Mount Evelyn DX Report: DXING WITH THE LIGHTS OUT

DXING WITH THE LIGHTS OUT!

Midwinter daytime DX at home with the power grid shut down and the shortwave broadcast bands are full of signals! It doesn't get any better than this! Another day with our local area grid switched off for power line maintenance - it seems to happen 2-3 times a year. We receive around two weeks notice of the planned outage, which gives me PLENTY of time to charge up the 13.8v SLA auto battery and hook up the Yaesu FTDX3000. All my main antennas are still down for maintenance or redesign, so a temporary inverted vee cut for 10MHz does the trick really well for now! It was great to hear some Africans, Brazil and Mexico. All observations made on June 15 and June 16 (UTC time).
f/in = fade in, f/out = fade out

⭐⭐ 5009.92 MADAGASCAR. R. Madagasikara - Ambohidrano. Local pops and Malagasy annct at 2245. A fair signal at first but weakened as the morning progressed to f/out very late around 0010 (10:10am here!). The only signal on the band except for a very weak 4KZ signal on 5055 kHz. June 15. (See video below)

⭐5020 SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. English at f/in 0600, adverts for Telecom Broadband plus reggae/rap music, June 16.

5025 CUBA. R. Rebelde - Bauta. Music programming at 0550, fair signal, June 16.

⭐⭐ 5040 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. A nice early f/in at 0505 (3:05pm here!) in Spanish to CAm, somewhat distorted audio but at a fair strength. Suddenly off air at 0557, June 16.

⭐ 5800 USA. RAE - Okeechobee FL. Spanish to ENAm at 0255, ID as “RAE - Argentina al Mundo” in multiple languages inc. English. Fair to poor signal, June 16.

5890 USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. American preaching 0210, somewhat buzzy audio. Also on 5935 with different American preaching and better audio. June 16.

5900 BULGARIA. Overcomer Ministry - Kostinbrod. Bro. Stair at 0255 to cut-off 0258. Fair signal, June 16.

5900 BULGARIA. R. Dardasha (Bible Voice) - Kostinbrod. S/on 0300 in Arabic to ME. Fair signal, June 16.

5920 USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. Gospel rock music programming at 0040, weak signal, June 16.

5925 UNIDENTIFIED. Probably VoIRI - Sirjan, Iran. Pashto to SAs at 0305, weak signal, June 16.

⭐ 5930 AUSTRIA. BBC - Moosbrunn. Dari service to Afghanistan with a radio play at 0035, weak signal but interesting to hear it this late in the morning (10:35 am here) via the short path, June 16.

5950 USA. Supreme Master TV - Okeechobee FL. English to WNAm at 0535, fair to poor signal, June 16.

5970 USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. Spanish preaching, 0213 to past 0315, fair signal. June 16.

5980 USA. R. Márti - Greenville NC. Spanish to Cuba at 0030 (10:30am here), weak signal. And again at 0200, fair signal. June 16.

⭐⭐ 5995 MALI. RTV du Mali - Kati, Bamako. Long talk/discussion in French at 2320. A weak signal under co-channel ZNBC Zambia until f/out around 2350. June 15.

⭐⭐ 5995 ZAMBIA. ZNBC - Lusaka. A fair signal at 2320 in one of the many local Zambian languages. Anncts and a selection of lovely East African popular songs. Into a talk/commentary program at 0000. Mentions of Zambia at 2345. Stronger than the co-channel RTV du Mali until that faded at 2350. ZNBC continued through to its astonishingly late f/out around 0055!! (10:55am here!). June 16.

6005 ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. English to WAf at 0540, fair signal, June 16.

6100 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to ENAm at 0025 (10:25am here!), weak signal, June 16.

6105 FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. Japanese to CAm at 0215, good signal, June 16.

6125 FRANCE. R. Algérienne - Issoudun. Qur’an at 0510, good signal and // 7295 also heard well, June 16.

6145 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to CNAm at 0315, fair signal with COVID-19 talk, June 16.

⭐⭐ 6180 BRAZIL. R. Nacional Amazônia - Brasilia DF. A weak signal in Portuguese at 0220 (12:20pm here!). R. Nacional ID at 0222 and many Brazilian pops. Faded by 0300. Nice wintertime reception, June 16.

⭐ 6180 SAÕ TOMÉ. VoA - Pinheira. French to WAf at 0545, fair signal and interesting reception for 6MHz from this West African country at this time of day (3:45pm here), June 16.

⭐⭐ 6185 MEXICO. XEPPM R. Educación - Mexico City. Handel’s Act 3 Aria from Riccardo Primo at 0550. XEPPM continues to improve in strength as we draw nearer to the winter solstice. June 16.

⭐⭐ 7205 SUDAN. Sudan Radio - Al-Aitahab (Omdurman). Only occasionally heard here during the winter afternoons. Arabic commentary at 0320. Deep resonant ID as “Huna Omdurman”, then into a new program. A weak signal but a strong indication that reception conditions were excellent on this day, June 16.

7260 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Spanish to CAm at 0120 with songs and anncts. ID at 1124. A booming signal, bearing in mind it’s 11:20am here and not much else heard on 41mb at this time! The listed 500kW probably helps! June 16.

7260 VATICAN. VoA - SM Galeria. S/on 0330 in Somali to EAf with clear IDs and news, fair signal, June 16.

⭐ 7285 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. In Arabic with probably the Al-Quds TV relay at 0227, weak signal, June 16.

7305 USA. Vatican R. - Greenville NC. S/on 0100 in Portuguese to SAm, weak signal, June 16.

7315 USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. American preaching at 0055, ID and s/off 0059, fair signal. Back on the air again at 0230 with a good signal, June 16.

7345 VATICAN. BBC - SM Galeria. English to WAf at 0518, fair signal, June 16.

7375 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish to CAm at 0235, good signal, June 16.

⭐ 7380 UNIDENTIFIED. Presumedly AIR - Bengaluru with a very weak signal at 0105 with news and commentary, presumably in the Sindhi language. Slightly distorted audio, too. Faded by 0112, June 16.

7385 AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Punjabi service to Pakistan/SAs at 0234, anncts and SAs styled music, good signal, June 16.

7390 FRANCE. RFI - Issoudun. French to CAf at 0520, fair signal, June 16.

⭐ 7460 BOTSWANA. VoA - Moepeng Hill. Service in the Kinyarwanda language at 0523 until s/off 0528, fair signal, June 16.

⭐ 7465 UZBEKISTAN. TWR India - Tashkent. A weak signal at 0113 in Hindi, ID for TWR India in English at 0114, then SAs music selections. June 16.

7485 PRIDNESTROVIE. BBC - Grigoriopol. Farsi service to ME at 0235 with news, fair signal, June 16.

⭐ 7505 USA. WRNO - New Orleans LA. American preaching at 0240, weak signal, June 16.

7570 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. American preaching, 0245, weak signal and // 7730, which was a little stronger, June 16.

7780 USA. R. France Int’l - Okeechobee FL. Spanish to NAm/Eu at 0245, weak signal, June 16.

9385 USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. Preaching at 0205, good signal. June 16.

9420 GREECE. VoG - Avlis. Greek news at 0206, good signal. June 16.

So, all in all, a very enjoyable day of noise-free listening. I wouldn't mind a few more of those days! I might have to make some trips into the local bush before the winter season is finished.

73 and good DX to you all!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW