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 - French (not Bambara on this occasion) with a lengthy discussion program and a weak signal under a dominating co-channel CNR 2—Nanning. Jul 17.

It is interesting to see the reception patterns change while monitoring. The above log entry, written at 2215 UTC, shows China dominating the frequency, with Mali buried way down underneath. But I kept monitoring for nearly two hours, resulting in some fascinating observations.

By 2230, Mali becomes the dominant station as its short path signal travels along the mostly all-darkness path. (See diagram below.) At the same time, the daylight path between Nanning and Mount Evelyn opens and expands during the morning. This causes ionospheric absorption to increase rapidly on the Asian circuit at that frequency, resulting in the 6 Mhz all-daylight path closing between China and Mount Evelyn.

By 2249 on this day, CNR had almost disappeared, and I could enjoy some wonderful Malian and West African music - so, it was well worth the wait! By 2315, Mali was peaking at an S7, while China had vanished in the morning. As daylight increases along the short path between Mali and Mount Evelyn, the signal drops to an S3, and atmospheric static increases. On this occasion, I was lucky to hear Mali's close transmission mid-song at exactly 00:00:34 UTC.

This is typical of my morning winter reception here at Mount Evelyn. In summer, the patterns are entirely different, and it is rare to get a good signal from Mali without severe interference from the co-channel CNR 2. And, of course, both stations fade out about two and a half hours earlier in high summer, so I never hear the Mali sign-off at 0000 UTC!

Taking time to study the seasonal reception patterns of global shortwave signals will give you many insights into why we hear some stations at certain times of the year and not other times.

The great circle route is the shortest path between two points on the Earth's surface. This diagram was prepared at 2236 UTC when Radio Mali began to gain strength over CNR-Nanning. By 2315, the path between Nanning and Mount Evelyn was in full sunlight, and the absorption limiting frequency (ALF) on that circuit was well above 10 MHz. By 2345 UTC, the Mali signal had also weakened considerably as there was more sunlight along that circuit.

All times are in UTC, all frequencies are in kHz. // indicates parallel frequencies in use.

⭐⭐ 4985 BRAZIL. R. Brasil Central - Goiânia, GO. 0945 Brazilian Portuguese with contemporary ballads, anncts and jingles. Fair to poor signal, Jul 8.

⭐⭐ 5035 BRAZIL. R. Educação Rural - Coari, AM. This station's appearance on shortwave has been quite erratic in recent times. So it's good to hear it back on the air again....but for how long? 1007 - Plenty of “Bom Dia” greetings and roosters crowing. At 1015 a beautiful choral version, Brazilian style, of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (9th symphony). Then anncts and chat. 1025 - ID as “Rádio Coari” and mentions of “Amazonia”, then a popular song. Programming on this day was mainly community (“comunidade”) anncts and interviews, with only occasional music. 1102 - ID and 7 AM time check as “las siete” - Yes, two minutes late! Fade-out around 1108. I last heard this station on June 4, 2023, so great to hear it again! The location is in the far western part of Brazil, so its fade-out is always later than eastern PY stations. Jul 8.

And again on July 9 at sign-on 1000 with the Brazilian national anthem, ID and frequencies. Then, what sounded like a prayer (an “Amen” at the end) with an instrumental version of Ave Maria in the background. 1007 - ID, rooster sounds and an extended station jingle. Time checks, filler anncts and music. A barely audible signal here compared to yesterday, so I did some co-monitoring via the Ironstone Range Kiwi SDR in South Australia, where the signal was slightly better. Jul 9.

⭐⭐ 5939.94 BRAZIL. Voz Missionária - Camboriú, SC. 0602 Prayers and preaching with background music. Then gospel music programming, fair signal, Jul 11.

5960 ASCENSION IS. R. Ndarason Int’l - Ascension. F/in 0555 Kanuri to WAf. Music and closing anncts to s/off 0559, Jul 11.

⭐ 6055 JAPAN. R. Nikkei - Nagara, Ciba. 0920 Network #1 with a Japanese discussion/chat between three speakers. They all seemed to be having a great time - lots of laughing! ID at 0925. Very good signal and // 3925 kHz via Nemuro, but weaker there. Both sites run 50 kW transmitters. For a closer aerial view of the Nagara site, input the following decimal coordinates into Google Maps and zoom around using the satellite view: 35.46592152742455, 140.203586885192. You can also drag the little orange man onto the road for a partial view of one of the site's towers. Jul 18.

⭐⭐ 6070 CANADA. CFRX - Toronto. 0730 The usual relay of CFRB with advert strings at 0730, ID at 0735, and then discussion on jobs that might be AI-proofed. A fair to poor signal in the static. A distance of around 16210 km short path across an all-darkness path (See diagram below). Not bad for a 1 kW transmitter. This station is always a welcome visitor to Mount Evelyn during the winter months. Jul 18.

⭐ 6080 SÃO TOMÉ. VoA - Pinheira. F/in 0545 English to Af, news reports, fair to poor signal until s/off 0600, Jul 11.

6155 AUSTRIA. R.Oesterreich Int’l - Moosbrunn. F/in 0504 German to Eu with news. Jul 11.

6180 ASCENSION IS. VoA - Ascension. F/in 0515 Hausa to WAf with current affairs programming until s/off 0530. Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 6184.97 MEXICO. R. Educación - Mexico City. F/in 0511 with eclectic Mexican folk music. Always good listening as you never know what you will hear next! :-) Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 7315 FRANCE. R. Dabanga - Issoudun. 0440 Sudanese with ID and commentary. Fair signal to s/off 0500, Jul 11.

7375 ENGLAND. VoA - Woofferton. 0445 English to EAf with a news summary and ID. Weak signal, Jul 11.

7390 GERMANY. AWR - Nauen. 0449 French to NAf, fair signal to s/off 0500, Jul 11.

7780 USA. WRMI - Okeechobee FL. 0453 American preaching, probably Overcomer ministry, weak signal, Jul 11.

9440 FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. 0430 Japanese discussion to ME. Fair signal, Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 9664.95 BRAZIL. Voz Missionária - Camboriú SC. 0420 Weak signal with an occasional gospel song and talkback chat. Confirmed via the Pardinho Kiwi SDR. As mentioned in my June 22 DX Quick Tips post, the path from Camboriú to Mt Evelyn is via the deep south Antarctica (See the diagram from that post). This is why it reaches us in the winter afternoons - almost a full darkness path. But now fading in around 0400 (2:00 pm local here), 90 minutes later than when I heard it on June 12. So, as we leave winter behind, we won’t be hearing this station fading in until the late afternoon. Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 9670 GERMANY. Channel 292 - Rohrbach. 0402 Non-stop rock and pop material, fair signal via the long path, Jul 11.

9700 CUBA. R. Habana - Bejucal. 0335 English talk, 0340 Mailbag. Fair signal, Jul 11.

9770 TURKEY. VoTurkey - Emirler. 0417 Turkish to Eu, music programming, fair signal, Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 9960 VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Emten Lagoon. F/in 0350 with Bislama discussion program. Jul 11.

⭐⭐ 11650 MADAGASCAR. R. Tamazuj - Talata Volonondry. 0402 Sudanese to EAf/Sudan. Fair signal, Jul 18.

13600 FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. The 20-minute French service to CAf at s/on 0530, very good signal, Jul 17.

⭐⭐ 13690 NEW ZEALAND. RNZP - Rangitaiki. *0459-0558* English to the Pacific. Incorrectly listed in short-wave.info as 17675 at this time (old news!). Don’t believe everything you read on that list! Excellent signal, Jul 17.

13695 FRANCE. R. France Int’l - Issoudun. 0500 to 0600 sign-off French to CAf, good signal but some splash from adjacent RNZP, Jul 17.

13760 MADAGASCAR. MWV “New Life” - Mahajanga. 0340 English to SAs, American preaching. Fair signal Jul 18.

⭐ 13825 UZBEKISTAN. Mizzima R. - Tashkent. 1156 - Interval signal of quiet instrumental theme music. 1200 - Clear ID in Burmese. Then commentaries and news. Fair signal with deep fades, Jul 9.

😖 15180 D.P.R.KOREA. VoKorea - Kujang. 0500-0557 with that strange middle-of-the-night Spanish service to SAm. Local time in CAm and SAm countries, when this service signs off, varies between midnight and 3:00 AM. I always wonder how many audience ears are listening by the end of the broadcast! Weak signal, Jul 17.

15185 AKASHVANI - Bengaluru. 0508 Pashto to AFG, fair to poor signal, Jul 17.

15240 IRAN. VoIRI—Sirjan. 0505 Turkish to ME with a strong carrier supporting the usually weak, telephone-quality audio. Jul 17.

15300 FRANCE. R. France Int’l - Issoudun. 0450 French to EAf. News commentaries, good signal, Jul 17.

17530 MADAGASCAR. MWV Light of Life - Mahajanga. 0449 Mandarin to EAs with preaching. Good signal until s/off 0459, Jul 17.

17600 ALGERIA. Ifrikya FM - Bechar. 0600 - French to CAf with news and anncts. 0608 - A short ID and frequency annct in English, then suddenly the carrier was suddenly off-air. Back on again two minutes later at 0610 with French commentary. Good signal, Jul 17.

17720 TURKEY. VoTurkey - Emirler. 0445 Malay to SEAs with Turkish pops. Very good signal, Jul 17.

17750 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. 0440 Dari to AFG with commentaries. Fair signal, Jul 17.

17790 MADAGASCAR. AWR - Talata Volonondry. 0534 Arabic to ME with preaching. Excellent signal, Jul 17.

❗❗17880v THAILAND. RL/RFE—Ban Dung. 0430 Pashto to Iran. Odd transmitter behaviour: constant jumping between 17880 and 17880.19 kHz every few seconds between 0431 and 0435, accompanied by some strange audio bubbling sound. Finally stabilised at 0436 when it settled on the assigned frequency with clean audio. Maybe it's time for some maintenance? Jul 17.

21550 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. 0527 IS, 0530 sign-on English to AUS/NZ. Excellent signal, Jul 17.

21560.15 U.A.E. BBC - Dhabayya. 0524 English to EAf with commentaries. Fair signal on a day with the solar flux index at 242. A fair way off-frequency on Jul 17.

73 and good DX to you all

Rob Wagner VK3BVW