HF Monitoring

Yes, it came to pass that a new SW transmission season really did begin on October 28, 2012!

Many frequency changes have been made, and this is my summary of observations made over at Fifth Hill, Warrandyte State Park, on Oct 29 2012

0310-0330

11710 CHINA CRI-Urumqi R Russian

11780 BRAZIL

11795 THAILAND RL Udon Tajik

11825 ROMANIA RRI Spanish

11850 ROMANIA RRI Spanish

11935 F. GUYANA NHK Montsinery *0330 Japanese

12035 OMAN BBC English

0330-0355

9645 ENGLAND VOV-Woofferton English

9930 USA WYFR Spanish

11510 RUSSIA Denge Kurdistan, Nikolayev, Kurdish

11860 CHINA PBS Xizang, Lhasa Chinese

13590 CHINA CRI-B English

13615 SRI LANKA R. Farda, Iranawila

13620 CHINA CRI-Xian English

13630 ROMANIA RRI Spanish

13735 CHINA CRI-Kashi Tamil

13790 PHILS RFE –Tinang Uzbek

15230 CUBA RHC Spanish

15330 TAIWAN RTI English

15390 CHINA CNR13 Uyghur

15530 PHILS IBB Tinang Uzbek

15620 SRI LANKA VOA-Iranawila Somali

15650 THA ILAND RL-Udon Uzbek

15630 RUSSIA VOR Petro Pav. English

15690 SRI LANKA R. Farda Iranawila

15810 TAIWAN SOH

15870 TAIWAN SOH

21450 MARIANAS RFA-Tinian Chinese

0400-0430

9520 KUWAIT Russian

9710 IRAN English

9830 RUSSIA VIA-Petro Pavl English

13765 MADAGASCAR VR-Talata Tigrinya

17770 THAILAND RL-Udon Russian

17840 PALAU RA-Koror Indonesian

17870 ROMANIA RRI English

7 MHz Propagation Research

There continues to be strong propagation on 7 MHz in our post-sunrise period.

Congestion and multiple-occupancies on many frequencies is commonplace, with little effective coordination evident.

Note that ALL broadcasting services will be required to vacate the 7100-7200 spectrum by March 29, as that band area will be exlusively allocated to the amateur service worldwide from that date.

This is a sample of spectrum occupancy, showing the dominant transmissions, in the 7100-7200 range as observed here in Melbourne on Jan 9, 2009, between 1900 and 2000:

7100 N. KOREA R. Pyongyang, operating illegally s its lower sideband falls within the existing ARO exclusive allocation.

7105 ENGLAND BBC Rampisham
7110 CHINA CRI
7115 RUSSIA VOA-Moscow
7120 MADAGASCAR RN-Talata
7125 ROMANIA RRI
7130 CHINA CRI
7135 THAILAND IBB-Udorn
7140 ROMANIA RRI
7145 ENGLAND DW-Wofferton
7150 CHINA CRI
7155 RUSSIA VOR-Samara
7160 ----
7165 IRAN VOIRI
7170 CHINA CRI
7175 ----
7180 ALBANIA CRI-Cerrick
7185 ----
7190 TURKEY VOT
7195 RUSSIA VOA-Moscow
7200 RUSSIA CRI-Moscow

That's a lot of broadcasting services which will have to be cleared out of 7100-7200 by March 29!

The next meeting of the HF Coordination Conference (HFCC) will be in Tunisia, Feb 2-6 2009, at which time the master schedule for the A09 season will be developed. This will be a joint meeting with the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU-HFC).

The HFCC is a body endorsed by the ITU.

No doubt, that meeting is aware of the need NOT to allocate ANY broadcasting operations in the 7100-7200 spectrum beginning March 2009 A09, and it will be interesting to see how this meeting of over 150 people will respond to these new ITU regulations!

Good listening!