Topics

361

Shortwave Broadcast / R. Candip

« on: February 25, 2015, 0111 UTC »

5066.33   D.R. CONGO. R. Candip - Bunia. Is more regularly heard these days now that the CW marker station appears to have gone, although the frequency is still subject to other digital signals on occasions. Noted at 1815 with Afro music and French chat, poor signal on Feb 24.

362

Clandestine Stations / New Station - Radio Risala

« on: February 21, 2015, 0348 UTC »

15165 kHz, Radio Risala International - site unknown (perhaps Issoudun??).

This new SW station started on Feb 20 at 1830 UTC, with numerous IDs as "Radio Risala". I can't confirm this, but the language used sounded like Oromo (a.k.a. Afaan Oromo) which is spoken largely in Ethiopia. The programming featured mainly talk with occasional excerpts of instrumental music. This appears to be a religious group, Muslim-based faith. From 1853, there was a long chant in call and response style. Suddenly off at 1857 in the middle of the chant, so we didn't hear a proper sign off announcement.

The signal strength was poor here at Mount Evelyn. The band was not in very good shape this morning. I tried recording it but the quality just wasn't good enough to include here.

More details and links at http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/new-station-radio-risala-international.html

73 everyone de Rob VK3BVW

363

Shortwave Broadcast / FEBC Off Freq.

« on: February 20, 2015, 0249 UTC »

9400.38   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Iba. Mandarin to EAs at 1004 with a strong signal. Quite a long way off frequency this evening, Feb 19

Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

364

Shortwave Broadcast / 6020 - Vietnam - VOV 4

« on: February 20, 2015, 0248 UTC »

6020   VIETNAM. VoV - Buon Me Thuot. Network 4 Minorities Service with Western style ballads at 1205 with anncts in an unidentified local language. Talk at 1220, then at 1224 a lovely but long traditional indigenous song accompanied by native instruments. Local instrumental music, sounding almost Indonesian in style at 1234. Monitored to past 1240 at a fair level but with heavy QRM from adjacent channels. No sign of AIR-Shimla nor CNR listed here at this time.

Rob VK3BVW

365

Equipment / Review: Wellbrook ALA1530S+

« on: February 06, 2015, 1938 UTC »

This may be of interest to those interested in loop antennas. Wellbrook has out the new ALA1530S+. Guest contributor, Michael Stevenson, assembles his new Wellbrook ALA1530S+ P–1 Active Receiving Antenna and puts it through its paces in this review.

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/review-wellbrook-ala1530s-loop-antenna.html

Cheers, Rob VK3BVW

366

Shortwave Broadcast / 4755.59 - The Cross Radio

« on: February 01, 2015, 2219 UTC »

4755.59 kHz    MICRONESIA. The Cross Radio, Pohnpei was putting in a very good signal at 1130 last night (Feb 1). It was also appearing slightly up on their usual 4755.55 kHz. Preaching through the summer atmospherics with their 1 kW transmitter, and making the distance quite nicely!

73 de Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

367

Shortwave Broadcast / Bible Voice - Talata

« on: February 01, 2015, 2217 UTC »

21480   MADAGASCAR. Bible Voice - Talata Volonondry. S/on 1115 English, fair to poor sig for this weekend only service, Sunday Feb 1.

73 de Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

368

Shortwave Broadcast / Honiara off air last night!

« on: February 01, 2015, 2214 UTC »

5019.9 kHz - SIBC on Jan 30 at 1120 UTC. Poor signal. Their new txer is always dead on 5020 kHz. Have they gone back to the old txer for some reason? Then last night at 1130 UT, 5020/5019.9 were vacant. Nothing from Honiara on 9545 kHz either. Strange! One to watch....

73 de Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

369

Shortwave Broadcast / Argentina - still drifts....

« on: January 23, 2015, 0229 UTC »

15345.19   R. Argentina al Exterior - General Pacheco. It's been nice to hear RAE coming through at 1124 with the Japanese service to EAs. A mix of topical information, Argentinian pop songs and traditional ballads were featured - quite pleasant programming. It was a weak signal (not moving the meter much) but easily copied with great clarity on Jan 21. Then the station was noted again later on the same day at 2320 with the Spanish service to Eu, with more Argentinian ballads. This time we heard a fair signal through the summer thunderstorm static. It was also interesting to see that by the time of this later monitoring observation, the frequency had drifted down to 15345.16 kHz.

73 de Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

370

The RF Workbench / WTWW FROM THE AIR - Quadcopter Style! New YouTube Video.

« on: January 20, 2015, 2102 UTC »

Hi Folks!

Those interested in radio station transmitter sites, quadcopters, sickeningly dizzying heights, etc will find this new YouTube video of interest. It's a bird's eye view of WTWW, Lebanon TN.

http://youtu.be/yckBR9i6V_w

Looks quite interesting - nothing especially unusual about the setup. It also backs onto a hill running along one side of the antennas - amazing how well it gets out! One of the engineers at the station confirmed with me that there are just the three rhombics on the property.

He also noted that he had to turn the transmitters off before he could fly his quadcopter due to the extremely high RF in the air! Otherwise he would lose control of the copter once it got to a certain height.....and send it tumbling to the ground! 

The video is also up on the Mount Evelyn DX Report blog. Hope you enjoy it! 73,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

371

Shortwave Broadcast / VATICAN - Extra Scheduled Transmissions This Week

« on: January 14, 2015, 0958 UTC »

21710   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. S/on 0945 with a special transmission for India in English on the occasion of the papal visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, 250 kW at 86˚. This is a live broadcast of his tour through Sri Lanka. Fair but variable reception here now on this freq. Today's s/off expected to be at 1100 UTC.

Scheduled transmissions for the remainder of this week are:

16/01/2015
02:05-05:00 - 11935 kHz
09:10-10:45 - 21710 kHz

17/01/2015
01:30-03:45 - 11935 kHz
07:15-08:15 - 21710 kHz

18/01/2015
02:10-04:00 - 11935 kHz
07:12-09:30 - 21710 kHz

73, Rob VK3BVW

372

Shortwave Broadcast / VOA Site Query

« on: January 06, 2015, 1957 UTC »

11900  VOA - Site Unconfirmed. Oromo service to EAf at 1735 with news, ID and numerous mentions of Oromo at 1740, good signal on Jan 6. Some lists say Issoudun, others say Nauen - can someone please tell me what it REALLY is?? Thanks.

Rob VK3BVW

373

Shortwave Broadcast / 11790 Madagascar

« on: January 04, 2015, 0459 UTC »

11790   MADAGASCAR. Bible Voice - Talata Volonondry. Suddenly appeared around 0215 (1:15pm local Daylight Time) with an American "fire and brimstone" preacher. ID, address and website at 0229 then s/off. Variable signal strength ranging from inaudible to weak or even fair at times. Needed all the resources of the new Yaesu FTDX3000's digital noise reduction, IF shift and Contour controls to dig it out of the usual daytime summer hash.

Rob VK3BVW

374

Shortwave Broadcast / 11650 UNID

« on: January 04, 2015, 0456 UTC »

11650   UNIDENTIFIED. F/in 0310 and maintained a weak signal till around 0330 when it picked up for a minute or so. During that time there was a a male Arabic speaker, a snippet of western instrumental music, then the carrier was suddenly gone in the middle of talk. I have a sneaking suspicion this might be R. Sultanate of Oman on later than the scheduled 0200 s/off. Jan 3.

Rob VK3BVW

375

Shortwave Broadcast / 21mHz Alive Last Night!

« on: January 01, 2015, 2342 UTC »

Some good reception of stations in the 13mb here. Vatican had 3 freqs going with New Year's Day services, too. Also, some strange technical problems with Kuwait on 21580. Will be interesting to see if they have fixed it by tonight!!

21510   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. English to SAs at 1033 with a news program, noted the s/off as 1130 with good reception on Jan 1.

21520   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. S/on 1120 for the Hausa service to WAf, ID at 1123 and anthem, fair to poor signal on Jan 1.

21550   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. New Year's Day service at 1025, Latin translated into English for EAf, weak signal on Jan 1.

21560   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. New Year's Day service at 1020, Latin translated into Portuguese for EAf, an even weaker signal than 21570. Then noted later at 1103 with Italian programming and a much stronger signal (possibly a different beam heading?) on Jan 1.

21570   VATICAN. Vatican R. - SM Galeria. New Year's Day service at 0950, Latin translated into French for WAf, weak signal on Jan 1.

21580   KUWAIT. R. Kuwait. Filipino service at 1010 PLUS another transmission on the same frequency with a broadcast in Arabic. Suddenly at 1040, the Filipino broadcast disappeared leaving the Arabic program. Then at 1046, both Filipino and Arabic again. Was Kuwait putting out two different feeds at the same time here? Whoops - wrong switch! It must have been a VERY good new year's eve for them! Jan 1.

21600   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Running // with 21520 for the Hausa service, Qur'an at 1127, fair signal, Jan 1.

21670   SAUDI ARABIA. BSKSA - Riyadh. Indonesian at 0940, fair signal, Jan 1.

Have a great 2015 everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com