Amateur Radio Keeping People In Contact Since 1901

Shortly after Facebook came back online, this image appeared.....on Facebook! 😂

STATION NEWS & DX QUICK TIPS
October 9, 2021

Adventist World Radio: 50 Years Anniversary

Congratulations to AWR on reaching its 50th year of operations on shortwave. Quite an achievement, especially considering this broadcaster is going just as strong today as it ever was during its lifetime. In October 1971, AWR began leasing shortwave airtime from the Sines relay station in Portugal with broadcasts to Europe and the USSR in 10 languages for 12 hours/week. Today, this major shortwave broadcaster is transmitting from relay transmitter sites in Sri Lanka, Zambia, Madagascar, Austria, Germany, Guam, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Romania, France, Taiwan, Tajikistan, and the USA. That is an impressive list of locations across the globe, encompassing a huge number of languages beamed for Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries and ethnic communities. That's hundreds of hours of programming every week!

You can visit the AWR website and see a lovely timeline history of AWR, complete with photos taken at various milestones. Click on the photos for a larger and more detailed view. Find it at https://awr.org/about/history/

My first AWR QSL for reception in December 1971, two months after the station began transmissions from the Sines relay station in Portugal.

As you can see, it is in pretty bad shape - nibbled at the sides

by some critter and with old mildew marks on it. 😕

Here's a rare AWR QSL for a transmission via the long-gone transmitter site

in the tiny Principality of Andorra!

Some other later AWR QSL designs

DX QUICK TIPS

Reception conditions have been mixed this past week. At the beginning of October, signals across much of the shortwave spectrum were good. Then there seemed to be a dip in conditions around October 4 to 8, coinciding with somewhat lower solar flux numbers. However, as I write this on October 9, the solar flux has bumped up to over 90, resulting in better reception on frequencies above 13 MHz.

LOCATION: Mount Evelyn, VIC, Australia

EQUIPMENT: Yaesu FTDX3000, Kenwood TS2000, Kenwood R5000

ANTENNAS: 100m long horizontal sky loop, 30m vertical delta loop, 20m inverted vee

⭐⭐ 2349.4 D.P.R.KOREA. KCBS - Sariwon. F/in around 1210 with a very weak signal. Male and female announcers alternating with commentaries. Martial choral music at 1217. This is a reactivated frequency (thanks to alert via Wolfgang Bueschel) The signal never really improved over the next hour, but it is // 3250 (via Pyongyang) where it was stronger. Oct 3.

4749.95 INDONESIA. VoIndonesia - Cimanggis. At 2000 in French with news. Heard a weak signal on this occasion, after Bangladesh signed off. Slight interference from the low-powered co-channel CNR- Hailar outlet. Oct 8.

⭐⭐ 4750 BANGLADESH. Bangladesh Betar - Shavar. At 1945 in Bangla to SAs with commentaries, many mentions of Bangladesh. ID at 1955 and s/off 1958. Strong signal and great to hear the audio was so clean and pure after many months of distorted transmissions. Easily overpowered the co-channel VoIndonesia on Oct 8.

⭐ 4765 TAJIKISTAN. R. Tajikistan - Yangi Yul. At 1940 to CAs, with Tajak talks interspersed with weird, spooky regional music selections, weak signal until s/off sometime after 2005 on Oct 8.

4790 USA. WBCQ Overcomer Min - Monticello, ME. American proselytizing at 1020. Often difficult for us in Australia to hear in on this freq, weak signal on Oct 6.

⭐ 4900 CHINA. Voice of the Strait - Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Interval signal at 0955, followed by fistfuls of harp chords, and introduction music. ID in Amoy at 0958, more music, time pips at 1000. Then into Amoy news with occasional mentions of Taiwan. Good signal. This s/on format is also used on the 4940 outlet at exactly the same time for the Mandarin service, but the programming is different. Some lists have this station starting at 0930 or 0940, but all I hear are big fat carriers of dead air at those times. Oct 6.

4930 BOTSWANA. VoA - Moepeng Hill. At 1935 in English to SAf with a discussion of US politics, fair signal, Oct 8.

4960 SAÕ TOMÉ. VoA - Pinheira. At 2028 with Yankee Doodle, English ID 2029, Hausa ID and news at 2030, weak signal on Oct 8.

4965 ZAMBIA. Voice of Hope Africa - Makeni Ranch. At 2015 with American proselytizing and gospel songs, fair signal, Oct 8.

4980 USA. WRMI Overcomer Ministery - Okeechobee FL. American proselytising at 0950, a fair signal on a noisy night of thunderstorms, Oct 6.

⭐ 5035 AUSTRALIA. Unique R. - Narrabri, NSW. At 0900 with antique third-rate pop music and occasional IDs. Fair signal. Runs broadcasts on a weekend basis. Transmits in USB mode which strips out the bass and lower mids audio so you can't hear any electric bass or bass drum. The resulting sound is really tinny, hardly conducive to a station that is predominately music programming. If you want to enjoy the music, you had better to click on the stream from their website (https://www.uniqueradio.biz). Oct 8.

⭐ 5040 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. At 0940 with discussion program in Bislama, good signal and appears to have returned to this frequency with some regularity.....until the next mishap! Oct 6.

⭐ 5045 AUSTRALIA. Bay Island FM 880 - Bay Islands, QLD. From 0900 with rock music programming and occasional excited DJ IDs. Fair signal. Transmits in AM mode, so even though you're listening to lo-fi shortwave and putting up with the usual 60m tropical band atmospherics, you can still hear the bass and lower mids, unlike 5035 kHz. Oct 8.

⭐ 5055 AUSTRALIA. 4KZ - Innisfail, QLD. At 0940, the strongest of the three 60mb Aussies with a fair to good signal and always the first to fade in. Relays 4KZ AM with The History of Rock 'n Roll Show, strings of local adverts for Innisfail and Tully. News on the hour. S/off was 1010 on Oct 8.

Here is a video of the four stations above recorded on October 8 after 1000 UTC

⭐ 6090 ETHIOPIA. Amhara State R. - Geja Dera. At 2036 with an interview program in Amharic, co-channel QRM from KBS World R via Woofferton also with an interview program in Arabic. In the end, it was just a jumble of voices inhabiting the frequency! Oct 8.

⭐ 6110 ETHIOPIA. R. Fana - Addis Ababa. At 2043 in Amharic with groovy Afro music and telephone talkback, fair to good signal, Oct 8.

7220 VIETNAM. VoVietnam - Son Tay. At 2050 in English to NAf with program on traditional Vietnamese dress. Weak signal until s/off 2059, Oct 8.

7590 UZBEKISTAN. North Korea Reform R. - Tashkent. At 2045 in Korean with commentaries, ID and web address at 2057 with Fauré's Sicilienne playing the background (very nice!), s/off 2100, Oct 6.

⭐ 9670 TAIWAN. R. Dáp Lòi Sông Núi - Pao-Chung. S/on 1230 in Vietnamese with clear IDs and music. Commentaries followed. Very good signal until s/off 1300, but some slight splash from the R. Taiwan Int'l/CNR jammer mess 10 kHz further up the band! Radio DLSN is an opposition broadcaster produced by the Foundation for Democracy in Vietnam. Oct 3.

11900 AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond - Kununurra WA. Oct 3 at 1155 with IDs and music, then the English service at 1200 beamed to South India. Religious programming until s/off 1230. This is a Sunday only service at this time. Other English services on this frequency are at 1315, 1345 or 1445, depending on the day. See the website for daily schedule times: https://www.reachbeyond.org.au/on-air/#broadcast-schedule

11905 AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond - Kununurra WA. at s/on 1130 with the daily 10-min service to Myanmar and Bangladesh in Rohingya. A mix of talk and music, excellent signal. ID in English at 1140 then into Burmese until s/off 1155 after another English ID and a Kookaburra call!. Oct 3.

15580 PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Bocaue. At 1050 on Oct 6 with boppy instrumental music in the Sasak language. ID, freq annct and postal details at 1056 with lovely gamelan music playing in the background. S/off at exactly 1100. One of 700 languages spoken in Indonesia, Sasak is spoken by the more than two million indigenous Sasak people of Lombok Island. The language is closely related to Balinese, with the neighbouring island of Bali only a short distance from Lombok. The majority of Sasak people are Muslim, while over in Bali the main religion is a form of Hinduism. There are five Sasak dialects but speakers of one dialect may not necessarily be able to easily understand speakers of another dialect.

15629.88 UZBEKISTAN. R. Iran International - Tashkent. Farsi to Iran at 1015, outside live broadcast report, weak signal, Oct 3.

17540 GUAM. KSDA - Agat. At 1045 with talks in Filipino to SEAs, poor signal but may improve over the coming summer months here in SE Australia, Oct 6.

17660 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. French to CAf at 1035 with COVID programming, poor signal, Oct 6.

21505 NTH MARIANA IS. R. Free Asia - Tinian. S/on 1000 to 1100 in Tibetan to EAs, Sundays only, weak signal, Oct 3.

⭐ 21530 PHILIPPINES?? VoA. I am assuming this is probably the Tinang relay with Mandarin to EAs at 0940, fair to poor signal. Not listed but runs // 21695 where it was much stronger. No jamming was noted here on either frequency. Oct 3 and 6.

21670 SAUDI ARABIA. R. Saudi Int'l - Riyadh. Indonesian to SEAs 0930, weak signal, Oct 3.

So that's it for now. 73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW