DX QUICK TIPS

June 25, 2021

June has been a somewhat disrupted month here at Mount Evelyn. The storms and gale-force winds that caused so much havoc on June 9 and 10 took me away from radio monitoring in order to clean up the mess (see my June 15 post for report and photos). As I write this on June 25, we have had four trees cut up and the stumps ground out. The fences will be down for quite a while, the driveway will require repair, and debris still needs to be carted away. The insurance company and allied services have been quite slow in dealing with our claim. However, this is understandable considering that hundreds of homes were destroyed or severely damaged, and many roads across Mount Dandenong remain closed. Some homes will be on generators for weeks to come.

⭐⭐ 2325   AUSTRALIA. STATION TEST - Wee Waa, NSW. Station seems to have no name! Relays programming from "Station X", which is an AM narrowband and FM operation in Wee Waa, northeastern New South Wales (https://xrn.com.au). Noted on June 20 with lots of dated (antique?) pop/rock selections at 1003. Heard what sounded like an advert around 1015, but no ID. The signal was pretty weak into Mount Evelyn and the static was high. Noted past 1045 but by then I'd lost interest and tuned out. Also noted it on the VK5ARG Kiwi SDR where the signal was stronger. The licence is owned by Peter Tate, who has been granted a bunch of other broadcasting licences in NSW and QLD. Tate describes the antenna as "three inverted L's sharing a common centre" and currently only putting out 80w. Interestingly, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) website lists this licence as expired on June 2, 2021 and is authorised to transmit up to 1kW. Tate also owns other HF licences including 2310 and 2350 (at Alice Springs, NT), 3230, 4835 (at Razorback Range, NSW), 4910 (at New Lambton Heights, Newcastle, NSW) and 5025 kHz (also at Wee Waa, NSW), but as far as I can tell, none of these is currently on air. 

4750   INDONESIA. VoIndonesia - Cimanggis. Music selections in the English service at 2150, ID 2159, into Japanese at 2200, fair signal, Jun 19.

5045   AUSTRALIA. Island FM 88 - Macleay Is, QLD. At 2135 (7:35am here) with a selection of ancient pops and no anncts. Fair signal and faded by 2230. Does quite well for only 200 watts! Jun 19.

⭐⭐ 5915   ZAMBIA. ZNBC - Lusaka. Radio 1 network with Afro music programming, pleasant selection of songs at 2205, anncts in local language, fair signal, Jun 18.

5940   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Chaîne 1 Arabic service to CAf (160 deg) at 2145 with commentary, 2154 canned anncts, 2155 songs, good signal. // 5930 to WAf (194 deg) but slightly weaker there. 5940 kHz off at 2200 but 5930 continues with Qur’an at 2200. Jun 18.

⭐⭐ 5995   MALI. R. TV du Mali - Bamako. News in French at 2120. ID at 2129, then into a local language (possibly Bambara) at 2130 with commentaries. Fair signal but with some degradation due to the return of co-channel Echo of Hope jamming. Jun 18.

⭐⭐ 6035   U.A.E. BBC Midwinter Broadcast - Dhabayya. 2130-2200, fair to poor signal. 7305 kHz via Woofferton proved to be the better option here with a fair signal. 6170 via Ascension had a very weak carrier but the signal was unusable. 9505 via Woofferton could be heard with a poor signal using USB to avoid a booming CNR 1 on 9500. Overall, the reception of this annual Midwinter service was rather disappointing here. It would be fascinating to know which were the best frequencies heard at the BAS stations in Antarctica. June 21.

6060   IRAN. VoIRI - Zahedan. Lo-fi audio signal bordering on distortion with Arabic telephone talkback and occasional songs at 2215. Fair to poor signal, Jun18.

7250   AUSTRIA. BBC - Moosbrunn. Dari to SAs 0035 to s/off 0100, weak signal, Jun 11.

7300   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Esperanto to SAm s/on 2200 fair signal and // 9880 also heard. One of just two stations offering an Esperanto service, the other being R. Habana Cuba. June 21.

7385   CHINA. Cross Strait Radio CNR 5 - Beijing. Chinese instrumental selections at 2210 with Mandarin anncts, fair signal. // 9665 where it was stronger but with some co-channel QRM from KCBS-Pyongyang. Jun 19.

9575   ARMENIA. BBC - Gavar. Discussion program in English WS 0040 to SAs, NF (ex 5890), s/off 0059, Jun 11 and subsequent days.

⭐⭐ 9670    GERMANY. Channel 292 - Rohrbach. First noted on June 8 at 0500 with continuous old rock and pops. Occasional IDs as Channel 292 with requests to visit the website. Fair signal and faded by 0610. Surprised to hear it here on this winter’s afternoon at Mt Evelyn. This is long path reception at this time, with the signal crossing WEu, over the Atlantic, the top of SAm and on into the Sth Pacific via the South Island of NZ. Is this really 10 kW? Subsequently noted again on June 9 and 10, fading in as early as 0330!

⭐⭐ 9830   SÃ0 TOMÉ. DW - Pinheira. Hausa to WAf at 0645 to s/off 0659. Fair signal. // 11850 also heard but weaker there, and no propagation between Pinheira and Mt. Evelyn for the other //15215.  One of the few remaining opportunities to hear DW on shortwave. Jun13.

9930   UZBEKISTAN. R. Iran Int’l - Tashkent. Satellite TV feed of what sounded like a news magazine program at 2225, fair signal, Jun 18.

11750   GUAM. AWR - Agat. Mandarin to EAs at 2130, good signal, Jun 19.

11865   D.P.R.KOREA. VoKorea - Kujang. Korean orchestral music in the Japanese service to EAs at 2140, excellent signal, Jun 19.

12050   ASCENSION IS. R. Ndarason Int’l - Ascension. Kanuri language to Chad at 0750 with speeches. Weak signal and noted to s/off 0759. Jun 13.

17780   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. The Sunday-only Curierul Romanesc (Romanian Courier) program to SAs at 0725 to s/off 0757. Fair signal with co-channel QRM from CNR jamming of Sound of Hope. // 15200 also heard but a weak signal there. Jun 13.

17850   FRANCE. R. France Int’l - Issoudun. French to CAf at 0720, weak signal with discussion program, Jun 13.

OK, that's it for now. Have a great weekend everyone,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

Follow @robvk3bvw

CLICK HERE for VK3BVW Live Stream (Clublog)

QRZ callsign lookup:

© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2021