Messages

121

Equipment / Retro Receiver - Selena Vega B206

« on: April 01, 2017, 0024 UTC »

RETRO RECEIVER REVIEW #9 : SELENA VEGA B206

This time, Craig Seager visits a receiver that was popular during the days of the Cold War….and built in the former Soviet Union. I think you will find this a very interesting Retro Receiver Review!

http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/retro-receiver-review-9-selena-vega-b206.html

73, Rob VK3BVW

122

Shortwave Broadcast / A17 - Many Frequency Changes - Here's just a few!

« on: April 01, 2017, 0012 UTC »

Monitoring over the past five days has resulted in numerous new frequency allocations for the A17 transmission season. Here's a partial list of what I have so far:

5875 ASCENSION IS. BBC - Ascension. Hausa service to WAf 0630, NF and a weak signal, Mar 28

5890 SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. English to SEAs at 2200-2300, NF (ex 9740), weak signal, Mar 26.

5950 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English to SEAs, NF (ex 5840), weak signal, Mar 26.

5970 OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Dari service to SAs 1830-1900 s/off, NF (ex 5875), poor signal and heavy QRM from the dominant co-channel CRI with its French broadcast, Mar 27.

5975 AUSTRIA. R. Japan - Moosbrunn. 30-min English service to WEu at s/on 0500, NF (probably ex 13640 Dhabayya), surprisingly good signal using a non-directional antenna, Mar 28.

6080 NTH MARIANA IS. RFA - Tinian. Mandarin at s/on 2000, NF and a weak signal under heavy Firedrake jamming, Mar 26.

6105 FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. Japanese to CAm 0435, NF (ex 5960) and a weak signal here (but should be strong in CAm!), Mar 28.

7235 IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Italian service to Eu 1925, NF (ex 7305), fair signal, Mar 27.

7245 CHINA. CRI - Baoji. Russian at 2015. NT (ex 1900-2000), weak signal, Mar 26.

7255 CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Mandarin 2010, NF (ex 7245), weak signal, Mar 26.

7365 THAILAND. VOA - Ban Dung. Korean service 1935, NF (ex 5875??), fair signal, Mar 27.

9410 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic to EAf at 0330, fair signal. At 0400, changes over to the Moosbrunn relay for continuation of Arabic till 0500, but the signal is considerably weaker after the switchover. In B16, English was heard between 0300-0500 via Oman. Mar 30.

9450 PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Bocaue. Believed to be in the Mein language or similar at 2320, NF (ex 9455), weak signal, Mar 26.

9460 CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Cantonese at 2325, NF and poor signal on Mar 26.

9480 JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. English to Oc, s/on 1930, NF (ex 9625) and very good signal, Mar 27.

9535 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. DRM service to Eu at 2025 in French, then English at 2030, NF on Mar 26.

9535 KUWAIT. RFA - Umm al-Rimam. At 2305 in Mandarin to EAs. In B16 this was Tibetan at this time. Poor signal and jamming, Mar 26.

9570 CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Cantonese to Aus/Oc at s/on 1100, NF (ex 13580), excellent signal, Mar 26.

9610 CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Mandarin to Aus/Oc at 1110, NF (ex 15440), excellent signal, Mar 26.

9610 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. English to ENAm at s/on 2030, NF and poor signal, Mar 26.

9620 TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. English s/on 2030 English to Asia and Aus, NF (ex 9610) and one hour earlier, good signal, Mar 26.

9655 FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic to NAf at 2040, NF (ex 9810), fair signal, Mar 26.

9685 AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond Aust - Kununurra WA. Slow English at 1120, NF, poor signal and heavy QRM CNR jammer 9680, Mar 26.

9820 MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga. Russian at 1918, NF (ex 9495) and a weak signal. No sign of the scheduled BBC WS via Oman on this day, Mar 27.

9880 CHINA. CRI - Kashi. S/on 2200 in Esperanto (only one of about two stations still offering a service in this language), NF (ex 9860), fair to poor signal, Mar 26.

9890 SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. Burmese 0000-0030, NF (ex 9560), poor signal and // 11700 also heard, Mar 27.

11650 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu at 0940, NF and on Sundays only, poor signal, Mar 26.

11660 ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. Hausa s/on 0630 for 30 min service to WAf, NF and weak signal, Mar 28.

11665 MALAYSIA. RTM Wai FM - Kajang. Malay with pop music programming 0945, fair signal, Mar 26.

11700 ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish to SAm s/on 2300, NF (ex 9610?) and // 11800. Now on one hour earlier than for B16, weak signal, Mar 26.

11710 CHINA. CRI - Xian. English to EAs at 0900, NF and fair signal, Mar 26.

11720 GERMANY. VOA - Lampertheim. Tigrinya service to EAf at 1905, NF (ex 12040-Ban Dung) and good signal, Mar 27.

11785 THAILAND. VoA - Ban Dung. Mandarin 0950, NF and a weak signal under heavy CNR jammer, Mar 26.

11800 ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Spanish to SAm s/on 2300, NF (ex 7325?), weak and under much stronger co-channel CNR, Mar 26.

11825 JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. Japanese to EAs 0705, NF and fair signal, Mar 28.

And there's plenty more, but too long to list here. The list continues at the Mount Evelyn DX Report: http://medxr.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/a17-schedule-changes.html


Receiver: Yaesu FTDX3000
Antennas: 3.5, 7 and 14 mHz coax dipoles, and Par SWL End Fed
Location: Mount Evelyn, 45 km east of Melbourne, Vic, AU

Hoping there's something of interest to readers here. 73 and good DX everyone!

Rob VK3BVW

123

Shortwave Broadcast / AIR on Unscheduled Freq....

« on: March 18, 2017, 1056 UTC »

15770   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Found this in unscheduled English at 1040 with music programming, then a commentary on China at 1050. News at 1055 before ID and s/off at 1100. Fair to poor signal and running // to the somewhat stronger 13695 kHz.

124

Shortwave Broadcast / AWR via Moosbrunn on the R5000

« on: March 18, 2017, 1055 UTC »

Yesterday, I fired up the old Kenwood R5000 receiver for the first time in a long time, to ensure that it was still going....and it was!

9630   AUSTRIA. AWR - Moosbrunn. Hausa service to CAf at 0510 with some wonderful choral African chanting, very good signal. Yay! The R5000 still works OK!

I made a YouTube clip of the final announcements of this broadcast:  https://youtu.be/DWLeulf7qPY

125

Shortwave Broadcast / Three From Guam

« on: March 18, 2017, 1050 UTC »

7400   GUAM. KTWR - Agana. Interval signal at 1215, ID at 1217 and preaching in English to EAs till 1245 s/off. Scheduled for English on Tues, Wed and Thurs only. Mandarin or Japanese on other days. Good signal.

9460   GUAM. KTWR - Agat. AWR preaching in Russian to EAs at 1105, fair signal

11965   GUAM. KTWR - Agana. English to SEAs at 1030 with American preaching. Poor signal

126

Shortwave Broadcast / 6130 - Lao National Radio

« on: March 18, 2017, 1048 UTC »

6130   LAOS. Lao National R. - Vientiane. Lao talk by a female announcer at 1112, two lovely lilting traditional songs at 1118, male announcer with a talk at 1123. Not a strong signal and quite noisy atmospherics. Nothing heard from PBS Xizang

127

Shortwave Broadcast / Vietnam - Network 4

« on: March 18, 2017, 1047 UTC »

6020   VIETNAM. VoV - Buôn Mê Thuôt. A weak signal at 1154 with a talk in a local language, pop ballad duet at 1157. Music continued past 1200, till anncts at 1205. This is the Network 4 Minorities Service.

128

Clandestine Stations / Nippon no Kaze - 9465 and 9950

« on: March 11, 2017, 2155 UTC »

9465   TAIWAN. Nippon no Kaze - Tanshui. Strong signal in Korean at 1310 with the usual talks and occasional songs. // 9950 but a much weaker signal there. Mar 11.

9950   TAIWAN. Nippon no Kaze - Tanshui. Korean service at 1315. A weak signal and terrible het from AIR-Bengaluru's Burmese service supposedly the same channel, but AIR was way off frequency on 9950.60 kHz. AIR s/off at 1315 but left the carrier on for a further two minutes. When they finally turned the txer off, Nippon no Kaze could be heard clearly but weakly, and running // 9465 where the signal was much stronger. Mar 11.

129

Clandestine Stations / 7615 - Voice of Wilderness

« on: March 11, 2017, 2153 UTC »

7615   UZBEKISTAN. Voice of Wilderness - Tashkent. S/on 1330 with the trumpet call, intro music, ID, and a mix of Korean talk and music. Plenty of carrier this night but modulation was well down. Mar 11.

130

Shortwave Broadcast / 9900 kHz - Program Screw-up!

« on: March 11, 2017, 2152 UTC »

9900   TAJIKISTAN. Radio, Menschen & Geschichten - Dushanbe. German radio/technology themed program s/on 1200 to close at 1300. I believe that another broadcast, "Golden 80s Rewind" was supposed to be on at this time, but according to the producer of that program there was a screw-up at the transmitter site, with the technicians taking the wrong file from the FTP server, so the wrong program got aired. Excellent signal and beamed to Australia. Possibly a one-off event? Mar 11.

131

Shortwave Broadcast / Four AIR Domestics on 60mb

« on: March 11, 2017, 2150 UTC »

4800   INDIA. AIR - Hyderabad. Hindi talks at 1410, a weak signal and heavy QRM from co-channel CNR 1, Mar 11.

4895   INDIA. AIR - Kurseong. Slow ballad-style Indian songs at 1334 with Hindi chat between items. Pleasant listening. Not a strong signal but in the clear with occasional splash from the strong Voice of Strait on 4900, Mar 11.

4910   INDIA. AIR - Jaipur. Softly spoken Hindi discussion at 1359, then a softly sung Hindi song at 1400! The carrier and modulation were both somewhat soft, too! Mar 11.

4920   INDIA. AIR - Chennai. Hindi current affairs program at 1348, a fair signal and somewhat stronger than the co-channel PBS Xizang's Tibetan service. Mar 11.

132

Shortwave Broadcast / 13600 - Oman

« on: March 11, 2017, 2149 UTC »

13600   OMAN. R. Sultanate of Oman - Thumrayt. Arabic programming with talk and phone-in chat at 0615, occasional musical interludes. A weak signal on Mar 10.

133

Shortwave Broadcast / WMLK

« on: March 11, 2017, 2149 UTC »

9275.05   USA. WMLK - Bethel PA. Not an easy signal to hear in Australia sometimes. Quite a good signal at 2030 with American preaching droning on and drifting aimlessly from one topic to another. Plenty of mentions of Yahweh. ID at 2109, with an invitation to "drop by at the Assemblies of Yahweh in Bethel PA….if you are  a person of good will". Mar 10.

134

Shortwave Broadcast / 7259.94 kHz - Vanuatu

« on: March 11, 2017, 2147 UTC »

7259.94   VANUATU. R. Vanuatu - Port Vila. Talks in the Bislama language at 2045. The signal started at a fair level, but began to weaken rapidly by 2055 as the local time in Port Vila approached 8am and ionospheric absorption levels rose quickly at the transmitter site. Disappeared by 2100. Mar 10.

135

Clandestine Stations / NK Reform R. 7500

« on: March 11, 2017, 2145 UTC »

7500   UZBEKISTAN. North Korean Reform R. - Tashkent. Korean talks at 2113, a fair to poor signal in the noise, Mar 10.