My radio desk from a few years back!

DX QUICK TIPS
September 11, 2021

Over the past week, the smoothed sunspot numbers (SSN) have made quite an uptick. For some day now, the solar flux has been hovering around 100. Consequently, reception conditions on the shortwave broadcast band frequencies above 12 MHz have improved considerably.

To confirm this, I have been running one of my flea-powered 200mW WSPR beacon transmitters for a few days, up on 21 MHz during my daylight hours. The signal has been monitored multiple times into Canada (16496 km), central USA (13589 km), west coast USA (12606 km) and Hawaii (8908 km)! A bit of solar activity certainly revives the upper shortwave spectrum!

12-hour WSPR beacon today Sept 11, 2021

LOCATION: Mount Evelyn, Victoria (south-eastern Australia)

EQUIPMENT: Yaesu FTDX3000, Kenwood TS2000, Kenwood R5000

ANTENNAS: 100m long horizontal skyloop, 10 MHz full-wave vertical delta loop, 14 MHz double bazooka

3959 D.P.R.KOREA. KCBS - Kanggye. At 1350 with a theatre piece or play. A weak signal but doing quite well for its listed 5 kW into an ND antenna. Sep 10.

4760 INDIA. AIR - Leh. Noted at 1330 with a weak signal, softly spoken interview program in the presumed Ladaki language. Rarely heard these days here in SE Australia, Sep 10.

4990 CHINA. PBS Hunan - Xiangtan. Animated discussion program at 1340 in Mandarin. Canned anncts at 1345, then Chinese instrumental music. A weak signal and one of the few remaining low-powered Chinese outlets with 10 kW into a non-directional antenna. Sep 10.

5040 INDIA. AIR - Jeypore. At 1323 with commentary in the presumed Odiya language (not Hindi). Fair signal, Sep 10.

5995 MALI. RTV du Mali - Kati. At 0710 with a fair signal in the Bambara language with its characteristic French-sounding accent and occasional use of French vocab. Programming consisted mainly of reports or long commentaries, interspersed with occasional Malian instrumental music on string instruments and drums. RTV du Mali ID at 0759, closed at 0800 exactly. Sep 10.

6070 CANADA. CFRX - Toronto. At 0810, an interview with the father of Canadian tennis star, Laylah Fernandez. Weak signal (as usual), but always great to hear this low-powered station here in SE Australia. Sep 10.

6185 MEXICO. XEPPM R. Educación - Mexico City. At 0715 with the usual classy mix of idiosyncratic musical selections, including "Carinhoso" from Yo-Yo Ma's "Obrigado Brazil" album. Nice R. Educación ID at 0732 before the lovely jazz number "Deixar Você" by Cesar Camargo Mariano. Noisy atmospherics on this day and not a strong signal, but nevertheless, great listening value! Sep 3.

7590 UZBEKISTAN. Nth Korea Reform R. - Tashkent. At 1408 in Korean with discussion program. Fair signal with digital QRM, monitored to s/off 1459, Sep 4.

7599.87 UZBEKISTAN. Afghanistan International - Tashkent. Pashto news and frequent mentions of Taliban at 1414, fair signal with digital QRM until s/off 1430. On 7600 kHz, a second carrier of Afghanistan International came on at 1426 with dead air until 1428 when a competing program started. After 7599.87 has s/off, 7600 takes over. Is this another transmitter site? Sep 4.

9595 PHILIPPINES. Vatican R. - Tinang. On Sep 4, a one-off test transmission with the Hindi service at 1430. It ran // 5920 and 7320 but 9595 proved to be the best freq here with a fair signal. Monitored to s/off 1529. Thanks to Victor Goonetilleke for advanced notice of this test. UPDATE: Victor advises that 9595 kHz will replace 5920 kHz from Sept 13 for this service to India. - Rob

9670 TAIWAN. R. Dáp Lòi Sông Núi (DLSN) - Pao Chung. 1230-1300 to SEAs with Vietnamese commentaries. Fair signal accompanied by siren jamming, Sep 10.

9840 VIETNAM. VoVietnam - Son Tay. English 1230-1300 to Indonesia, excellent signal, Sep 10.

9864 TAJIKISTAN. Voice of Tibet - Dushanbe. Tibetan talks 1300-1306 to NEAs, switches to 9876 at 1306-1312, then ends up on 9891 from 1312 to s/off 1329, very good signal on all three freqs, Sep 10.

9900 UZBEKISTAN. CDNK (Committee for the Democratization of North Korea) - Tashkent. S/on 1400 with music box sounds and opening annct in Korean, repeated mentions of "CDNK". Short commentary, then a ballad at 1405. Fair signal util s/off 1430, Sep 4.

11530 PRIDNESTROVIE. Dengê Welat - Grigoriopol. At 1315 to WAs with Kurdish music selections, good signal, Sep 10.

11945 SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. English WS at 1230. Additional frequency to SAs, excellent signal and // 12065, Sep 10. (Thanks to Victor for the txer site update - Rob)

12000 TAIWAN. R. NUG (National Unity Government) - Pao Chung. S/on 1330 with Burmese opposition commentaries. Good signal until sudden s/off at 1358, Sep 4.

17710 R. NUG (National Unity Government) - Location Unconfirmed. Beamed to Myanmar at 0140 with commentaries in Burmese. Clear Radio NUG ID at 0158 and s/off 0159. Good signal with some buzzy noise jamming in the background. The station carrier off at 0200 but the jamming continued until 0205. Sep 3. Some say this is via Pao Chung (Taiwan), others are reporting via Tinang (Philippines) or via Talata (Madagascar) but I'm not sure. I used a variety of KiwiSDRs to try and locate this but the results were inconclusive.

ALL INDIA RADIO - LEH

Following on from the 4760 kHz log above, this station is celebrating its 50th anniversary. There is an informative and well-written article by Alokesh Gupta VU3BSE on the history and technical details surrounding the station in the September issue of the Asian DX Review. Well worth a read! You can download this free PDF newsletter at https://idxci.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ADXR-Volume-39-No-563-September-2021.pdf

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW