Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Shortwave Blog "Bytes"

new "bytes" from the world of shortwave radio

All times UTC

Australian DX Report # 169 available for download
Episode no. 169 of the Australian DX Report audio news magazine includes propagation research analysis of current spectrum occupancy in the 6, 7, 9, 11, and 13 MHz bands.

There are also other features, news and information about shortwave broadcasting, propagation, a solar activity report, monitoring notes, new schedules, extracts from schedules, and schedule updates.

It's 14 mins duration, and may be accessed from

http://airm.edxp.org/

You may download/listen to/save the episodes as an MP3 file on your laptop/desktop, set up a Podcast, or receive/save it on your mobile phone or other portable internet-enabled digital device.

You may also subscribe via the site's RSS/Atom feed - full details are at the site.

The shows are very popular - over the past 30 days, there have been 613 downloads by subscribers, 1517 site visitors, and 165 episode hits.

The episodes are also available on-air, over WWCR Nashville, 0200-0215 on Sundays, on 5070, and on Mondays 1145-1200 on 15825, and via WWCR's streaming audio (live) at http://wwcr.com/

Good listening to the Australian DX Report Episode No. 169, and enjoy the Australian music!
(Bob Padula, Australia/Cumbre DX)

Austria - Adventist World Radio
6090 Adventist World Radio via Moosbrunn, at 0405-0426* on Sep 12, religious program in listed Farsi language with choir vocals. IDby woman announcer at closedown. Fair to good.
(Rich D'Angelo-PA-USA, DXplorer Sept 13)

6155 and 13730 kHz from OE1 Moosbrunn were silent totally approx. 0600- 1400, Sept 15. They suffered current transformer failure recently too. Heavy hum noted around 1405 today on 6155 kHz. (wb)

ORF Moosbrunn off. ORF OE1 program on 6155 missed our European mornings this week. Station answered as follows:
Repair and maintenance on the Mossbrunn antenna field on Sept 15 to 17.
E-Mail: oe1.service@orf.at Website: http://oe1.orf.at/
off time
6155 0615-1359
13730 0615-1259
17715 1200-1230
(Michael Marschal-AUT via Joachim Thiel-D, A-DX Sept 17/BC-DX #930)

Brazil's Radio Clube do Para audio clip and QSL
4885 KHz
audioclip and QSL available at: http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/7660966.html
(Francesco, Italy/playdx)

Chad heard on 7120
Have been hearing 7120 kHz for a week at least from about 1600 -sometimes a bit earlier past 1730 UT. Today the 18th heard a clear ID at 1700 for Radio Chad in Arabic into news at 1700 UT preceded at 1659.30-1700 with their drumbeats. SIO 333 some days SIO 444 on Icom R71 with 40m dipole.
(Victor Goonetilleke-CLN 4S7VK, DXplorer Sept 18)
7120 also on air at 1955 UT Sept 18. wb.
(BC-DX #930)
Clandestine, Cheetah Radio monitoring
11730 Cheetah Radio via Juelich (tent), at 1602-1633. Man/woman with long talk in English about wind power, nuclear power and the need to balance all interests. Apparent program ID and maybe even station ID but uneven reception made it impossible to confirm. Fair signal at peaks but very deep fades.

[later] 11730 Cheetah Radio via Juelich verified an electronic report with an electronic reply from Bryne Edwards, Director of Media Operations, Cheetah Radio in Carson City, Nevada in four hours telling me to expect a QSL card by postal mail in a few weeks. Frequency 11730 kHz 1600-1659, zone 41, 100kW at 90deg, Sats only, RMI brokered. (Rich D'Angelo-PA-USA, DXplorer Sept 13/BC-DX #930)

Equatorial Guinea on 5009
5005 Radio Bata hrd from 0502 tune with nice S3 signal - local dance mx, some C&W and male announcer in Spanish. Signal faded almost instantaneously between 0530-31 in the middle of a county & western vocal music - might have been transmitter problem as this station has been hrd fairly well until 0600 as of late - Radio Bata has an unstable transmitter on many nights with unpredictable sig lvls. SINPO 34333 with QRM from WWV/WWVH, but overall one of the best nights for Radio Bata - until 0530. To minimize the WWV QRM, I used the Perseus filter offset by shifting the 3.8 KHz filter width up by 0.4 kHz.
(Bruce W. Churchill-CA-USA, DXplorer Sept 18/BC-DX #930)

Marine Capetown link
Photo available at: http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/7698413.html
(Francesco, Italy/playdx)

New Solar Cycle 24 Sunspot Group Emerges
Posted Monday September 21, 2009

A new solar cycle 24 sunspot emerged yesterday at S30E77. Today NOAA/SWPC gave it #11026 at location S29E63. In the past few days there had been alot of hype concerning this new sunspot group and as I didn't want to followed the Pied Piper into the abyss, so I held off on posting about the sunspot group until I could verify that it was actually a sunspot group and not
another active plage.

It remains to be seen what it's magnetic signature is and how fast if any that it grows in size and magnetic complexity. So far it has produced 11 sunspots and pushed the solar flux index to 73, the highest since Jun 01, 2009. #11026 has produced one very small B class solar flare in the past 48 hours and small C class solar flares are possible in future days.

Prior to the emergence of solar cycle 24 sunspot group #11026 we went 19 days without a sunspot group. Since January 01, 2009 we have seen 212 days without a sunspot group.
(Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O, Lakeland, FL)

Radiofax - ZSJ Marine Capetown
18,238 kHz, 1105; ZSJ Marine Capetown -FAX 120/576,suff signal in Italy.
Mauro Giroletti
Photo available at http://blog.libero.it/radioascolto/7692733.html
(Francesco, Italy/playdx)

Pirates Week available for download
http://www.piratesweek.info/
Pirates in the news this week include the first trailer for the American version of the film Pirate Radio aka The Boat that Rocked has been released. The Daily Camera has a expose on Boulder Colorado’s other pirate radio station Green Light Radio. Shortwave Central has a blog post about Chasing Pirate Beacons. You may also want to check out the High Freq Beacon Society. There are also reports of a pirate radio station in Toronto Canada.
‭Select postings from the Free Radio Network, HF Underground and note stations logged per the Free Radio Weekly Check out WBNY’s newly update page WBNY.Webhop.org
‭Off Air Recordings include the stations of: Captain Morgan, MAC, Radio Ga-Ga, WBNY, WEAK Radio, and WTCR.
Radio Survivor is reporting that Low Power FM gets backing of new FCC Commissioners.
Paul Riismandel has a blog post on recording air checks.
‭Background music from the Podsafe Music Network by the artists; The Groove Mine, Mario Tomic, and B.D. Lenz
‭(Radnar Danesskjold)

New Zealand DRM schedule update from September 8
1200-1550 no DRM service
1259-1550 6170 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
1551-1850 7285 RAN 050 kW 035 deg AM NE Pac, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Isl
1551-1850 6170 RAN 025 kW 035 deg DRM Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, Samoa
1851-1950 9615 RAN 050 kW 035 deg AM NE Pac,Fiji, Samoa, Cook Isl
1851-1935 9890 RAN 025 kW 035 deg DRM Niue, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Isls
1936-1950 9890 RAN 025 kW 035 deg DRM Tonga
1951-2050 11725 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
1951-2050 11675 RAN 025 kW 000 deg DRM Solomon Isls Niue, Fiji,Samoa,Fiji
2051-2235 15720 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
2051-2235 13730 RAN 025 kW 000 deg DRM Vanuatu, Fiji
2236-0458 15720 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
2236-0458 13730 RAN 025 kW 000 deg DRM All Pacific
0459-0658 11725 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
0459-0658 11675 RAN 025 kW 000 deg DRM All Pacific
0659-1058 6170 RAN 050 kW 000 deg AM All Pacific
0659-1158 7285 RAN 025 kW 000 deg DRM All Pacific
1059-1258 9655 RAN 050 kW 325 deg AM NWPac,Bougainville,PNG,Timor,Asia
(NZL DX Times magazine Sept 14/BC-DX #930) New 11675 service.