MASSIVE STORM

MAJOR POWER OUTAGE

Around 6pm on Thursday (Aug 27), Melbourne was hit by a fierce storm and relentless winds. Although it lasted only 15 minutes, the destruction across much of the city was devastating with huge trees uprooted and crashing onto homes and cars. Tragically, three people lost their lives, including a four-year-old boy.

Photo: L. Williams

Most of the eastern half of the city and surrounds were plunged into darkness. One of the worst-hit areas was Mount Evelyn. Although there was no major damage to my own property, other houses in my street were not so lucky. And the parkland reserve across the road from us saw a number of trees down. We spent two nights in darkness before electricity was restored. Two days later, I write this post to the accompanying sounds of chain saws attempting to clear away the debris.

Although we were busy here cleaning up for much of the time, I did manage to spend several hours in front of the radios in the early afternoon of Friday between 0300 and 0530 UTC. With widespread electricity service out of action, the shortwave bands were wonderfully quiet...just like sitting in the great Aussie bush! As a result, I was able to check the lower frequencies and hear some very interesting signals. It goes to show that signals are still propagating if you can get away from the electrical hash. From the list below, there were many signals that did not register any movement on the S-meter but could still be clearly heard!

EQUIPMENT: Yaesu FTDX3000

POWER: 13.8v sealed lead-acid auto battery

ANTENNA: Inverted vee cut for 10 MHz.

MONITORING: August 27, 2020 between 0300m and 0530 UTC
LOCATION: Mount Evelyn, VIC, southeastern Australia

⭐⭐ 5025 CUBA. R. Rebelde - Bauta. Spanish at fade in 0520 (3:20pm local here), weak at first became stronger later.

⭐⭐ 5040 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to CAm, 0510. // 6100 and a weak signal but good reception considering it was 3:10pm local here and it was the 60mb!

5850 USA. WRMI Overcomer Ministry - Okeechobee FL. English at 0500, weak signal. Possibly // 5890 via WWCR Nashville TN but the signal was way too weak there to be able to tell in in parallel.

5935 USA. WWCR - Nashville TN. English 0502. Weak signal.

5950 USA. Supreme Master TV - Okeechobee FL. English 0503, fair signal.

5970 USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. Spanish to SAm, 0335, weak signal.

5985 USA. R. Japan - Okeechobee FL. Spanish to CAm, 0410, weak signal.

6000 CUBA. R. Habana - Quivican. English to ENAm 0505, fair signal.

6005 ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. English to WAf 0507, weak signal.

6015 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. French to SEu 0509, fair signal.

6030 USA. R. Martí - Greenville NC. Spanish to Cuba, 0332, fair signal.

6100 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to WNAm 0510, fair signal.

6105 FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. Japanese to CAm, 0330, good signal.

6125 FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic to WAf 0512, good signal

6145 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to WNAm 0325, weak signal. Tuned in again later when the signal was much stronger by 0514.

6155 AUSTRIA. R. Oesterreich International - Moosbrunn. German to Eu, 0516, good signal.

6165 TURKEY - VoT - Emirler, English to ME, 0320, weak signal

6180 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu, 0415, fair signal.

6195 USA. R. Japan - Cypress Creek. Spanish to SAm 0418, fair signal and // 5985 but weaker signal there.

⭐⭐ 7140 ERITREA. Voice of the Broad Masses - Asmara. Tigrinya talks to EAf at 0340, weak signal, and would have been impossible to hear at this time of year but for the power outage across the city.

⭐⭐ 7205 SUDAN. R. Omdurman - Al-Aitahab. Arabic to EAf 0350, fair to poor signal.

7235 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic to EAf 0353 until s/off 0400. Weak signal.

7260 VATICAN. VoA- SM Galeria. Somali to EAf with music programming at 0355, fair signal.

7315 FRANCE. R. Tamazuj - Issoudun. To Sudan in Sudanese Arabic, 0358 talks and occasional music, ID 0400, fair signal.

7325 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian s/on 0400, good signal.

7340 VATICAN. Eye Radio - SM Galeria. Arabic to EAf 0403, fair signal.

7375 ENGLAND. VoA - Woofferton. English to EAf 0406, weak signal.

7570 USA. WRMI Overcomer Ministry - Okeechobee FL. English to WNAm 0408, fair signal and // 7730 (good signal) and 7780 (weak signal).

9330 USA. WBCQ World's Last Chance - Monticello ME. Preaching at 0417, good signal.

9385 USA. WEWN - Vandiver AL. English 0418, weak signal.

9410 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic to EAf 0419, fair.

9420 GREECE. VoG - Avlis. Greek interview 0420, good signal.

9490 GERMANY. R. Japan - Nauen. Japanese to ME 0422, fair to good signal.

9525 FRANCE. Dengê Welat - Issoudun. Kurdish to ME 0425, weak signal.

9535 CUBA. R. Habana - Bejucal. Spanish to CAm 0427, fair signal.

9545 SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. Island songs and English anncts at 0429, fair signal.

9635 VIETNAM. VoV - Son Tay. Vietnamese network 1, 0435, fair signal.

9655 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. Swahili to EAf 0440, fair signal.

9770 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Turkish to CEu 0443, good signal.

9790 CUBA & FRANCE. At 0445, R. France Int'l - Issoudun in French to CAf and China R. Int'l - Quivicanin Cantonese to WNAm. These two stations at equal strength on this occasion.

9815 SÃO TOMÉ. VoA - Pinheira. Kinyarwanda language service to EAf at 0448, fair signal.

9825 USA. WHRI - Cypress Creek SC. English 0451, very weak signal.

9835 MALAYSIA. RT Malaysia - Kajang. Sarawak FM music programming 0453, weak signal.

9900 IRAN. VOIRI - Zahedan. The Al-Quds TV relay programming to ME at 0455, fair signal.

9915 MADAGASCAR. BBC - Talata Volonondry. English to EAf 0458, good signal.

So, although the low-noise listening opportunity was much appreciated, perhaps next time we could do it in a much less destructive way? It will be some days before power is restored to all areas and the cleanup is completed.

73 and hoping you have a quieter weekend in your neck of the woods!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW