Monday, July 16, 2007

Blog Logs - European DXpedition


After a few days off time to get the blog going again. Thanks for your patience..even a few days off has helped! Regular contributor Walt Salmaniw sends in his latest from a recent European DXpedition. Stay tuned for more in the following days. Thanks Walt!
Gayle VH

This is the first of a series of DX reports during my recent travels in Europe. From Vancouver, my first stop was Stansted, UK near London where I spent a wonderful night at a small B&B and dx'd using my small Kaito 1103 portable and it's provided random wire antenna. Interesting recordings were saved to my Edirol R-09 mp3 recorder via stereo cable. Subsequent reports will be added from Gdynia, Poland (on the Baltic Sea) and then from various sites in Ukraine during the period from June 22 to July 11, 2007. Compared to the west coast of North America there are vastly more stations to monitor! I was expecting to hear a lot more DRM hash, but this didn't seem to be the case (or perhaps I wasn't looking for it)........Walt Salmaniw, now safely home in Victoria, BC.

ALBANIA 13720, 2002-, Radio Tirana Jun 22 Very good reception, although somewhat weak modulation in English with local Albanian news. Interesting that 7465 is also in English, although much weaker, but seemingly not in //. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BANGLADESH 7185, 1745-, Voice of Islam Jun 22 A presumed logging, at only very weak level. During my entire stay, I never did hear them at anything but a poor level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BELARUS 7390, 2018-, Radio Belarus Jun 22 Another station I follow with interest. Before 20:00 they're in German, but switch to English between 20:00 and 22:00. 7390 is the best frequency at good to very good levels, whereas 250 kw 7105 was heard at good level, and 7440 only at poor to fair levels. Russian at 22:09 on 7390 at excellent level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BELARUS 11930, 0405-, Ist Channel of National Belarussian Radio Jun 23 A consistently, but infrequently reported summer frequency often well heard at this time in North America as well. Very good reception with ID at this time, and then into pop music. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

CYPRUS 5930, 2215-, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Jun 22 Very good reception in Greek with their weekend service to the UK. // 7210 is good with some cochannel interference, while listed 9760 was not heard. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

CZECH REPUBLIC 11600, 2102-, Radio Prague Jun 22 Excellent reception in Czech with news. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

EGYPT 9990, 2120-, Radio Cairo Jun 22 Initially heard with low modulation Arabic music. English ID at 2122 as, the 'World Service of Radio Cairo'. Good otherwise. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

FRANCE 13680, 0507-, RFI Jun 23 Excellent reception in French, so the listed English half-hour must be Monday to Friday only. // 15160 at good level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

GERMANY 7265, 1745-, Polish Radio Jun 22 Armchair 5-5-5 signal with English program. // 7140 fair to good. This was the first station heard during a stop over at Stansted, UK on my way to Poland and Ukraine. I used my Kaito 1103 along with it's random wire antenna. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

GERMANY 9695, 1800-, Polish Radio Jun 22 I investigated the recently started Hebrew service. I don't recall seeing any postings on this service in the past. On this day and the next day, all that was heard was a program of continuous Polish music (the following day was identical), beginning with 'I did it my way' sung in Polish. No sign-off announcements when they left the air in mid-music at 18:28. Very good level. I wondered at the time whether this service perhaps didn't really get off the ground, but I did hear a normal broadcast later during my visit (will be reported later as I'm transcribing chronologically). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ICELAND 12115, 1755-, Rikisutvarpid Jun 22 Tone at 17:56 and then into a immediate talk in Icelandic at fair to good level, but with their terrible less than phone quality audio feed. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

IRAN 6205, 2018-, VOIRI Jun 22 Another station that was consistently well heard in Europe. English at very good level in English. // heard: 9925 (fair), 7205 (fair), 6255 (via Sitkunai, Lithuania--good). Listed 9800 not heard. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

LITHUANIA 11515, 0706-, VOIRI Jun 23 Excellent reception in Italian, via the Sitkunai transmitter. Another very strong station widely heard throughout my stay in Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

NIGERIA 15120, 1749-, Voice of Nigeria Jun 22 Very good reception in English. When rechecked at 20:20, they were no longer on. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

NORWAY 12035, 1753-, SWR Africa Jun 22 Excellent reception with ID in English and giving their internet website at swrafrica.com. I never did hear the other // frequencies very well during my stay. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

PORTUGAL 5945, 0430-, Deutsche Welle Jun 23 Armchair copy with Ukrainian program, while Rampisham on 7345 was heard at fair level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ROMANIA 11735, 1750-, Radio Romania International Jun 22 Very good to excellent reception in English with only the slightest hint of a cochannel station. // 9535 only fair, however. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ROMANIA 11810, 2030-, Radio Romania International Jun 22 Anemic, undermodulated audio at otherwise good level in English. // 9515 at fair level, 15465 at good level (and listed to North America!), while 11940 strongest by far, but suffers from cochannel interference. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

RUSSIA 9890, 2012-, Voice of Russia World Service Jun 22 Armchair copy in English with their Moscow Mailbag program. // 12070 equally strong. Seems to me that both the content and strength of transmitters, including the use of multiple frequencies, has returned to the bad old days of the cold war. VORWS is nothing like it was 5 years ago when they were often more difficult to hear, with only a handful of transmitters. Pre-Putin, they were also much more pro-Western. Today they seem to be constantly flexing their muscles, like they used to. VORWS consitently was very well and widely heard throughout my European travels. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TANZANIA 11735, 2004-, Radio Zanzibar Jun 22 No sign of english (this was a Friday), with good reception in presumed Swahili and into Arabic sounding music from 20:08. I believe that I subsequently read that they may have returned to the 18:00 time frame for English news from Spice FM, but I didn't check this again. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TURKEY 6195, 2205-, Voice of Turkey Jun 22 Excellent reception in English to North America, except for some transmitter hum. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TURKEY 9785, 1833-, Voice of Turkey Jun 22 Very good reception with English news. This station was widely heard during my stay in Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UK 7235, 2040-, Radio Canada International Jun 22 RCI's the Link program with a very interesting article on the UN at very good level (from Skelton). // 5850 Horby, Sweden is good, but seemingly with some DRM hash, while 15325 direct from Sackville was the best heard at excellent levels. Incidently, 9800 direct from Sackville in DRM was very strong at 21:02, but I wasn't able to demodulate it (no receiver capability). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UKRAINE 7490, 1750-, Radio Ukraine International Jun 22 I spent a lot of time during my European journey monitoring RUI. At this time they were only poorly heard in Ukrainian. Generally, reception of RUI in Europe is spotty. Not on par with other European broadcasters. At times, though, reception could be excellent. I wish they'd either up their power (from 100 kw), or use multiple sites or frequencies. This latter approach is used by Belarus with much better results!. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UKRAINE 9945, 0502-, RUI Jun 23 Fair to good reception with the Roots program in English (a Friday repeat, this being Saturday morning). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 6145, 0508-, WHRI Jun 23 Very good reception with Harvest Mailbag program in English. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 9355, 0522-, WYFR Jun 23 Must be mailbag morning, as WYFR also had their Mailbag program on at this time at good to excellent level, in English, but with occasional deep fades. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 15825, 2047-, WWCR Jun 22 Very good reception with Glenn Hauser's World of Radio program. This was on a Friday. Excellent choice for Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

This is the second part of my European journey. I flew from Stansted to Gdansk on Ryanair (not recommended!) and occupied a 6th floor flat at a naval academy residence between the
23rd and 28th of June in Gdynia, Poland. Same receiver....Kaito 1103 with it's short random wire antenna, but the usual RF noise problems that any high rise experiences. Following this will come
further sessions all across Ukraine, including a stint at the infamous Ukrainian DXer and good friend, Vlad Titarev in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine.

AUSTRALIA 13680, 0520-, CVC International Jun 27 An interesting clash on this frequency with two stations virtually at equal strength. First is CVC with the 'Scope' program from Australia in English, and also RFI in English (direct from France?) to Africa with mostly news about Zimbabwe. Both were heard at good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

BELARUS 7390, 2000-, Radio Station Belarus Jun 23 Very good reception with sign-on in English as, 'You are listening to Radio Station Belarus', and then into the news. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

BULGARIA 9900, 2100-, Radio Varda Jun 24 Jingle ID for Radio Varda, and a time check for 23:00 in Bulgarian, then into news. Good to very good reception. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

CANADA 7335, 0308-, CHU Jun 25 One of few time signal stations heard in Europe. I never did hear WWV or WWVH. CHU was heard weakly under cochannel Vatican Radio in Ukrainian which itself was heard at fair to good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

CHINA 13760, 1815-, CRI Jun 23 I was looking for Pyongyang, but instead heard CRI in English with an armchair 5-5-5 copy. CRI is heard everywhere in Europe, across all bands, and usually at very strong and local levels. I'd swear they were transmitting from across the street. One of few broadcasters dominating the spectrum. I never did hear Pyongyang during my 3 week European stay. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

FRANCE 15605, 1605-, Radio France International Jun 24 RFI in English, and on a Sunday. Good reception with Nigerian news. ID at 16:06. // 17605 good, and 15160 poor. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

HUNGARY 6025, 1900-, Radio Budapest Jun 23 Multilingual IDs for Radio Budapest, well over a cochannel, and then into English with, 'On shortwave, satellite, WRN, and NPR this is Radio Budapest Hungary signing-on'. Good level and // to equally good 3975. No mention of them d/c their foreign language broadcasts on 30 June. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

HUNGARY 6195, 0252-, Radio Budapest Jun 25 Good to very good in English with a DX program about Esperanto programs until 0258. Again, no mention of the 30th. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ISRAEL 15760, 1558-, IBA Kol Israel Jun 24 IS, and then into Yiddish. One of very few broadcasters using this colourful language! Very Germanic sounding. Excellent armchair copy, and almost immediately into a medley of Yiddish songs. Very enjoyable, even if one can't follow the speech. // 9345 good, 11590 poor. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ISRAEL 17600, 0330-, IBA Kol Israel Jun 24 Fair reception of English broadcast. // 11590 at very good level, and 9345 at good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LATVIA 9290, 1955-, Latvia Today Jun 24 A presumed logging with English talk into Latvian folk music until 2001 when the transmitter cut without any announcements. Only poor/fair. I suspect I was too close to the transmitter in Gdynia/Gdansk to be able to hear them very well. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LIBYA 17870, 1537-, Voice of Africa Jun 24 Good reception with program in English and ID ending the English news and into a long-winded commentary. Occ deep fades. Another Voice of Africa ID at 15:44, and into a reading from the Green Book. Did not hear any other // frequencies. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LITHUANIA 6225, 1533-, Radio Racja Jun 24 Good reception shortly after their sign-on in Belarussian. A nice choral jingle for 'Radio Racja'. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LITHUANIA 6255, 2243-, The Mighty KBC Jun 23 ID in English, with mostly non-stop techno music. ID was as follows: 'We are the Mighty KBC, broadcasting from Lithuania. Write us at KBC@planet.nl '. There were several other addresses given. Good to very good reception. I did not check for the 500 kw MW //. 6255 is 100 kw, of course. Ended transmission at 22:59. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

POLAND 6105, 1950-, Radio Racja Jun 23 ID in Belarussian at good to very good levels. The transmitter doesn't sound at all like the old Radio Polonia transmitters, so is it certain that this transmission is direct from Poland? Interesting jingle, 'Lay, lay, lay, Moya krajina Belarus'. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

PRIDNISTROVYE 5965, 1600-, Radio of the PMR Jun 27 Good reception in English with sign-on ID as the 'Radio of the PMR'. At 16:20, they announced the wrong frequency as 6235 (a B06 frequency, I think), and then continued on in English. So-called break-a-way repulblic from Moldova, but not recognized by anyone except Russia, of course. Divide and conquer, I suppose. This was my final logging from Gdynia, Poland. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ROMANIA 9645, 0310-, Radio Romania International Jun 24 RRI in English at very good level. This transmission is for the west coast of North America, but heard much better in northern Europe!. // 6150 also to WCNA at very good level. The transmission to India at the same time on 11895 and 15250 was not heard. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ROMANIA 11895, 0300-, Radio Romania International Jun 25 This time, at excellent level with English to India. Also // to 9645 at very good level and 6150 at good to very good level. Both of these are to WCNA. 15220 to India at fair level as well. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

RUSSIA 11810, 1800-, SWR Africa Jun 23 Ist logging from Gdynia, Poland. Fair to good reception with lots of adjacent splatter from 11805. Armavir, I believe is the site. //12035 from Norway is at good level in Poland. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

SAUDI ARABIA 17660, 1547-, BSKSA Jun 24 French at fair levels, with many references to Allah, but off in mid-sentence at 1557. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

SYRIA 12085, 2020-, Radio Damascus Jun 23 A presumed logging, with the news in English just finishing, and then into an Arabic musical piece. Slight transmitter hum, but otherwise a good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

TURKEY 5975, 0307-, Voice of Turkey Jun 24 Very good reception in English, with // 7270 herd weakly under a cochannel Arabic station. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

UK 12095, 0645-, BBC World Service Jun 27 An ancient BBC frequency, so glad to see that they still occupy it. I wonder when their first usage of this channel was....I bet 60 years ago or more! Still going strong with good reception, but then marred by a Slavic numbers station cochannel. Kind of dumb, I think!. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

UKRAINE 9945, 0520-, Radio Ukraine International Jun 24 Very good reception with the Saturday mailbag feature in English, to 0531. The DX program was just finishing at the beginning of my observation. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)