGARIA. BBC - Kostinbrod. S/on 0330 in Farsi to Iran, good signal, Sept 13.

9865 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Hindi (Vividh Bharati service) to SAs at 0220, a weak signal first but improved by 0345, Sept 13.

9900 IRAN. VoIRI - Zahedan. The Arabic “Al-Quds” TV relay programming at 0347. A strong carrier but the audio level was down (as it often is!), Sept 13.

9955 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. The “Frecuencia al Día” DX and radio hobby program on Fridays with Dino Bloise and friends, in Spanish at 0350. A weak signal and WRMI s/off at 0400. Sept 13.

13580 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English WS to ME at 0405, fair signal. Scheduled to change to Dhabayya at 0500 for the beam to EAf, and signal at that time was about the same strength. Sept 19.

13645 CHINA. CRI - Xian. S/on 0600 in English to SEAs, fair signal, Sept 13.

13650 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. English to SEAs at s/on 0500 to s/off 0557. The Mandarin service followed at 0600. Poor signal, Sept 13.

13665 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. Swahili to EAf at 0505. A weak signal and // 13635 also via Sirjan and the signal there was just as weak. Monitored on-and-off through to eventual s/off 0551 on Sept 13.

13695 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. The 30-min Hebrew service to ME at s/on 0420, fair to poor signal. Runs // 13740 also from Sirjan where the signal was much stronger. This was surprising considering they are both listed as 500 kW and there is only a small difference in beam heading (13695 is 282˚ and 13740 is 293˚), Sept 19.

13730 IRAN. VoIRI - Zahedan. Arabic to ME at 0510, fair to weak signal, Sept 13.

13750 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. French to CAf 0510, weak signal, Sept 19.

13760 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. English to SAm 0425, changing to Spanish at 0500, fair to poor signal, Sept 19.

13765 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Hausa service to Nigeria at 0520, fair signal, Sept 13.

13780 SAUDI ARABIA. R. Saudi - Riyadh. Arabic to ME at 0525, fair to poor signal, Sept 13.

13785 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. Turkish to ME s/on 0420 and noted to past 0530, good signal, Sept 19.

13840 MADAGASCAR. R. Japan - Talata-Volonondry. French to CAf at 0535, good signal, Sept 13.

13825 UZBEKISTAN. BBC - Tashkent is listed here between 0300-0500 in Farsi to Iran. However, all I hear is CNR 1’s DRM hash. A quick trip around the KiwiSDRs in the ME, Eu and As revealed that there was either no signal at all on this freq in this time period or there was CNR DRM signal. So, perhaps BBC has moved? However, it is still registered here in HFCC as of Sept 19.

13840 NEW ZEALAND. RNZI - Rangitaiki. English to Oc 0350 to s/off 0458 with ID and freq annct change to 9700, Sept 19.

13860 THAILAND. R. Fardi - Ban Dung. Farsi to Iran at 0501 to past 0640, poor signal with deep fades at first but improved somewhat by 0600, Sept 19.

Amateur Radio DX News

USA: Last night, I worked W3L on the FT8 digital mode - 7.074 kHz at 0637 UTC. This is a special event station commemorating the saving of the Liberty Bell from the British who, apparently, tried to pinch it back in 1777. The station is operating until September 25 with SSB and CW, but the primary mode is FT8! Interestingly, this year's QSL is the first half of a matching set of QSL cards. Their sister special event station W3T will be active on October 8-16 for the matching card. On QRZ.com, there are lots of good reading and pics on the history behind this event.

Nauru: C21WW has been operating in SSB, CW and occasionally in FT8 modes from the Republic of Nauru on all HF ham bands. They will be on the air until September 23 (one day earlier due to a flight cancellation). There have been some antenna issues on Nauru and poor weather conditions, so they don't appear to be operating on all bands at the moment. This is the second half of their DXpedition that began with a very successful 9-day stint from the Republic of Kiribati under the call T30L. Full information is on their website.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW