Topics

421

Shortwave Broadcast / A Few Recent Observations!

« on: January 30, 2014, 0522 UTC »

3330   CANADA. CHU - Ottawa. Putting in an unusually nice signal at 1015, good reception for a summer evening here when the local thunderstorm atmospherics were particularly quiet, Jan 28.

5024.95  PERU. R. Quillabamba - Cusco. Noted at 1050 causing headaches for Rebelde with quite a reasonable signal, although the Cuban was still the stronger signal. Years ago, the Peruvian was quite hard to hear, but over the past year it has become quite are regular signal. Perhaps it's getting stronger or Rebelde is operating on reduced power. Nice to hear the occasional Latin during our summer months! Jan 28.

9560   RUSSIA. Radio VR - Irkutsk. English to SEAs at 1110 with various commentaries, at a good strength and equal level to co-channel PBS Xinjiang's Uyghur service. This doesn't seem to be a wise choice of frequency, Jan 27.

9955  USA.  WRMI Wave Scan - Okeechobee. DX program for their Monday service at 1210. This was followed by the Viva Miami program at 1230. A fairly scratchy signal that was also degraded by noise on Jan 27.

73's  Rob Wagner VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

422

Shortwave Broadcast / UNID: Radio Ethiopia?

« on: January 27, 2014, 0220 UTC »

7237.1v   UNIDENTIFIED. Believed to be R. Ethiopia - Geja Jewe. Hoping to hear the English service when first tuned in around 1635, but coped an almighty het on this freq from CRI's English service on 7235. Using the USB mode, I noted fragments of piano music around 1640, but it was too hard, especially with the added interference from RA-Shepp and Riyadh also on 7240. Came back to it at 1656 after CRI had s/off, but needed to retune down to 7236.9 - it seemed to have moved 20 Hz in 20 min - impressive! Definitely something there by retuning in LSB mode but still too hard with the 7240 kHz QRM spoiling the fun. Plenty of carrier but the audio was just not making it through the hash consistently enough for good copy on Jan 24.

I've also listed a number of other loggings as noted on Jan 24. Sorry to be a bit slow getting around to posting this. Things have been a hectic over the last 48 hours. New logs are all listed on the Mount Evelyn DX Report blog under EARLY MORNING DX, which can be found at:

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/early-morning-dx.html

73's everyone,

Rob VK3BVW

423

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Candip Makes a Rare Visit Here!!

« on: January 23, 2014, 2101 UTC »

5066.33   CONGO, DEM REP.  R. Télé Candip, Bunia. Finally heard a weak signal from this one on Jan 21 after monitoring the frequency closely for several months, and following an encouraging report from Victor Goonetilleke a week or so earlier. First checked in around 1745 to hear French anncts and occasional African songs. Some sort of ID noted at 1801 but too weak at that moment to really decipher the details. Then into a short talk for several minutes before it went back into the music program. Although the signal was weak, it actually began to improve a bit around 1805. The remainder of the transmission consisted of African pop-styled songs and bright, bouncy announcements.  Only slight QRM from a CW beacon utility on this occasion, and luckily the band was especially quiet on this early summer morning. Tried recording the signal but unfortunately the result was not very useful.

Overseas reports indicated that the station signs off around 1900v. However, today it kept going right past this time. At 1915, a man with a deep rich voice made some anncts. Then at 1918, there was what appeared to be some type of news or commentary by a female announcer, followed by a discussion between the two announcers.  At 1932, there was a long pause, "dead air" - I thought the station had signed off. But then at 1936, the African pop music started up again! By 1945, we were well into our summer morning (6:45am) - the signal was fading, the breakfast-time electrical noise in the neighbourhood was increasing, and QRM from an RTTY station started up, which well and truly finished off the listening session. The power is listed as 1 kW and is quite possibly running less than that. Very rare reception for my location, particularly at this time of the year in south eastern Australia. A pleasing morning's listening.

I have more information and a recording (albeit a rather poor recording!) on the Mount Evelyn DX Report blog at

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/rare-signal-radio-candip-bunia.html

73's, Rob Wagner VK3BVW

424

Shortwave Broadcast / AIR - New Frequency

« on: January 23, 2014, 0659 UTC »

11620   INDIA. AIR - Txer site unknown (probably Delhi). Russian service to EEu noted at 1645 with a talk which mentioned Pakistan on many occasions. At 1701, there was a long Indian song until 1715 when the broadcast stopped suddenly without announcement. NF ex 9595 and an excellent signal strength, although the audio was not particularly clean on Jan 21.

425

Shortwave Broadcast / PICTURES: VoR's Samara Site Dismantled

« on: January 21, 2014, 1009 UTC »

The Voice of Russia's Samara site is gone.

My thanks to the Shortwave Sites group for the link provided in this new article on the Mount Evelyn DX Report blog below:

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/pictures-vors-samara-site-dismantled.html

Cheers, Rob VK3BVW

426

Shortwave Broadcast / Low Freq Indians and others

« on: January 17, 2014, 2300 UTC »

4880   SOUTH AFRICA & INDIA. SW Radio Africa - Meyerton & AIR - Lucknow. SWRA was the stronger of the two stations here at 1725 with its English current affairs program, while Lucknow featured female vocals in the Hindi service. Jan 16.

4920   INDIA & CHINA. AIR - Chennai & PBS Xizang - Lhasa. About equal strength from these two stations, both with music programs at 1728. AIR went to English news at 1730, Hindi news at 1735, s/off annct at 1740, leaving China in the clear on Jan 16.

5040   INDIA. AIR - Jeypore. English news at 1730 in // 4920, then Hindi news 1735. No s/off annct at the end of the news, the broadcast just stops! Good signal on Jan 16.

There's another 14 items (too long to list here) in a blog post I've just made at the Mount Evelyn DX Report. If you are interested, you can find it at http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/hot-dx.html

Have a great weekend everyone, Rob VK3BVW

427

Shortwave Broadcast / 13mb Specials

« on: January 13, 2014, 1142 UTC »

21510   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. English news to SAs at 1035 with a rather raspy old audio quality, running // 21640 (also Kamalabad and also to SAs) which had much clearer audio. Both freqs were strong signals, Jan 12.

21560   VATICAN. VR- -SM Galeria. Beautiful booming signal with the Sunday service in Italian at s/on 1050, starting with long frequency anncts in a variety of languages inc. English. Then the Angelus with Pope Francis began from 1100. Also runs // 15595 - fair to poor there, and 11740 to Eu - but very much underneath CNR 2 (Lingshi) on Jan 12.

21580   KUWAIT. R. Kuwait, with a nice signal in Filipino (and with a liberal sprinkling of English words in there as well) at 1047, Jan 12.

Rob VK3BVW

428

Shortwave Broadcast / Vatican Special Broadcast

« on: January 12, 2014, 1012 UTC »

ON NOW:
21740   VATICAN. VR - site unknown. Special Mass with Baptisms, led by Pope Francis and first noted at 0930, in Italian with English commentary. Also noted on 21760 with Portuguese commentary, and 17830 with French commentary! All aimed towards Africa, although 21760 appeared to be slightly better than 21740 which leads me to believe that there might have been different sites involved in the transmission….not sure though. Still on at 1010 UTC.  Jan 12.

429

Shortwave Broadcast / A few Early Morning Loggings

« on: January 07, 2014, 2310 UTC »

3965   IRAN.  VOIRI - Kamalabad. Russian service at 1735, strong signal and busting through RFI's DRM service very nicely co-channel on Jan 6.

4780   DJIBOUTI.  RTV Djibouti. Somali programming with long talks from 1740 and a solid signal despite ute QRM, Jan 6.

4880   SOUTH AFRICA.  SW R. Africa - Meyerton. Nice signal at 1750 with English propaganda programming, Jan 6.

4976   UGANDA.  R. Uganda - Kampala. Plenty of carrier but disappointingly weak audio with English programming at 1755, Jan 6.

5010.25  MADAGASCAR.  R. Madagasikara - Ambohidrano. Frequency du jour with the usual wobble but not quite as bad as in recent times. Strong signal at 1758 in Malagasy, a series of songs from 1800, Jan 6.

Cheers, Rob VK3BVW

430

Shortwave Broadcast / UNID: Sedaye Zindagi?

« on: January 07, 2014, 2308 UTC »

5129.95   UNIDENTIFIED.  Possibly R. Sedaye Zindagi but it was a very weak and wispy signal with talks fading in and out, too weak to ID the language. Monitored between 1655 and 1710 but the signal never improved on Jan 6. Will have another go when I'm next up at 3.30am! Does anyone know if this station is still active on this freq?

431

Shortwave Broadcast / BULGARIA x 2

« on: January 07, 2014, 0925 UTC »

11610   BULGARIA.  R. Al-Shorouq - Kostinbrod. a.k.a. Radio Sunrise. Arabic programming with talk at 1635, an echo annct at 1639 then a song with an electronically treated vocal (obviously not recorded and produced in downtown Asmara!!). ID at 1645 as "Idhaat al Shorouq" (or similar). A fair signal strength on Jan 6.

15380   BULGARIA.  ESAT Radio - Kostinbrod.  Noted in the clear at 1711 in Amharic with a good signal. Then at 1715, suddenly broad banded hash jamming was switched on, rendering 15375-15385 useless except for ESAT occasionally peeping through, Jan 6. On this freq on Mondays.

Rob VK3BVW

432

Shortwave Broadcast / OROMO VOICE RADIO

« on: January 07, 2014, 0556 UTC »

17850   FRANCE.  Oromo Voice Radio - Issoudun.  New station aimed at Horn of Africa states. Some great East African music noted at 1620, then a rattlingly fast ID and talk in Afaan Oromo from 1626 until suddenly off mid-sentence at 1629. No English heard on this occasion and a fair signal on Monday, Jan 6.

More details on the station are at my blog:  http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/new-broadcast-oromo-voice-radio.html

73, Rob VK3BVW

433

Shortwave Broadcast / 7 MHz Loggings

« on: January 03, 2014, 1010 UTC »

7255   UNID.  At 2040, I believe this may be Voice of Nigeria (Ikorodu) in French under CRI's Russian service, but weak and no ID observed. Faded by 2050 on Jan 1.

7280   VIETNAM.  VoV - Son Tay. English to Eu at 2050, in the clear and fair to good signal on Jan 1.

7365   IRAN.  VOIRI - Sirjan. S/on with usual piano music 2045, then the ID "ceremony" - goes on forever - at 2050 for the Japanese service. Strong signal but very tinny audio quality, like it was being re-broadcast through a small transistor radio, quite unusual sound.

7375   TAJIKISTAN.  Voice of Wilderness - Dushanbe. Long Korean talks at 1930, fairly poor signal with QRM from an RTTY signal smack on the frequency plus some sort of low-level bubble jammer. Religious ballad noted at 1946. S/off at 1959.

7470   UZBEKISTAN.  Open Radio for North Korea - Tashkent. S/on 2000 with IDs and into South Korean pop songs. Quite a few momentary crackles and breaks in transmission around 2005-2009, sounded like someone was fiddling with a faulty lead!! Otherwise, a good signal.

7580   SRI LANKA.  R. Farda - Iranawila. Farsi songs at 2025 and running // 7520 (from Ban Dung, Thailand). Virtually no difference noted here in signal strength between the two freqs - both quite strong and in the clear.

Cheers Rob VK3BVW
www.medxr.blogspot.com

434

Shortwave Broadcast / 9800 - Sawtu Linjiila

« on: January 01, 2014, 2036 UTC »

9800   FRANCE.  Sawtu Linjiila (Voice of the Gospel) - Issoudun. Caught the last five minutes of this broadcast at 1854 in the Fulfulde language (with a sprinkling of French words thrown in for good measure!), with religious talks and several IDs before s/off at 1859. Quite a respectable signal on Jan 1. Radio Sawtu Linjiila is an operation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon. Offices are located at the Christian Media Centre located in Ngaoundere, Cameroon. It opened on July 15, 1966 and aired its first broadcast November 6, in the same year. The website listed in the WRTH currently appears to not work and there is also a little-used Facebook page. Some people call this a clandestine station, which it is not! The latest HFCC registrations lists the language as Hausa, which is definitely not the case!! The target audience is West Africa and its programs are relayed over several local FM stations throughout the region.

73 and Happy NY

Rob VK3BVW

435

Shortwave Broadcast / Djibouti

« on: December 23, 2013, 1938 UTC »

4780  Djibouti, poor signal at 1925 playing lots of interesting music, no anncts. Nice to hear them without the powerful ute noise on 4978…..maybe off for Xmas? I can only hope….