Propagation proves generous in the last days, making less hard to leave behind some sleep hours. To be remarked, above all, some good signals on the 3 MHz band, which were simply unpredictable to me. However, less talking now, and more logs. As usual, QTH is Aosta (north-western Italy), receiver an Icom R71, and aerial a vertical home made, used also for ham operations, 10 meters tall and derivated from a "fishing rod". Logs divided in three sections, so everyone will find his favourite dish!

BC STATIONS

3350 kHz – 04.58 UTC – 19th August 2011
Radio Exterior de Espana, from Cariari de Pococí in Costa Rica, isn't the hardest DX catch one can think of. Anyways, that morning it was really solid (aside some local spurious signals, that I'll have to investigate deeper). A song, then time pips, followed by female and male announcer on a "projecto de restauracion y investigacion". Nice to wake up with Central America blasting!

5025 kHz – 22.04 UTC – 24th July 2011
Before Rebelde violently kicks in, 5025 can reveal Australia. That night, it did. Not the strongest signal ever, but the night channel of Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Outback Radio, from Katherine in the Northern Territory, is a news in itself when heard. Some music at the beginning of the clip. for what sounds like a usual domestic radio show.

15190 kHz – 21.23 UTC – 23rd August 2011
Radio Inconfidencia from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, can surprise for the intensity it can reach on 19 meters, at night. Yesterday, MUF had to be high, as it was better than the last ten nights. Mention, by two different speakers, of different brazilian towns (sounded like quotes for some goods, or something like that). At 2 minutes 40 seconds in the recording, start of a popular song.

TIME SIGNALS

3330 kHz – 05.09 UTC – 19th August 2011
CHU, from Ottawa (Canada), is one of the stations you have to sincerely worry when unheard. Stronger than this in some mornings (pips are well defined, even "digital" ones, but the voice announcement has here to be more guessed than heard. But, hey it's August and we're on three MHz.

3810 kHz (LSB) – 04.52 UTC – 19th August 2011
The guys at HD2IOA, Guayaquil in Equador, aren't among the most regulars here at early morning. However, sometimes, like in this case, they do remember the world shortwaves are done to go far! It sounds to me they changed the style of their time signal. Anyone more expert can advice?

10000 kHz – 05.07 UTC – 17th August 2011
Some mornings, PPE-Observatorio Nacional (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), struggles its way to Europe with Fort Collins. Not this time, when the female voice from the land of the golden beaches and the eternal sun made no mercy of other signals.

HAM OPS

7160.8 kHz – 01.47 UTC – 14th August 2011
K1KNM, Ken in Vermont, stronger than the European stations he was working.

7190 kHz – 02.03 UTC – 14th August 2011
WG3J, a club station in Maryland. Hoisy channel, but – as we do say in Italy, you would sign papers to cross the Pond with such intensity.

14125 kHz – 20.20 UTC – 22nd August 2011
Twenty meters are like a roulette. Night falls, and after a while you'll understand if it's long, or short, skip. Yesterday night they offered this wonderful QSO between FM5AN, Guy in Fort de France (Martinique) and CT1JEY. Chatty and strong as they were on a local VHF repeater. In a word, marvellous, like the bands in the last days!

73,
Chris

The sparkling sun, lately, has brought noise, but also some interesting finds. For medium wave hunters, although if in mid summer (which isn't exactely the best season for the low spectrum), it's a really interesting period. So, here are some of recent catches that gave yours truly some satisfaction. Every entry is intended with Aosta as QTH (north-western Italy), Icom R71 as receiver, and a 10 meters vertical antenna homebrew from a fishing rod. Don't be lazy, switch on your radios, it's fun time!

1620 kHz – 04.00 UTC – 6th August 2011
A index did rise 'til 27 that night. I wasn't obviously aware (either you sit at the radio, or you're checking tables), but I noticed an unexpected TA opening on X-band channels. 1620 was dominated by Rebelde (I'd pay to see a clip of the transmitter and of how much power they put in it!), but a fading did reveal WDHP from Frederiksted. Here is the TOH id: "You're listening to WDHP 16-20 AM, from the United States Virgin Islands". Not the best, in terms of quality but remember we're talking an august night, and a station that most of the time relays BBC.

1566 kHz – 03.00 UTC – 6th August 2011
County Sound Radio, from Guidlford, in the United Kingdom, wasn't a premiere for yours truly. However, with its 750 watts, and a channel crowded as a commuter bus, I rarely heard it so intense. Here comes ID jingle. News followed (even if they're not in this recording.

1566 kHz – 03.18 UTC – 6th August 2011
With two muscled UK stations (County Sound and BBC Somerset/Bristol), the test by Challenger Radio in Rome quite passed unoticed here (while 1368 kHz from Padova blasts without any forgiveness). Except for that night, when, during their classic 30s songs slot, I managed to snag an announcement in Italian, including ID. Then, music restarted and they disappeared in the channel mud. Just in time!

1512 kHz – 22.30 UTC – 11th August 2011
I've to admit the reception of "Ondamedia Broadcast", from the Bologna area, has become my obsession. I can't see how I have no way of receiving this new italian medium wave station. However, if the attempts will bring results like this almost local IRIB1 from Ardabil, obviously in Farsi, I hope the struggle for Italy will last something more…

7200 kHz – 02.24 UTC – 14th August 2011
I was awake at late night to witness US and Brazil amateurs crossing the pond in 40 meters, with more strenght than European station, then decided to give a try to the top margin of the band. Hope was to find NVK Radio Sakha, but I should stop trusting Aoki. The Japanese list tells Radio Omdurman,  Sudan's State broadcaster, signs on at 02.30, while WRTH has it starting at 02.00. Not a disappointment, tho', as it was quite loud, and it's always pleasant to find a nice signal from another continent. Some sub-saharian sung parts, then – at 03.28 in the recording – comes the id in Arabic: "Huna Omdurman, idha' atu l-gumhuriya as-Sudan".

I would like to thank Alessandro Groppazzi for his precious assist with some Unids. Now, back to the dial, this plenty has to be taken until it lasts.

73,
Chris

A dog is not only a man's best friend. He's also a DXer one. Mine, for example, a two years old hound, decided it was fine to awake me at 02.30 UTC, this morning. At first, I was angry, as probably everyone of you, in my shoes, would have been. Then, after realizing it wasn't so easy to re-gain sleep quickly, I reached the shack. Some interesting remarks ended on the notepad. First of all, tropical bands, even with darkness still there, were silent as desert. Only the usual Rebelde on 5025 kHz showed at his historical spot. However, it was weaker than others signals from the same area (for example, Havana Cuba on 5040 came much stronger). So, even with poor expectations, I drew dial low, in MW, to see if I could snag some of the local Italian stations that seem to pull out like mushrooms lately. Nothing at all: 1512 was silent, and 1566 had whispers from the UK. Only 1368 kHz was litterally blasting at 02.42 UTC. Interestingly enough, for once, Radio Challenger, from Padova (in the north-east of the Country), wasn't relaying US programs, but kids songs, with a "test broadcast" male voice announcement between them. I've read they increased station power, so the crystal clear signal didn't really surprise me. Let's hope, in a near future, I'll also manage to log one of the various Ondamedia Broadcast, Radio Kolbe, and so on, as so far they are one of my most intense reasons of frustration as a BCL. I then pushed the R71 higher, looking for some 40 meters ham DX, and all I found has been a BC signal on 7175 kHz. The Voice of Broad Masses from Asmara, Eritrea, on its usual channel, should have made me angry as an OM, but I was happy instead. First, it was strong like a local FM station, and then, being 3.00 UTC their sign on time, I discovered the "interval signal", with announcements in three different languages. I ended the early morning exploration with a time signal check. 15 MHz was nil, 10 revealed both "Observatorio Nacional" from Brasil, and WWV, in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was quite easy to separate them, by switching to lower side band, at 03.28 UTC, to reveal USA only. Not so strong here, but being quite sporadic I gladly noted the presence (see my previous post "Crossing the pond"). One hour was then to go to the usual morning wake-up time. I went back to bed, but before that I threw a bone to the hound, quietly lying on the couch. It was well deserved!

73,
Chris

Someone said you’ve to hate sleep to be a perfect radio addict. I’m deeply against this idea (you can do excellent things towards Asia, in the afternoon, from Europe), but from time to time I love doing late hours in front of my shack. It happened, last time, during the night between Sunday 31^stJuly and Monday 1^stAugust, for an “horizon tour” of Medium Waves. A journey that I didn’t embark for since a while. Nothing that can really be named DX went logged, but the properties of medium wave at night are always interesting. In the end, tell me, European listeners, it’s more DXful tuning to Boston in morning greyline on 1510, or logging a former-Yugoslavian local station on one of 9 kHz standard channels? I support the latter opinion, but debate is open! And now, the log. For each entry, QTH is Aosta (north-western Italy), receiver is Icom R-71, and antenna is my hamradio fishing rod. I was scared to dismantle my Mini-Whip (also for the affective value it had), but: a) I did think it was unfair to shot in the PA0RDT creation some 100 Watts from close distance (when I go on the air as an OM); b) hear for yourself how the rod is performing on medium waves…

1548 kHz, 22.42 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Gold (Saffron Green tx site) – Oldies (David Bowie at first) px. Id at 1.22 in the recording.

1494 kHz, 23.12 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Radio France Bleu (Bastia transmitting site, Corsica) – Music px (italian song), mixing with France Inter.

1458 kHz, 22.50 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Sunrise Radio (Brookmans Park transmitting site, UK) – Phone calls from listeners, mixing from unrecognized station (at times really strong).

1278 kHz, 23.23 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
France Bleu (Sélestat transmitting site) – “Rolling in the deep” from Adele, followed by id jingle.

1215 kHz, 23.31 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Absolute Radio (Unid tx site, UK) – Music px with male dj. Identifies at around 6 minutes, in the recording.

1170 kHz, 23.40 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Unid eastern European station – Spoken programme. An id is at 3.19 in the recording, but I can’t do much out of it. Probably, Belaruskaye Radio 1. Help and comments welcome.

1089 kHz, 23.48 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
Talksport (Unid tx site, UK) – Talk programme with male host, and listeners phone ins.

1008 kHz, 23.57 UTC, 31^stJuly 2011
GrootNieuwsradio (Zeewolde tx site, Holland) – Pop music px, with id at 3.19 in the recording. Co-channel with several Spanish stations.

891 kHz, 00.05 UTC, 1^stAugust 2011
Radio 538 (Hulsberg tx site, Holland)- Pop music px. Female dj talking at 6.17 in the recording.

73,
Chris

Old Andrew Oldham's Orchestra LP title well pictures the reception situation at my QTH. I'm now pretty persuaded I've a better window on Asia, but sometimes US signals can reach quite an intensity. It's what happened on the night of last 15th August, while I was cruising 15 MHz (which lately counts among my favorite bands, as it offers a really wide bouquet of catches!). For each entry, QTH is Aosta, in north-western Italy, receiver is the SDR "Pappradio" (I'm, day after day, amazed at its performance), and aerial is a Discone.

15230 kHz – 23.10 UTC – Radio Australia – Programme in English – 15th June 2011. Shepparton, Australia, transmitting site, beam to west Oceania.

15560 kHz – 23.20 UTC – Radio Australia – Programme in English – 15th June 2011. Shepparton, Australia, transmitting site, beam to south Oceania (note the strenght different with previous entry!).

15585 kHz – 23.22 UTC – Radio Free Asia – Programme in Mandarin – 15th June 2011. Tinian, Marianas Islands, transmitting site.

15600 kHz – 23.32 UTC – FEBC – Programme in Burmese – 15th June 2011. Bocause, Philippines, transmitting site.

15610 kHz – 23.27 UTC – WEWN – Programme in English – 15th June 2011. Vandiver, Alabama, US, transmitting site.

Believe it, or not, I still have to QSL Radio Australia. This will be the time.

73,
Chris

How much China can you find on 6 MHz at night? More than you would expect. See the below log from last 15th June. Two different PBS (on five frequencies, with varying signals: it’s interesting, as I always thought they had the same irradiation pattern, given they provide a regional service), and what I’m led to log as Taiwan (that channel is sometimes jammed with CNR1, and being both in Mandarin, if someone could confirm, I’d be grateful). For all the entries, receiver is SDR “Pappradio”, with a “Discone” as antenna. QTH, as always, Aosta in north-western Italy.

PBS Xizang (Lhasa transmitting site)

• 6025 kHz – YL talk in Tibetan and music – 21.48 UTC – 15^th June 2011
• 6050 kHz – Music programme, and short OM talk in Mandarin – 21.58 UTC – 15^th June 2011
• 6110 kHz – OM and YL talk in English, music – 22.33 UTC – 15^th June 2011
• 6130 kHz – YL and OM talk in English – 22.38 UTC – 15^th June 2011

PBS Sichuan (Xichang transmitting site)

• 6060 kHz – Music, then YL talk – 22.12 UTC – 15^th June 2011

Radio Taiwan International (Tentative)

• 6150 kHz – OM talk in Mandarin – 22.44 UTC – 15^th June 2011

Next challenge, after reception, will be QSLing the PBS. Tibet should be easier, Sichuan looks like a harder one. But if you don't try…

73, Chris