DX QUICK TIPSFebruary 2, 2023
Propagation conditions have been variable over the past two weeks. Sometimes the reception of shortwave broadcast stations above 12 MHz was great while at other times it was rubbish! But, things will pick again. They always do!
I am in the process of writing another Retro Receiver Review, which hopefully will be finished in the next few weeks. This time it will focus on the Kenwood R-5000 receiver.
I don't often use this rig. So, as it was sitting on the desk there, I thought I'd better turn it on, see if it still worked, and get familiar with it again. Yay! It fired up without a problem. This DX Quick Tips post with the monitoring notes below was all heard on the R-5000, using the 100m horizontal loop, the 10 MHz delta loop, and the 14 MHz double bazooka.
5020 SOLOMON IS. SIBC - Honiara. 1050 English with pop music programming and community anncts. Time check an ID at 1100. Fair signal, Feb 1.
7254.94 NIGERIA. VoNigeria - Abuja. 0610. A fair to poor strength carrier and hardly any audio content was heard. This station has been missing on this freq for a month. But now someone is turning on the transmitter. I suppose that's a start! Jan 29.
11610 MADAGASCAR. MWV R. Feda - Mahajanga. 2250 Arabic to NAf until s/off 2259, ID and website address announced. Good signal, Jan 26.
11650 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. 2245 Hausa to WAf, poor signal and rubbish audio quality, Jan 26.
11665 MALAYSIA. RTVM - Kajang. Wai FM news at 2305 in Malay. Fair signal, Jan 26.
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Part of the Voice of Hope Africa antenna array.
11680 ZAMBIA. VoHope Africa - Makeni Ranch. F/in 0515 English to WAf. Usual American religious programming. Weak at first but improves by 0540, Jan 29.
11700 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. S/on 0500 French to CAf with news. A poor signal at first but improved after 0545. Jan 29.
11745 SAUDI ARABIA. Al-Azm R. - Jeddah. 0015 Arabic to Yemen. Lively music programming. Fair signal, Jan 27.
11760.41 MADAGASCAR. R. France Int'l - Talata Volonondry. S/on 0530 Swahili to EAf. Fair signal, but creating a bad het with the stronger Cuba on 11760 even. Cuba is not listed for operation on this freq at this time, so Cuba is the villain here! BUT....then at 0538 UTC, RFI jumped over to the correct 11760.00 kHz (perhaps an on-duty engineer correction?). The het disappeared, but RFI was now submerged under the strong Cuba signal. RFI's s/off 0600 exactly, but Cuba carried on its merry way with the off-schedule English service to past 0640 when I stopped monitoring. Jan 29.
11835 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. 0659 change to this harmonic from 7260. The fundamental is 3945 but no propagation to here at this time. The other harmonic 7890 kHz was weak but strengthened later in the evening after 0830. 11835 is the strongest here. Jan 29. Then again at 0945 with canned anncts, IDs and music. Also heard were 3945 and 7890, but again 11835 was the best signal here. Feb 1.
11905 SRI LANKA. SLBC - Trincomalee. S/on 0159 Hindi to SAs with a song, a break in the audio at 0200 for 10 seconds then back into the song. Music annct but no station ID heard, then into a new SAs song. Weak signal, Jan 17.
12070 PHILIPPINES. FEBC R. Liangyou 1 - Iba. 0025 to 0100 Mandarin to EAs, discussion program. Fair signal, Jan 27.
12140 KUWAIT. RFE/RL - Umm al-Rimam. 0545 Pashto talks to AFG. // 12140 also heard (and also via Kuwait) but a bit weaker there despite registered as the same beam heading (70˚) and same power (250 kW). Jan 30.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. By chance, I stumbled across this broadcast with the AIR interval signal at 0430, then live commentary of the 74th Republic Day Parade in Hindi and English. 0438 - the Last Post was played. Long pauses in the commentary while waiting for each stage of the ceremony. Good signal and still going when rechecked at 0610 although fading was deeper and more pronounced by then. Also checked 9950 and 11560 kHz but no propagation from those freqs at 0430. Jan 26.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0530 Arabic to ME. Seemed to be Qur'an programming. Evidence of audio distortion at times. Fair signal, Jan 30.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0940 Nepali to SAs, music selections. Fair signal, Feb 1.
15170 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Radio Int'l - Riyadh. 0425 Arabic to CAs with talks, perhaps preaching (no Qur'an chanting heard). Fair signal, Jan 26.
15210 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0245 Nepali to SAs, songs and commentary, fair to poor signal, Jan 17.
15285 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Radio Int'l - Riyadh. 0405 Swahili to EAf with commentary. Fair signal, Jan 26.
15409.88 SRI LANKA. AWR - Trincomalee. 0317 to s/off 0328 Oromo to EAf. Religious songs by native singers. Fair signal and a fair way off freq on Jan 26.
15515 TAJIKISTAN. AWR - Dushanbe. 0235 English to SAs (Bangladesh). American proselytizing, weak signal, Jan 17.
15550 CHINA. CNR 7 Greater Bay Radio - Beijing (Matoucun). 0340 Cantonese to southern China. HFCC always lists this as from the Huhhot txer site. But there is a difference of around 400 km between these two sites! I suspect the site is really Beijing. Fair signal, Jan 26.
15770 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. 0400 English ID then into Russian with R. Liberty programming. Fair signal, Jan 26.
17600 ALGERIA. R. Algerienne - Bechar. 1035 Arabic to CAf. Muis then telephone interview. Fair to poor signal, Feb 1.
17630 THAILAND. R. Thailand - Ban Dung. 1010 Thai, allegedly to WNAm where the local time is 2:10 am! Probably not many listeners around at that time! The HFCC registered beam heading is 300 degrees which is strangely aiming at Brazil and not WNAm! This was then confirmed by checking a few Kiwi SDRs along the western half of NAm. No signal was heard from any of them. But the signal boomed into the Brazilian PT2FHC remote SDR, where the time in Brasilia was 7:10 am. So perhaps the service is really meant for Sth America? Clearly, the VoA / Radio Thailand engineers would know what they are doing, so what's the agenda here? Perhaps just a simple case of registration error? Anyway, it was also a solid signal into good ol' Mount Evelyn, Australia, too, right up to sign off at 1030 UTC. Feb 1.
17790 TAIWAN. R. NUG - Paochung. 0223 to s/off 0230 Burmese to Myanmar. Mainly talk programming and full ID at 0228, fair to poor signal, Jan 17.
17820 PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. 0220 English to ME. Distorted audio was observed on some programming, but clarity improved by 0230. Fair signal and // 15640 also heard but weaker there, Jan 17.
21580 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. 0950 French to WAf, discussion program. The signal came up out of the mud at 0955 and s/off 1000. Feb 1.
21670 SAUDI ARABIA. R. Saudi Int'l - Riyadh. 1003 Indonesian news to SEAs, good signal, Feb 1.
73 and good DX to you all.
Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Propagation conditions have been variable over the past two weeks. Sometimes the reception of shortwave broadcast stations above 12 MHz was great while at other times it was rubbish! But, things will pick again. They always do!
I am in the process of writing another Retro Receiver Review, which hopefully will be finished in the next few weeks. This time it will focus on the Kenwood R-5000 receiver.
I don't often use this rig. So, as it was sitting on the desk there, I thought I'd better turn it on, see if it still worked, and get familiar with it again. Yay! It fired up without a problem. This DX Quick Tips post with the monitoring notes below was all heard on the R-5000, using the 100m horizontal loop, the 10 MHz delta loop, and the 14 MHz double bazooka.
5020 SOLOMON IS. SIBC - Honiara. 1050 English with pop music programming and community anncts. Time check an ID at 1100. Fair signal, Feb 1.
7254.94 NIGERIA. VoNigeria - Abuja. 0610. A fair to poor strength carrier and hardly any audio content was heard. This station has been missing on this freq for a month. But now someone is turning on the transmitter. I suppose that's a start! Jan 29.
11610 MADAGASCAR. MWV R. Feda - Mahajanga. 2250 Arabic to NAf until s/off 2259, ID and website address announced. Good signal, Jan 26.
11650 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. 2245 Hausa to WAf, poor signal and rubbish audio quality, Jan 26.
11665 MALAYSIA. RTVM - Kajang. Wai FM news at 2305 in Malay. Fair signal, Jan 26.
.jpg) |
| Part of the Voice of Hope Africa antenna array. |
11680 ZAMBIA. VoHope Africa - Makeni Ranch. F/in 0515 English to WAf. Usual American religious programming. Weak at first but improves by 0540, Jan 29.
11700 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. S/on 0500 French to CAf with news. A poor signal at first but improved after 0545. Jan 29.
11745 SAUDI ARABIA. Al-Azm R. - Jeddah. 0015 Arabic to Yemen. Lively music programming. Fair signal, Jan 27.
11835 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. 0659 change to this harmonic from 7260. The fundamental is 3945 but no propagation to here at this time. The other harmonic 7890 kHz was weak but strengthened later in the evening after 0830. 11835 is the strongest here. Jan 29. Then again at 0945 with canned anncts, IDs and music. Also heard were 3945 and 7890, but again 11835 was the best signal here. Feb 1.
11905 SRI LANKA. SLBC - Trincomalee. S/on 0159 Hindi to SAs with a song, a break in the audio at 0200 for 10 seconds then back into the song. Music annct but no station ID heard, then into a new SAs song. Weak signal, Jan 17.
12070 PHILIPPINES. FEBC R. Liangyou 1 - Iba. 0025 to 0100 Mandarin to EAs, discussion program. Fair signal, Jan 27.
12140 KUWAIT. RFE/RL - Umm al-Rimam. 0545 Pashto talks to AFG. // 12140 also heard (and also via Kuwait) but a bit weaker there despite registered as the same beam heading (70˚) and same power (250 kW). Jan 30.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. By chance, I stumbled across this broadcast with the AIR interval signal at 0430, then live commentary of the 74th Republic Day Parade in Hindi and English. 0438 - the Last Post was played. Long pauses in the commentary while waiting for each stage of the ceremony. Good signal and still going when rechecked at 0610 although fading was deeper and more pronounced by then. Also checked 9950 and 11560 kHz but no propagation from those freqs at 0430. Jan 26.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0530 Arabic to ME. Seemed to be Qur'an programming. Evidence of audio distortion at times. Fair signal, Jan 30.
15030 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0940 Nepali to SAs, music selections. Fair signal, Feb 1.
15170 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Radio Int'l - Riyadh. 0425 Arabic to CAs with talks, perhaps preaching (no Qur'an chanting heard). Fair signal, Jan 26.
15210 INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. 0245 Nepali to SAs, songs and commentary, fair to poor signal, Jan 17.
15285 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Radio Int'l - Riyadh. 0405 Swahili to EAf with commentary. Fair signal, Jan 26.
15409.88 SRI LANKA. AWR - Trincomalee. 0317 to s/off 0328 Oromo to EAf. Religious songs by native singers. Fair signal and a fair way off freq on Jan 26.
15515 TAJIKISTAN. AWR - Dushanbe. 0235 English to SAs (Bangladesh). American proselytizing, weak signal, Jan 17.
15550 CHINA. CNR 7 Greater Bay Radio - Beijing (Matoucun). 0340 Cantonese to southern China. HFCC always lists this as from the Huhhot txer site. But there is a difference of around 400 km between these two sites! I suspect the site is really Beijing. Fair signal, Jan 26.
15770 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. 0400 English ID then into Russian with R. Liberty programming. Fair signal, Jan 26.
17600 ALGERIA. R. Algerienne - Bechar. 1035 Arabic to CAf. Muis then telephone interview. Fair to poor signal, Feb 1.
17790 TAIWAN. R. NUG - Paochung. 0223 to s/off 0230 Burmese to Myanmar. Mainly talk programming and full ID at 0228, fair to poor signal, Jan 17.
17820 PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. 0220 English to ME. Distorted audio was observed on some programming, but clarity improved by 0230. Fair signal and // 15640 also heard but weaker there, Jan 17.
21580 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. 0950 French to WAf, discussion program. The signal came up out of the mud at 0955 and s/off 1000. Feb 1.
21670 SAUDI ARABIA. R. Saudi Int'l - Riyadh. 1003 Indonesian news to SEAs, good signal, Feb 1.
73 and good DX to you all.
Rob Wagner VK3BVW
CLICK HERE for VK3BVW Live Stream (Clublog)
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© Rob Wagner, Mount Evelyn DX Report, and contributors 2012-2023
Interesting about the Thais. What else would be in that path? Even slightly off-beam but within half- power points? Hmmmmm
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