PROPAGATION, STATION NEWS
AND DX TIPS
December 30, 2023

PROPAGATION REFLECTIONS

(hmm...there may be a pun in that title! 😏 )

Reception conditions have been impressive on frequencies above 15 MHz in the past week. Broadcasters in the 19, 16, 13, and 11-meter bands have made use of these good conditions to send their signals globally with comparative ease.

As the solar cycle nears its maximum over the next 12 to 18 months, these conditions will likely continue, so it will pay to check out these bands regularly. Even listeners with cheap, average-quality portable receivers using just their inbuilt whip antennas will find success on those bands. But there are two things to remember:

As the Sun's surface is more volatile during cycle maximums, even reliable circuit paths suffer from solar disturbances and blackouts. So, daily variations in signal strength can be expected.
Seasonal variations significantly affect reception in the 16, 13 and 11 mb. These bands yield their best results when signals can travel across mostly daylight paths from transmitter to receiver. Long-distance propagation will be most successful under these conditions. In winter, longer periods of darkness significantly affect the behaviour of the ionosphere. The maximum useable frequencies (MUF) and optimum working frequencies (OWF) drop dramatically as evening falls at the listening location and don't recover until well after dawn. But, during summer, MUFs and OWFs reach up into the higher frequencies again. We find fade-in/out times lengthening, allowing listening opportunities until quite late into the evenings, as I currently see here during my summer evenings in southeastern Australia.

RADIO THAILAND

Through its Facebook page, Radio Thailand has advised of a few changes to its broadcasting schedule, effective from January 1, beginning at 0000 UTC. If you missed these, here is the complete schedule in time order:

0000-0030 UTC in English on 13750 kHz

0200-0230 in English on 13750

0500-0530 in English on 17640

1200-1230 in English on 9385

1230-1245 in Mandarin on 9940

1245-1300 in Malay on 9940

1300-1315 in Japanese on 9940

1315-1330 in English on 9940

1800-1830 in English on 7475

1830-1930 in English on 7475

DX QUICK TIPS

Continuing on from the propagation reflections above, you will see that there are plenty of stations in the higher frequencies. For northern hemisphere DXers, as mentioned above, much of the activity will be confined to daylight hours and possibly early evening. But, your turn will come as you approach summer in the coming months. All these below have been logged in just the past week:

❓⭐ 3975 UNIDENTIFIED. A very weak signal at 1910 playing rock music selections. Occasional music anncts but just too weak to get a clear station ID and language – it could have been German or maybe English. A sneaking suspicion tells me that this might be the flea-powered German station with the absurd name, Shortwave Radio.de. Some monitoring of German Kiwi remote SDRs near the town of Winsen, about 24 km SSE of Hamburg, didn’t offer any conclusive evidence that this was the station, as the signal strengths at most of these locations weren’t that great either! But, after sitting on the frequency for over 30 min and comparing what I was hearing with the German receivers, I was fairly sure that this was probably the station being received here. If so, it’s an impressive feat. By 1940 the signal was weakening rapidly as the 75mb was closing up for our summer morning (6:40 am local). It will need further monitoring. Dec 28.

7410 VATICAN. Vatican R – SM Galeria. 2215 Mandarin to EAs, weak signal until s/off 2230. Dec 29.

⭐ 7600 ARMENIA. Afghanistan International TV – Gavar. 2235 Pashto to AFG with talks. The only station found at this time after this band had all but closed for my summer morning (9:35 am local). Weak signal, Dec 29.

9405 PHILIPPINES. FEBC R. Liangyou 3 – Bocaue. 2243 Mandarin to EAf, weak signal, Dec 29.

⭐ 9510 ROMANIA. IRRS - Saftica. "Radio City" show (or similar) 0930-1000* English to Eu. A mix of old pops and Latin music. An announcer whose English was largely unintelligible and who should really hand the mic to someone else! Fair to poor signal, listened in LSB to avoid serious splatter from 9515 CNR 2, Dec 23.

9560 JAPAN. R. Japan – Yamata. The 20-minute Mandarin broadcast to EAs at 2046 to s/off 2250, weak signal, Dec 29.

⭐ 9670 TAIWAN. R. Đáp Lời Sông Núi (DLSN) - Paochung. *1230-1300* Vietnamese to SEAs (Vietnam). The clandestine station that the Vietnamese government doesn't like very much! Opens with ID and program rundown. Excellent signal and notable for the absence of the usual Vietnamese siren jammers both here at Mount Evelyn and at the Hanoi remote SDR. Dec 28.

⭐ 9960 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu – Emten Lagoon. Carrier on at 2259. Programming commenced at 2300 with island music and Bislama anncts. The current summer reception pattern tends to start with a weak signal at s/on; then it fades out for a few hours before returning and strengthening later in the day. Dec 29.

9965 PALAU. Hope Radio (Angel 5) - Medorn. 0850 English EAs with the usual American God-botherers, station ID 0900, then into another preaching session. Very good signal, Dec 23.

11905 SRI LANKA. SLBC - Trincomalee. *0200-0230* Hindi to SAs with uninterrupted music selections. Very weak signal, Dec 26.

13760 MADAGASCAR. MWV New Life - Mahajanga. *0300 English to SAs, religious programming, music and IDs, weak signal, Dec 27.

⭐ 13790 ALGERIA. Afrikya FM – Ouargla. 2310 French to Waf, mainly commentaries. 2235 in Arabic with music, fair signal Dec 29.

15105 D.P.R.KOREA. VoKorea - Kujang. 0325 Mandarin to SEAs, fair to poor signal, Dec 23.

15310 SRI LANKA. AWR - Trincomalee. 0320 to 0330 Oromo to EAf with long talks. Fair to poor signal, Dec 23.

15410 INDIA. Akashvani - Bengaluru. 0305 Nepali to Nepal with songs, constant technical interruptions, and overmodulated audio. Into the Hindi service at 0315, fair signal, Dec 23.

15510 TAJIKISTAN. AWR - Dushanbe. 0250 to s/off 0300 English to Bangladesh. Weak signal, Dec 27.

15510 ENGLAND. R. Sama (IBRA Radio) – Woofferton. 1850 – 1859 s/off Arabic to CAf, preaching, weak signal, Dec 28.

15540 GUAM. KSDA – Agat. 1845 Korean to EAs with AWR programming, good signal, Dec 28.

⭐ 15555 USA. WJHR - Milton FL. 2149 to 2159 s/off English to USA in USB. Typical very shouty American brow-beating sermon. Does yelling it louder make you any more devout? Fair signal, Dec 23.

15610 AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. 0718 French to WAf, good signal, Dec 26.

15630 UZBEKISTAN. Iran International - Tashkent. 0715 Farsi to Iran, fair to poor signal, Dec 26.

15640 KUWAIT. R. Azadi - Umm al-Rimam. 0710 Dari to AFG, fair signal, Dec 26.

⭐ 17600 ALGERIA. Ifrikya FM - Bechar. 1035 - 1105 Arabic to CAf, excellent Afro music programming made enjoyable listening, fair signal. They are also listed on 17830 at this time, but nothing heard here or on the Cyprus Kiwi SDR. Dec 23. And again at 1840 with excellent music selections. ID at 1842. Excellent, booming signal, Dec 28.

17640 MADAGASCAR. BBC - Talata Volonondry. *0600-0700* English WS to SAf, fair signal. At 0700, it changes to the Pinheira, São Tomé relay for the continuation of this service, also at a fair level here, Dec 26.

17730 MADAGASCAR. AWR - Talata Volonondry. 2005 French to CAf, preaching and songs. Fair to poor signal, Dec 26.

⭐ 17790 USA. Pan American BC Radio Africa - Okeechobee FL. 1945 English with interview, ID at 2000, then American preaching about "The Miracle in your Mouth"??!! Fair signal, Dec 26.

17820 PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. 0250 English to ME with canned "Radyo Pilipinas Worldwide" ID and continuation of news program. Fair signal and // 15640 were also heard at a fair level on Dec 23.

17850 FRANCE. R. France Int’l – Issoudun. 1830 French to Af, news reports. Weak signal, Dec 28.

17865 U.A.E. R. Sadaye Zindagi - Dhabayya. 1015 to 1030 s/off Dari to SAs. IBRA religious programming, fair signal, Dec 23.

17870 JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. 0255 Japanese to EAs, fair signal. // 18710 beamed to SEAs which had an understandably better signal here, Dec 23.

21470 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. 0645 to 0656 s/off English to AUS, inconsequential folk music, good signal, Dec 26.

21470 VATICAN. BBC - SM Galeria. S/on 0700 English WS to CAf, current affairs, fair signal and // 21560.15 kHz, Dec 26.

21500 ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. *1200-1230* French to NWAf with news reports. Fair to good signal, Dec 28.

21560.15 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. 0635 English to EAf, current affairs program, weak signal and on the high side of 21560, Dec 26.

21580 FRANCE. R. France Int’l - Issoudun. 0840 French to WAf, fair signal with commentaries. Continues past 0900, Dec 22. And again *1200-1300* French to CAf, a good signal for most of the broadcast but weakened for the last 15 min due to propagation changes. Dec 28.

⭐ 21595 U.A.E. R. Ergo - Dhabayya. *1200-1300* Somali to EAf, news reports, commentaries and interviews. Good signal for much of the broadcast but became weaker as the band closed up for the night, Dec 28.

⭐ 21630 ASCENSION IS. BBC - Ascension. 1605 English to SAf, fair signal and unusual propagation here (3:05 am) because this band is almost always dead at this time of night. SFI=195, K= 0. All the more interesting because Ascension is rarely a strong signal into Mount Evelyn at the best of times! Dec 21.

⭐ 21660.12 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. *0500-0600* Kinyarwanda to EAf (Sats only). Fair signal accompanied by a slight grumbly txer hum. // 17814.88, where it was slightly stronger but also off-freq! Dec 23.

21670 SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Radio Int'l - Riyadh. S/on 0857 Indonesian to SEAs. Heard here most nights recently with signals that can be good to almost barely audible. On this night, it was fair to poor strength. However, a quick check on the remote Kiwis in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya all had the signal at S9 + 20. Dec 22.

21690 FRANCE. R. France Int'l - Issoudun. *0900-1000* French to CAf with news and African current affairs. Fair signal and // 21580 also heard, Dec 22.

⭐ 21710 U.A.E. Burma News International (BNI) - Dhabayya. *1130-1200* Burmese to SEAs with news and interviews. I believe this is a weekdays-only service. Good signal, Dec 28.

⭐ 21710 U.A.E. Mizzima Radio - Dhabayya. *1200-1300* in Burmese to SEAs. News and commentaries. This follows on from BNI's 30-minute service, good signal, Dec 28.

11-METER BAND REGISTRATIONS:

The 11-meter portion of the shortwave broadcast spectrum covers 25670 to 26100 kHz. Currently, the BBC is the only international broadcaster using this band with the following schedule:

25900 kHz 1200 to 1230 UTC in French to CAf via Talata Volonondry

25900 kHz 1600 to 1800 UTC in English to CAf and SAf via Woofferton

We may well see greater use of this band in the coming year. The only other station heard on 11m is the flea-powered Danish station known as World Music Radio on 25800 kHz running on a 24-hour basis.

73 and wishing you the best of DX in 2024!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW