DX QUICK TIPS
June 22, 2024

Over the past week, reception conditions have been excellent across much of the shortwave spectrum. Despite times when solar activity was high, the low frequencies have proved especially resilient. And, of course, being deep into winter here in southeastern Australia - yesterday was the shortest day of the year - afternoon-long path European activity was noted on the 31 and 41-metre bands. Below are a few highlights as heard here at Mount Evelyn.

RADIOS: Yaesu FTDX3000, Kenwood TS2000 and R5000.

ANTENNAS: 80m long horizontal loop, 30m vertical delta loop, 20m dipole, 5/8th centre-fed vertical for 24-28 MHz.

3325 INDONESIA. VoIndonesia - Palangkaraya. 1630 Arabic with music and anncts. Weak signal and // 4755 also heard with a stronger signal, June 21.

⭐⭐ 4010.01 KYRGYZSTAN. Birinchi R. - Bishkek. 1610 Kyrgyz to CAs with an interview. Numerous mentions of Bronchi Radio at 1620, then another interview. Fair signal with barely noticeable audio or transmitter hum, June 21.

4755.02 INDONESIA. VoIndonesia - Cimanggis. 2130 English broadcast with a tourist information program. Then Indo hip hop music. ID at 2136. Fair signal and slightly up on the registered freq, June 15.

4765 TAJIKISTAN. Radio Tajikistan - Yangi Yul. 1635 Tajik Radio 1, commentaries. Fair signal, June 21.

⭐⭐ 5985 MYANMAR. Myanma R. - Yangon. 1540 Burmese with local music selections and chit-chat between two announcers. It appears as English on some lists, but if so, then not on this day. It was a fair signal until 1600, when it was slightly spoilt by co-channel QRM from CRI-Beijing with its Swahili service to EAf, June 21.

⭐⭐ 7375 ENGLAND. VoA - Woofferton. 0425 English to EAf, fair signal along the LP winter DX path (see below), June 12.

The long-haul path between Woofferton and Mount Evelyn is 22,945 km. This feature of mid-winter afternoon propagation on 7 MHz covers almost a full dark path between the transmitter and receiver. This type of reception only lasts for a few weeks.

9405 PHILIPPINES. R. Liangyou - Bocaue. 0025 Mandarin to EAs. Closing anncts and signing off with a few rounds of their interval signal at 0030. Fair signal. This is not // with 12070, which runs different programming at that time and signs off at 0100 (also heard with a good signal), June 20.

9585 ARMENIA. Radio Erena - Gavar. 1658 Opening with quiet instrumental music, 1659 - R. Erena ID, 1700 - Tigrinya news programming. 1704 - Another R. Erena ID. Good signal, June 21.

⭐⭐ 9665.09 BRAZIL. Voz Missionária - Camboriú SC. 0241 Weak audio from this station featuring passionate preaching. Very weak signal at first but improved slightly by 0300. Confirmed via the Pardinho Kiwi SDR. We only hear this as wintertime DX here in SE Australia, with the local time here at 12:41 pm. The path from Camboriú to Mt Evelyn is via the deep south Antarctica. This is why it reaches us in the winter afternoons - an almost full darkness path. It has been a long time since I've heard this one at this time of day!

The short path signal between Camboriú and Mount Evelyn crosses into the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. In mid-winter in the southern hemisphere, much of the route is in darkness at this time, enabling us to hear the southeastern Brazilian Voz Missionária on 31 metres in our afternoons. This is an excellent example of the great circle route, the shortest course between two points on the surface of the Earth.

⭐⭐ 9765 ASCENSION IS. KBS World Service - Ascension. *2000-2100* French to NAf, excellent signal and NF (ex 5950), June 15.

9765 MADAGASCAR. MWV Palavra Alegre - Mahajanga. S/on 2100 to SAm in Portuguese, excellent signal, June 15.

⭐ 9840 IRAN. VoIRI - Sirjan. 1710 Arabic to ME with on-location reports. 1720 Qur'an prayers. Fair signal. I wanted to confirm the published s/off as 1730, but the signal was flattened by VoTurkey's German s/on at 1727, and nothing could be heard under that cacophony. June 21.

⭐⭐ 9860 INDIA. Akashvani - Bengaluru. *0100-0130* Sindhi to Pakistan. Fair signal and NF (ex 7215), June 16.

9880 CHINA. CRI—Kashi. 2200-2300 Esperanto to SAm, // 7300, but not as strong there. It is one of only two stations running this language on SW, the other being R. Habana. June 15.

11900 VATICAN. VoA - SM Galeria. 2130-2200 in Bambara to WAf, weekdays only service, fair signal, June 21.

11935 CHINA. CNR 5 Cross-Strait Radio - Beijing. 0855 Mandarin to Taiwan with Chinese pops until scheduled s/off at exactly 0900. Good signal and noted when the co-channel Republic of Yemen Radio Sana'a was missing at that time, June 21.

17790 TAIWAN. R. NUG - Paochung. S/on 0200 with English and Burmese IDs and freq anncts (background music too loud - why do they do that?!). Then commentaries in Burmese, good signal, June 13.

2024 BBC Antarctic Mid-Winter Broadcast

At Mount Evelyn, 11865 and 9585 kHz via Woofferton were fabulous signals, very strong, both S9 +10 dB. 9870 via Ascension Island was weak and scratchy, as is typically the case with most Ascension signals at Mount Evelyn. But all three frequencies were well heard into the Argentine SDRs, which are about the closest Kiwi remotes to the BAS bases. Programming was the usual fare of recorded messages and some BAS information interspersed between spasms of music. The format never changes.

This annual service has a much wider listening audience than just the BAS crews. Hundreds of radio enthusiasts tune in to the 30-minute broadcast every year for a real taste of old-time radio programming. As such, it would be a nice touch if each transmitter site played an interval (tuning) signal a few minutes before 2130. This would give listeners time to determine the strongest signal into their location—as well as a nod to radio history! June 21.

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW