Radio Kuwait QSL circa 1975

DX QUICK TIPS
March 14, 2021

The Autumnal (Fall) Equinox for the Southern Hemisphere will take place on March 20. 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 March equinox is called the Vernal (Spring) 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 towards certain areas of the world. Listen out to see if reception conditions change for some of your favourite shortwave broadcasters during the coming Equinox on and around March 20!

In addition, the last weekend in March will see the changeover to the new A21 transmission season. Expect numerous frequency changes from most of the international broadcasters, as they make adjustments for their transmissions to different parts of the world.

This week's DX quick tips include a range of observations from across the shortwave spectrum.

RIGS: Yaesu FTDX3000, Kenwood TS2000 and Kenwood R5000

ANTENNAS: 100m horizontal loop, 30m vertical delta loop, and an inverted vee for 14 MHz

All times in UTC, all frequencies in kHz

// = The same broadcast simultaneously on another frequency i.e. in parallel.

3480 KOREA REP. Voice of the People - Kyonggi-do. Korean commentaries at 1100, clear signal at fair level and no jamming, Mar 12.

👍 3900 INNER MONGOLIA. PBS Hulunbuir - Hailar. One of the few low-powered Chinese outlets at 10kW. Mandarin talks, strong propaganda tone to the program, at 1130, fair to weak signal, Mar 6.

👍 3945 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. Back on air after four days of absence. Island news at 1003, // the illegal 7890 harmonic but no propagation on 11835 harmonic. Fair signal, Mar 12.

3959 D.P.R.KOREA. KCBS - Kanggye. Strident and over-dramatised talks between orchestral items at 1035. Weak signal, Mar 12.

5025 CUBA. R. Rebelde - Bauta. Music programming at f/in 0550, stronger than 5040. Mar 13.

5040 CUBA. R. Habana - Bauta. English to CAm at f/in 0610, audio a little muffled, Mar 13.

NEW 5045 AUSTRALIA. Bay Islands Radio - MacLeay Island, QLD. New station located just off North Stradbroke Island, about 40km ESE of the Brisbane CBD. Running approx 180-200w into a low-profile inverted vee antenna only 6m (20 ft) above ground. Playing old rock hits at 1130 UTC, no anncts heard and a weak signal into Mt Evelyn. Mar 14.

7200 TAIWAN. National Unity R. - Tanshui. Discussion in Korean to Korea at 1140, fair signal, Mar 3.

7235 SÃO TOMÉ. Deutsche Welle - Pinheira. Hausa to WAf at 0645, weak signal until 0700 s/off, Mar 9.

7245 FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Noted at 0615 in in Arabic to WAf, good signal by 0645, s/off 0659. Mar 9.

7265 ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. French to NWAf at 0620 until 0629 s/off, weak signal, Mar 9.

7285 VIETNAM. VoV - Son Tay. Lao service to SEAs at 1147 with Western sounding music programming and Lao anncts to s/off 1157. S/on in French at 1200. Fair signal with somewhat distorted audio plus splatter 7290 kHz from CNR 1, Mar 3.

7580 D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. Japanese service at 1210 with Korean opera, fair signal, Mar 3.

👍 9420 GREECE. VoG - Avlis. Uh-oh!! The first signs of the winter afternoon DX season (and it’s only early March!). The tell-tale sign of VoG at f/in 0355 and weak to begin, but improved to a good strength by 0500. The usual music programming and Greek anncts from 0400. Mar 9.

9535 CUBA. R. Habana - Bejucal. Non-stop guitar selections at 0432 in the service to CAm, ID at 0445. Into Latin jazz selections, weak signal but good listening!, Mar 13.

9545 SOLOMON ISLANDS. SIBC - Honiara. Studio discussion at 0417, fair carrier strength but the audio was well down, Mar 9.

9630 AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Hausa to CAf at 0520 to s/off 0530, weak signal, Mar 9.

9700 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Turkish to CEu at 0502, strong signal except for a sudden break in txion at 0504, no carrier for a full 5 min before returning with a strong signal, Mar 13.

11665 MALAYSIA. RTVMalaysia - Kajang. Wai FM relay with music and occasional chat in Malay at 0145, Wai FM ID at 0200 and into commentaries. Weak signal and possibly overmodulated (?), Mar 13.

11780 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. Hebrew to ME at 0425, a weak signal at first but improved by the 0451 s/off, Mar 9.

11825 MADAGASCAR. World Christian Broadc - Mahajanga. English to NWAf at 0435 to s/off 0458. Fair to poor signal, Mar 9.

13840 MADAGASCAR. R. Japan - Talata Volonondry. French to CAf at 0545 to s/off 0558, fair signal, Mar 9.

13860.02 MADAGASCAR. BBC - Talata Volonondry. English WS to EAf at 0603, good signal, Mar 9.

15285 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi R. Int’l - Riyadh. Swahili to EAf at 0520, long commentary, fair signal, Mar 13.

15490 ARMENIA. BBC - Gavar. Kinyarwanda to EAf at 0530 with interview program. Weekends only service, weak signal, Mar 13.

👍 15530 KUWAIT. R. Kuwait - Sulaibiyah. Continuous pop music programming at 0540 with English ID and freq annct at 0442. Mentioned their MW/FM outlets and 11970 DRM but not this 15530 AM channel. Later, a PSA annct on checking your gas cylinders in case of fire! English news at 0600. Fair signal, Mar 13.

17640 THAILAND. HSK9 - R. Thailand - Ban Dung. English to Eu at 0550 to s/off 0600, good signal, Mar 13.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW