[HCDX]: Loggings
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[HCDX]: Loggings
I have returned recently from a three week vacation on Maui where I was
able to DX from two locations. I subsequently read the interesting article
in the "98 WRTH, duplicating many of Hans Johnson's observations. Here are
a few of my own.
From a shear comfort point of view, Hawaii is hard to beat. I,
unfortunately, received quite a few bug bites during a few of my sessions
located not far from a stream. Long sleeves, and pants should be the rule
during evening, night and early morning reception. This is not a problem
when DX-ing from your balcony, of course.
While driving around Maui, I noticed that the ambient noise level can be
as terrible as in any city, making DX-ing next to impossible. There were
areas of Kihei, my first site, where for blocks, the total SW (and MW)
spectrum was obliterated by very loud buzzing. I guess there's no way of
predicting ahead of time if your hotel/condo will be in a quiet location or
not. I suspect this is due to the dry climate in Kihei, and salt build-up
on the power lines and transformers which cause this problem. Fortunately,
my first site had a large, quiet grassy back area, where I was able to
string a 350' mini-beverage due east-west, along this stream/swamp, so I
left it up during my entire two week stay, without any problems, dangling
along the ground. Our second site was totally useless at Honokowai, not
because of noise, but because of the layout of the units, essentially
allowing only a limited access to the sky, to the west. Signals easilly
heard in Kihei were difficult or absent here. Interestingly, 18 months ago
I stayed in a condo at Kahana, about a mile north, and had excellent
reception, day and night, with little noise.
Africans, especially Zambia were superbly heard, as note by Hans, usually
well into the local mornings, and to a lesser extent in the early evening.
North American MW stations were everywhere, sometimes overpowering
neighbouring islands. Pacific island DXing was fun, both on MW and SW in
the late local evening hours, where there didn't seem to be much
interference from anyone else. I suspect that you could do some fantastic
DXing at a site with some long Beverages...Africans on MW should be a
relatively easy catch, I suggest. On with some of my loggings, all heard
using my Sony SW-1000T. This little radio easilly out-performed a DX-440 I
had borrowed. Highly recommended for travel!
SEYCHELLES 9820 FEBA over co-channel Havana, in Swahili starting at 0315.
Interval signal from 0311. Good signal (Salmaniw 24 Dec)
UKRAINE 5915 SIO 4-5-5. Radio Ukraine International in English, whith
program about Ukrainian astronaut aboard Shuttle at 0440. Couldn't imagine
a stronger signal possible, froma country on the other side of the world.
Much better reception than ever heard evenings in the Pacific north-west.
//7150 almost as good, 7205 5985 barely audible, and 6020 poor. Into
Ukrainian at 0500, 7205 to Europe (poor), 5985 (unheard) and 7420 (fair) to
Russia, and 5915 (good with some ute QRM ) and 7150 (good) both to North
America. (Salmaniw, 24 Dec)
5-5-5 signal at 0534 on 5915 and slightly weaker 7150 with Ukrainian music
(Salmaniw 28 Dec).
ECUADOR 5865 HCJB Ukrainian program with good to very good reception at
0507, equal to signals received in Victoria, BC and in Ukraine this past
Fall. (Salmaniw 24 Dec)
SOUTH AFRICA 9675 0505 with end of English news bulletin, ID as Channel
Africa, then Dateline Africa program. Co-channel with RAI Interval Signal.
Good except for co-channel. (Salmaniw, 24 Dec)
UNITED KINGDOM 9675 BBC with Ukrainian program, poor/fair, with Arabic
sounding co-channel, parallel to weaker CIS relay on 7370. (Salmaniw, 24 Dec)
CANADA 9755 RCI, As it Happens Christmas Eve programming with good to very
good reception at 0056, signing off. Parallel 9625 poor. Unfortunately
missed Al Maitland's reading of the Sheppard. Into French at 0100.
(Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
INDONESIA 15125 RRI Jakarta in Indonesian, with ID at 0133. Good signal
(Salmaniw, Dec 25)
INDIA (tentative) 13700 AIR Tibetan fair/good, parallel stronger 9565, but
nothing heard on 11880 listed in '97 WRTH. Buddhist chants (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
AUSTRIA 9495 Radio Austria International, ending Christmas Eve programming
in English at 0155. Poor to fair in the clear (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
COSTA RICA 6980 USB RFPI at 0228 with FIRE programming, fair to good,
parallel 7385 fair to good. 49 and 41 meters hopping already, 2 hours
before sunset. (Salmaniw, 25 Dec) 21465 USB World of Radio at 2034 with
poor signal (Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
USA 5085 WGTG surprisingly strong, better than WWCR on 5070, with relig
programming (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
11950 WINB Christmas carols with fair to good reception at 2327. ID at
2331. Internet and postal address, then into religous program. (Salmaniw,
Dec 26)
ALBANIA 7160 Radio Tirana. 0245 "This is Radio Tirana", repeated twice,
good with weak het, parallel 6115 weak, with co-channel. (Salmaniw, Dec 25)
BOTSWANA 4820 0248 Barnyard Interval Signal until 0300:30, then national
anthem, and opening announcements in vernacular, with lots of frequencies,
including the 90 60, 41 and 31 meter bands, though no sign of any other
frequency. Good to very good signal. (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
CLANDESTINE 7295 Voice of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Fair reception
with tone at 0330, then ID repeated twice, then militlant sounding Arabic
song. Phone quality audio. Parallels 7115 (fair), 9610 (very good except
for co-channel Channel Africa in english), 6195 (poor). (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)_
MOLDOVA 7500 Radio Moldova International's English service, with ID at
0343. Closing announcements at 0354, and off at 0355. poor to fair, but
better than I've heard in Victoria. (Salmaniw, 25 Dec)
CLANDESTINE 5500 Voice of Tigre Revolution. Flute Interval Signal, almost
oriental sounding from 0355 to 0359, then talk, but unable to make much more
out of it due to static. Fair. Unable to hear parallel 7515. (Salmaniw,
25 Dec)
TANZANIA 11734 Radio Tanzania Zanzibar. Good to very good signal past
normal 2000 sign-off until 2100. In local language with lots of mentions of
Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar. Bothersome het, but my Sony SW-1000T did an
admirable job using LSB Sync. (Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
RWANDA 9615 Deutche Welle, English at 2121 , fair to good, parallels via
Germany(?) 15275 (poor to fair) and 11865 (poor). (Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
6055 Radio Rwanda in French at 1813. Excellent. ID at 1817 as Radio Rwanda
in French. At 1916, continued strong signal in clear, but with a bit muddy
audio, and difficult accent to follow in English until 1928. 4-4-4 signal
by this time. Exciting to me to monitor an African station in English.
Obviously impossible to accomplish in the Pacific North-West due to this
late hour. (Salmaniw, Dec 29)
ANGUILLA 11775 Caribbean Beacon in English, with fair reception at 2133.
(Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
RUSSIA 11840 Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.Listed at only 15 Kw. Tune-in at 2220, in
Russian, and Russian music. 2229 local weather, then local time check, and
more music. When rechecked at 2305, signal was good to very good, and in
USB mode, not noted earlier. Russian news and ID for Radio Rossii.
Programming continued past 0011 with a theatre program. (Salmaniw, 27 Dec)
ICELAND 11402 AM with LSB supressed. Starting at 2300:15 in Icelandic, without
Interval signal. fair. (Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
TAHITI(?) 15167.3 Only a weak carrier heard at 0054. Nothing further heard
during my entire three week stay during various attempts. Should have been
a relatively easy catch owing to the short distance to French Polynesia.
Anyone else hearing anything, or has the transmitter given up the ghost?
(Salmaniw, 26 Dec)
YUGOSLAVIA 7115 Radio Yugoslavia with English news at 0112. Poor but in
the clear. Nothing heard on reported parallel 6195. (Salmaniw 26 Dec)
MALTA 17570 100Kw via Khabarovsk, Russia. Strong open carrier from at
least 0145, with noticeable Soviet-style transmitter hum, followed by
unusual Interval signal of music, bells, and a "ya ya" vocal for 30 seconds
at 0200, then English at 0201 as "Hello and welcome to Valleta Calling".
Program dedicated to the New Year. Very good reception. Switched to
Maltese at 0300. No sign of parallel 15550, where only signal is from China
Radio's domestic service. (Salmaniw, 28 Dec)
ANGOLA (tent) 9770 VORGAN suspected here at 0523, with African music,and
Portuguese talk at 0527. Mentions of Angola. (Salmaniw 28 Dec)
KIRIBATI 9810 Radio Kiribati at 0610, with 10 minutes past 6 time check, in
definite AM mode with LSB suppressed, with transmitter cutting out
intermittently, which I believe is intentional to save power and boost
signal. Quite distictive. Parallel 846 is heard at 0836 (fair to good)
(Salmaniw 28 Dec)
MALI 4783 ORTM in French with news, frequent mentions of Bamako. Good
reception. Parallel 4835 even stronger, at 0725. (Salmaniw, 28 Dec)
BURKINA FASO 4815 Radio Burkina in French with fair to poor reception at
0734. Mentions of Ouagadougou. (Salmaniw, 28 Dec)
VANUATU 4960 0759 "I can't stop loving you". Bislama talk t 0759:45, then
ad for water, and wishing you a happy new year 1998. Conch shell, followed
by news in Bislama. Interview with woman answering in English at 0802.
Parallel to very weak 2 Kw on 1179. Superb signal after 0800. (Salmaniw, 28 Dec)
SOLOMON ISLANDS 5020 SIBC at 0808 with Pidgin English news, and time check
as "7 o'clock", and news for the Catholic Church. Program about
Bougainville at 0811 (a very common topic on SIBC). (Salmaniw, 28 Dec)
KENYA 4935 Voice of Kenya English service with news at 1600. Poor to fair,
with weak modulation. Better when re-checked at 1700. English until 1704,
then music past 1740. fair to good. 1802 English news with good reception
about voting today, and violence encountered. Nice ID at 1808 "This
broadcast comes to you from the Kenya B.C. in Nairobi". (Salmaniw 29 Dec)
ZIMBABWE 5012 Radio 2 with sign-off announcements at 1629. Time check for
half-past 6, POB 9048, Harare, Radio 2 jingles, then sign-off. Very
powerful signal (Salmaniw, 29 Dec)
ERITREA Different programming on 7085 and 7390, presumed Voice of Broad
Masses of Eritrea, both poor. (Salmaniw, 29 Dec)
NEPAL 3230 Radio Nepal, stronger than parallel 5005, in Nepali, with
frequent mentions of Nepal at 1610. (Salmaniw, 29 Dec)
ZAMBIA 3330 Superb signal from Christian Voice. Nice to hear local
religious programming, instead of the canned Stateside stuff so often heard.
1620 tune-in. Time-check for 19 hours at 1700, followed by news in brief in
English. (Salmaniw, 29 Dec)
6165 Radio 2 in English. Very good at 1706 with program about sex
education. Equal in strength to Radio 1 on 4910. 6165 was heard easilly
with just a whip at 1740. English news heard at 1800 on both 6165
(excellent), and 4910 (good). (Salmaniw, Dec 29)
CLANDESTINE 9980 Presumed Voice of Oromo Liberation, with
African/Middle-East music interspersed with talk at 1702. Poor to fair.
(Salmaniw, Dec 29)
MONGOLIA 9720 Voice of Mongolia heard with English ID announcing 9729 and
12085 (not heard) at 1930 under Radio Yugoslavia Interval Signal and ID,
which was much stronger. (Salmaniw, Dec 29)
BURUNDI (tent) 6140 At 1745, best heard on USB due to bubble jamming
co-channel, with snippets of English news, such as "Zambia's capital
Lusaka", etc. Not sure what else this could be. (Salmaniw, Dec 29)
YEMEN Republic of Yemen Radio on 9780 at 1801 with English news with a good
signal, but bothersome het. News continued to 1805, then western music.
Voice modulation could use a boost. Music is OK. (Salmaniw, Jan 2)
SAIPAN 9465 KFBS with Ukrainian religous program at 1825 into Russian at
1830. Address in USA for Ukrainian program, produced by Dr Petro Slobodian.
Good. (Salmaniw, Jan 2)
BANGLADESH 9550 Bangladesh Betar at 1839 with English program. Lowish
modulation with transmitter hum. Weekly economic news at 1841 after English
news. Sign-off at 1901 with address. (Salmaniw, Jan 2)
That's all folks. If you don't mind, I've CC'd this to Hard-Core DX,
Glen Hauser, and HCJB. Thanks! Walter Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Canada
(salmaniw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
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