All times UTCGuy Atkins to Grayland
This trip to Grayland Beach State Park was a real challenge with the weather. I encountered high winds and rain, and occasional, nearly-sideways hail that pounded the yurt wall so hard I had to crank up the volume to the headphones considerably. I also had the din of the nearby roaring Pacific Ocean to contend with. At least last week's snow had melted, and I had brief periods of calm and almost no rain while erecting and dismantling the antennas--thankfully! It was also the first time I've been c-c-cold in the Grayland yurts; the wind and chilly temps found their way easily around the door edges, and the yurt's built-in heater couldn't keep up.
I'm still going through the many Perseus SDR files for medium wave DX, and I'll have them posted and on my blog in 2-3 days. Here's the shortwave loggings, though... not bad for a few hours of SW DX "on the side". It's been a while since I've encountered this many interesting signals on 60 meters. A and K indices were low, and I'm sure it helped the India DX audible from over the polar route.
4739.61 Vietnam 1258-1303, Son La RTV Dec 30 Presumed. Distorted and poorly modulated signal with male announcer in Vietnamese or tribal language (may have been a phone patch); primitive-sounding vocals by woman with screechy stringed instrument at 1259. Program announcements by woman at 1301, but couldn't make out an ID. Poor . (Atkins-WA)
4739.61 Vietnam 1258-1303, Son La RTV Dec 30 Presumed. Distorted and poorly modulated signal with male announcer in Vietnamese or tribal language (may have been a phone patch); primitive-sounding vocals by woman with screechy stringed instrument at 1259. Program announcements by woman at 1301, but couldn't make out an ID. Poor . (Atkins-WA)
4750 Indonesia, 1258-1302, RRI Makassar Dec 30 A real mess on this frequency with two Chinese stations (CNR1 and PBS) dominant, and RRI Makassar in the background. Female and male announcers in Indonesian up to 1300 and into presumed news. None of the stations were exactly on 4750, and it was driving the synchronous AM detector crazy! Best in LSB to avoid CODAR swisher. Fair level. Rechecked WAV file from 1400 UTC and Makassar was much clearer. The WAV for 1500 revealed them in the clear, with Song of the Coconut Islands up to RRI network ID and into Warta Berita. (Atkins-WA)
4775 India, 1645-1700, AIR Imphal Dec 30 Slow Hindi singing by woman with percussion accompaniment; brief announcement by man, and into another slow subcontinental music selection with tabla and flute. Various subcont. music styles to 1659:35 ID as 'Akashvani Imphal' with sign-off announcements including mentions of 'kilohertz'. Plug pulled at 1700:30. Good signal. (Atkins-WA)
4780 Guatemala, 1259-1303, Radio Cultural Coatan Dec 30 Flute music to 1300 with male announcer in Spanish and mentions of Coatan. Prayer or devotional message voice-over folk music at 1302. Fair signal at half hour past Coatan SR. (Atkins-WA)
4799.8 Guatemala, 1258-1302, R. Buenas Nuevas Dec 30 Presumed. Romantic song in Spanish beneath strong CNR1 signal, and into a talk or announcement in Spanish. Poor to fair. (Atkins-WA)
4820 India, 1730-1735, AIR Kolkata Dec 29 Woman announcer in English, with commentary or talk on Asian politics. Good level but buried beneath a strong Xizang PBS music program. Parallel to 4920 Chennai (also good), but also beneath a different Xizang PBS music program. (Atkins-WA)
4860 India, 1659-1701, AIR Delhi Dec 30 Messy, noisy signal with possible Delhi at low level. Language sounded Hindi. (Atkins-WA)
4880 India, 1250-1302, AIR Lucknow Dec 30 Continuous subcontinental flute music to female announcer at 1300 with at least two mentions of All India Radio. Weak level. (Atkins-WA)
4880 South Africa, 1645-1705, SW Radio Africa Dec 30 Talk in unid. African language by various speakers to 1700, then change to male announcer in English language with mentions of Africa, time pips, and into headline news including Israel military action. Fair signal, with some weak co-channel interference from presumed AIR Lucknow prior to 1700. Another African via morning longpath. (Atkins-WA)
4895 India, 1635-1644, AIR Kurseong Dec 30 Subcontinental music of singing and tabla, and later Hindi film music. Fair level, but deteriorating towards 1700 sign-off, which was nearly inaudible. Plug pulled at 1700:45. (Atkins-WA)
4905 Chad, 1550-1645, Rdiff. Natl. Tchadienne Dec 30 Surprised and pleased to find this 3rd longpath African signal of the morning of the 30th, thanks to a tip from Walt Salmaniw on a faint signal in the background of Tibet's English service on 4905. I replayed the Perseus WAV file a number of times and heard drums and Arabic-sounding talk up to a distinctive balofon interval signal at 1630:25. Based on the terminator position, drums music, and Arabic language I suspected it was northern Africa. I checked http://www.intervalsignals.net/ found that the IS matched one of the sound files for Rdiff. Natl. Tchadienne! The final nail in the coffin was finding that 4905 is a current domestic frequency for Chad, via the British DX Club's 'Africa on Shortwave' January 2009 guide. The schedule for Chad indicates French, Arabic, and vernaculars 1030-2230 UTC. This makes three longpath Africans heard past sunrise on Dec. 30. Thanks to Walt Salmaniw for the initial tip. What fun to have both Chad and Tibet dueling it out on the same tropical band frequency! (Atkins-WA)
4905 Tibet, 1630-1635, Holy Tibet Dec 30 Thanks to Walt Salmaniw (whose Dec. 30 logging reminded me that what's listed in some sources as 'PBS Xizang' on 4905/4920 is more accurately Tibet, not China), I was able to log this one 'retroactively'. Having just returned from Grayland I had Perseus recorded files of the 60 meter band that happened to be from the same date and timeframe when Walt was DXing. I had skipped over 4905 //4920 initially, not realizing the frequencies were from Tibet and that English was scheduled for 1630-1700. After I read Walt's logging I checked the portion of my Perseus WAV file for 4905 kHz at 1630, and there it was. At 1630:40 I heard a female announcer say 'Holy Tibet is the means by which you may visit the roof of the world', and she and a male announcer talked briefly about listening to the station to learn more about 'the terrain, the people, and the culture of Tibet'. Good signal, but modulation could be better. (Atkins-WA)
4920 India, 1736-1738, AIR Chennai Dec 29 Good level with an Asian politics commentary by woman in English, but co-channel with Xizang PBS music program. Parallel to 4920 AIR Kolkata. (Atkins-WA)
4930 Botswana, 1625-1633, VOA Dec 30 Woman announcer with African news highlights and mentions of VOA and Washington DC. 'This is African News Tonight, on the VOA' ID at 1630. Into 'The Sunny Side of Sports' program about Togo soccer team's success. Good to very good signal, via longpath on PA0RDT Mini-whip antenna. (Atkins-WA)
4940 India, 1653-1701, AIR Guwahati Dec 30 Male vocalist with Hindi singing, sitar, and tabla. Sign-off announcements and ID by female announcer at 1700, and then carrier off at 1701:20. Good signal. Also heard earlier at 1300, with Guwahati dominating Voice of the Strait (China). (Atkins-WA)
4950 China, 1259-1302, Voice of Pujiang – Shanghai Dec 30 5+1 time pips followed by ID in Chinese by woman, and two mentions of Shanghai. Strong signal. (Atkins-WA)
4970 India, 1629-1632, AIR Shillong Dec 30 Percussive music selection with gongs and tabla to female announcer in English. ID at 1630 'This is the end of our program tonight. This is All India Radio, broadcasting from Shillong'. The same announcer repeated the sign-off in Hindi, and then Shillong's carrier was gone at 1632. Fair signal. (Atkins-WA)
4990 India, 1629-1631, AIR Itanagar Dec 30 Hindi film music, then female announcer in Hindi with sign-off announcements. Poor to fair level. (Atkins-WA)
5010 India, 1659-1702, AIR Thiruvanathapuram Dec 30 Presumed. Threshold signal of subcontinental music to male announcer at 1700, and into tabla and flute music at 1701. Very weak signal. (Atkins-WA)
6165 Vietnam, 0320-0340, Voice of Vietnam, Xuan Mai Dec 29 Poor to fair signal in English; woman announcer with commentary on terrorism in Mumbai and Iraq. (Atkins-WA) Guy Atkins, Puyallup, WA DXing at Grayland Beach State Park ; Perseus SDR X2 / Wellbrook Phased Array antenna (proto) / PA0RDT Mini-Whip@ 30 ft. high
(IRCA # Vol. 46-No. 17)
The International Radio Club of America
P.O. Box 60241, Lafayette LA 70596
http://www.ircaonline.org/
The IRCA is a non-profit organization devoted to the hobby of hearing distant stations on the Broadcast Band (510-1720 kHz). DX Monitor, the official publication of the IRCA, is published in "soft" form 35 times a year (weekly from November through March, twice monthly from April to November) and in printed form 30 times a year (weekly November through March, monthly April to November). DX Monitor contains members' loggings, articles on radio stations, receiver reviews, technical articles, DX tips, and other material of interest to Broadcast Band DX hobbyists.
The IRCA is a non-profit organization devoted to the hobby of hearing distant stations on the Broadcast Band (510-1720 kHz). DX Monitor, the official publication of the IRCA, is published in "soft" form 35 times a year (weekly from November through March, twice monthly from April to November) and in printed form 30 times a year (weekly November through March, monthly April to November). DX Monitor contains members' loggings, articles on radio stations, receiver reviews, technical articles, DX tips, and other material of interest to Broadcast Band DX hobbyists.
