Mount Evelyn DX Report

  DX QUICK TIPS July 20, 2024 Reception conditions have been variable over the past few weeks, mainly due to constantly changing propagation conditions and solar activity. Short periods of radio blackouts were noted, followed by tremendously enhanced reception on frequencies above 13 MHz. Solar flux numbers reaching 250, combined with low A/K indices, have ensured fabulous listening opportunities on the 22, 19, 15, and 13-metre bands.  While high solar and geomagnetic activity can render some parts of the shortwave spectrum effectively useless during disturbances, the bands often bounce back 12 to 15 hours later by producing significantly elevated signal levels on those higher frequencies. So, don't despair if you turn on the radio and find the bands are dead. Come back a few hours later, and you may be surprised by what you hear! A monitoring observation of Mali and China on 5995 kHz 5995   MALI. Office de Radio et Télévision du Mali (ORTM) - Radio Mali. 2215 UTC - Frenc...

  HAMS HONOUR BROADCASTERS FROM THE PAST This extended blog post first appeared in the April 2024 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com During one weekend in March 2020, a group of amateur radio operators in my home state of Victoria, Australia, had the privilege of hooking up their ham transceivers to the big curtain arrays at Radio Australia's Shepparton transmitter site. A unique call sign, VI3RA, was granted, and the group had much fun making contacts worldwide with the maximum legal 400 watts. Once connected to the big RA antennas, they are said to have achieved gains of more than 15 dB!  At that time, the station had only been off-air for three years (the last RA broadcast was on January 31, 2017), but it felt like a fitting tribute to the broadcaster that had given so much pleasure to millions globally for decades. In the last few months, I have also observed the honouring of sev...

  ANOTHER BRAZILIAN GONE FROM SHORTWAVE And what's left? Thirty years ago, Brazil was considered one of the primary countries utilizing shortwave broadcasts. The country is so vast, with many mountainous, remote, and inaccessible regions, that many broadcasters considered shortwave to be an ideal communication mode to reach citizens. These days, there are seven regular broadcasters left who are still using the platform, plus a handful of occasional come-and-go reactivations.  So, it was disappointing to receive news from active Brazilian DXer Uender Marques that Super Rede Boa Vontade (a.k.a. Radio Boa Vontade) had closed down its usual 6160, 9550 and 11895 kHz outlets. Speaking to the station’s technician, Uender learned that the station was migrating to FM and had requested the government remove these three registrations.  So, although the shortwave outlet was "officially" closed during January this year, one of the last loggings of the station was for the 11895 outlet ...