Shortest day monitoring from Warrandyte State Park

Long-haul daytime propagation into Melbourne during our present winter season on frequencies below about 9 MHz is very disappointing.

 

At  this time of year, many signals from Europe, Middle East and Africa are usually present across our local midday (0200 UTC) on 6 MHz and 7 MHz, but this year they have been strangely absent!

 

I had believed that my home location here in Mont Albert might have been the problem, so I went over to one of my favourite monitoring sites in the Warrandyte State Park on June 15 2013, which is relatively free of RFI, but found much the same dismal propagation pattern there! Activity on 9 MHz was was good.

 

I think that the days of 6 MHz propagation in our mid-winter across noon have now gone for good!

 

The shortest day in Melbourne occurs on June 17 2013, and the days surrounding this event would normally be very good for observing midday propagation. On that day, the inhabitants of Melbourne are granted only 572 minutes (9hrs 32 mins) of daylight, with sunrise at 7.15 am and sunset at 4.47 pm. Solar Noon is at 12.00.36 local (0200.00.36 UTC) and the solar declination at that time is 23.3 degrees.

 

Here is a summary of the Warrandyte observations, using the small Eton  E10 receiver and a 10 m long wire antenna.

 

0200

No signals at all between 0200 and 0220 on 6 MHz and 7 MHz. Many on 9 MHz!

 

0220

7280 G GERMANY R. Farda, Nauen, Persian, first signal to appear, at 0220

7315 USA WHRI Spanish

7365 USA R. Marti

 

9370 KUWAIT VOA – R. Deewa, Pashto

9420 GREECE VOG Greek

9435 ARMENIA VOR-Yerevan Spanish

9465 TURKEY Uyghur

9490 ARMENIA VOR-Yerevan Spanish

9500 ENGLAND BBC-Woofferton Persian

9535 SPAIN REE Spanish

9550 CUBA RHC Spanish

9570 ALBANIA CRI-Cerrick Chinese

9579 MOROCCO R, Medi, Nador, Arabic

9595 INDIA Urdu

9620 SPAIN REE-Noblejas Spanish

9645 ROMANIA RRI Spanish

9665 MOLDOVA VOR-Kishinev English

9690 SPAIN CRI-Noblejas English

9700 IRAN Pashto

9710 CHINA CRI-Kashi

9730 IRAN Urdu

9750 UAE FEBA-Dhabbaya Urdu to 0230*

9760 GERMANY R.Farda, Nauen, Persian

9790 UAE FEBA-Dhabbaya Dari

9800 IRAN Tajik to 0230*

9810 THAILAND BBC-Nakon Bengali

9815 CHINA CRI-Kashi Chinese

9835 MALAYSIA RVTM-Kajang Malay

9860 RUSSIA VOR-Moscow Russian

9870 INDIA National network

9885 TAJIKISTAN RFA-Dushanbe Tibetan

 

0300

7310 GERMANY Biblis Voice, Nauen, Arabic

7350 ROMANIA English

7435 GERMANY RFE-Lampertheim Russian

7445 GERMANY RFE-Biblis Russian

7460 MOLDOVA R. Baha'i, Kishinev, Persian

7475 GREECE VOG Greek