Radio Havana Cuba
Arnie Coro, CO2KK
Hola amigos, I am Arnie Coro your host here at the middle of the week edition of Dxers Unlimited your favorite radio hobby program on the air and on the web from beautiful La Habana Cuba soon to celebrate its five hundredth. birthday. Here in La Habana, the FM broadcast band dial provides listeners within the metropolitan area with two stations that are not available on the AM broadcast band. One is the city of Havana's historian station that goes by the name Habana Radio, broadcasting on 106 decimal 9 megahertz and that counts with several repeaters all along our island nation. The other station is know as Radio Taino.
The FM of Cuba, the only Cuban radio broadcaster that has segments with commercials designed to promote services like hotels, and airlines. Radio Taino operates in the metropolitan area on 93 decimal 3 megaHertz and has relay stations located at the provincial capitals. In our two million population capital we can also pick up FM stations from the adjacent Mayabeque and Artemisa provinces, that operate on 102 decimal 3 and 104 decimal 7 megaHertz and are using high power and good antennas , so they are often reported by FM broadcast band Dxers, especially during the summer months sporadic E layer DX season.
This is Radio Havana Cuba and here is news item number two, of special interest to radio amateurs who are now using the sensational FT8 digital communications mode.
The Ohio / Penn State DX bulletin reports that during the week from the 31 of July to the 5th of August there were 211 DX countries or entities on the air., and that excellent source of up to date information for Dxers adds that the 3W9 prefix from Vietnam will be on the air by polish operator Jacek, SP5APW, who will activate as 3W9JK/P from Cham Island, IOTA Islands on the Air designator ASIA 162.
He will be also on the air between September 15-22nd, and as 3W9JK from Ho An City in the Quang Nam Province between September 22-27th. Activity will be from 20 meters to 6 meters-6 meters using SSB. QSL via his home callsign, direct, by the Bureau or ClubLog's OQRS.
From Morocco, prefix 5 E, 5 ECHO, Spanish radio amateur operators Jose/EA1ACP, Gen/EA5EL, Francisco/EA7FTR and David/ EB7DX will be active with the special callsign 5E5A during four different periods. Activity is a "National Celebrations in Morocco". Between August 14-15th, August 19-21st and August 30th-September 3rd. Operations will be on CW, SSB and also be using the now invading the bands digital mode FT8. And QSL can be requested via EA7FTR.
9M61, Malaysia. Look for the special event call signs with the prefix "9M61" to be active through September 1st. Activity is to celebrate the 61st anniversary of the independence of Malaysia, and to promote Malaysia's amateur radio enthusiasts in the country. .
This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited and here is more news item about the now ongoing solar activity minimum. The worst propagation conditions of the past ten years are happening right now as day after day, one after the other the Sun shows no sunspots, and the solar flux stays hovering barely above the lowest ever recorded value of sixty six units. As said here recently the long sequence of a blank Sun is an indication that we are now well into the period of minimum activity of solar cycle 24, who is also now being described as a very short duration cycle.
As a matter of fact you must look back to the tail end of cycle 23 between 2008 and 2009 to see a similar long spell of a blank Sun and solar flux levels at the baseline readings. Yes, it is confirmed that according to well known heliophysicists some new solar cycle sunspots have been seen, something that indicated we are entering into the transition between the very weak cycle 24 and what may be another also very weak cycle 25.
ASK ARNIE... the second most popular section of Dxers Unlimited just after our HF plus low band VHF propagation updates, today is answering a question sent by listeners from Germany , the USA, Canada, Nigeria, Mexico, Chile and Argentina who pick up our programs from the streaming audio available at www.radiohc.cu
They all want to know at what UTC the English one hour long transmissions via Internet are streaming. The first one is on from ten to eleven hours UTC, just before we start our Radio Havana Cuba daily spanish language broadcasts, that are on the air until fourteen hours UTC. The second run of the English service via Internet is on from 19 to 20 hours UTC, and that is in parallel with 15140 kiloHertz on the 19 meters band. There is also one additional English program streaming audio from 05 to 06 UTC in parallel with 5040 kilohertz and 6000, 6060 and 6165 kilohertz 49 meters band frequencies that are beaming to different areas of North America, the Caribbean and Western Europe.
QSL on the air to the listeners that have recently sent e mail messages to inforhc@enet.cu Yes amigos, that e mail address is working OK so you can send signal reports,comments and your radio hobby related questions to inforhc@enet.cu
Yes amigos, a reminder that that long range F2 layer propagation during solar minimum years very rarely goes above 20 megaHertz during the best daytime periods. You can use the scanning functions of digital radios to search for 10 meters amateur band beacons, operating from 28.2 to 28.3 megahertz. You can do likewise by programming the 40 citizens bands channels and leave your radio connected to a quarter wave vertical ground plane omni directional antenna, ready to pick up any DX signals that may reach your location.
The bad news is that there are no signs for improvement of short wave propagation conditions, because solar flux is holding at very low 70 flux units levels and zero sunspots in sight . Let me repeat the following:
SOLAR MINIMUM DEEPENS: The sun has been without sunspots for more than 50 percent of the days of this year 2018. To find a similar stretch of blank suns, you have to go back to 2009 when the sun was experiencing the deepest solar minimum in a century. Solar minimum has returned, bringing extra cosmic rays, long-lasting holes in the sun's atmosphere, and strangely pink auroras. And as expected the worst propagation conditions on the HF bands above 10 megahertz that can be expected.
The daily solar flux index number for Tuesday was 69.1
The official daily sunspot number (DSSN) was 0.
There had been 5 consecutive days with an official daily sunspot number
(DSSN) of 0.
In 2018 there had been 126 days with an official daily sunspot number
(DSSN) of 0.
The 24 hour period three hour interval planetary K index (Kp) had been at a quiet geomagnetic condition.
See you all at the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited next Sunday and early Monday UTC days just after the top of the hour news. Send your signal reports and comments about this and other Radio Havana Cuba's programs as well as your radio hobby related questions to inforhc@enet.cu and via air mail send your postcards and letters to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba. Havana, Cuba
(Arnie Coro/R Havana Cuba)