News and Monitoring

Spain

Radio Bulgaria Monitoring via the DX-MIX Newsletter has published details of the cancelled and remaining transmissions of REE, operative from Nov 27, 2012.

See http://swldxbulgaria.blogspot.com.au/

 

I cannot really determine the exact pattern of cancellations, but of note is the deletion of most English broadcasts, with only one such transmission remaining 1900-2000 on 9605 for Africa.

The daily Spanish broadcast to Australia at 0900 has also disappeared!

It seems that some DRM transmissions remain remain, but with text only, no audio.

There has been wild and timewasting speculation in hobby newsgroups as to what is really happening with all this, as apparently no information has been released officially by the broadcaster on its Web site!

HFCC still lists the full B12 schedule, with no deletions.

Now, some monitoring here in Melbourne, which has been subjected to a great flood on Nov 28, and massive heatwave on Nov 30 when the temp here in Mont Albert reached 42 degrees!

Some snapshot observations of Nov 29:

5940 RUSSIA VOR-Samara Russian 1915

5950 ETHIOPIA R of Tigray Revolution Amharic to 1900*

5990 ROMANIA RRI Romanian 1915

5995 RUSSIA VOR-Irkutsk Russian 1940

6003 S. KOREA Echo of Hope, Hwaseong, Korean 1915 with jamming from NK

6090 ETHIOPIA R. Amhara, Amharic to 1900*

6140 SEYCHELLES BBC African langs to 1900*

“ IRAN Russian *1900

6170 ENGLAND BBC-Woofferton Arabic to 1900*

“ N. KOREA VOA German 1910

6180 S. AFRICA RFI-Meyerton Russian 1910

 

9500 SWAZILAND TWR English 1835, dominant over co-channel RA-Shepparton!

9505 SUDAN R. Sudan Arabic to 1900*

9515 GERMANY VOA-Lampertheim English *1900

“ IRAN Arabic 1825

9735 RUSSIA VOR-Moscow English 1815

9880 BOTSWANA VOA Portuguese to 1830*

Regards!

Monitoring Research

9 MHz is currently very active in the window 1900 to 2000, as these samples of transmissions in progress of Nov 24 2012 will confirm!

 

9430 ENGLAND BBC Woofferton English

9480 USA WTWW English (long path)

9525 INDONESIA VOI English (low level audio, strong carrier!)

9535 GERMANY AWR-Nauen Arabic, co-channel CRI

9575 CHINA CRI-Baoji Portuguese

9585 THAILAND R. Thailand Udon English

9625 CANADA CBC-Northern Service, Sackville, English (long path) – this appears to be the last remaining service using this facility.

9675 S. ARABIA Turkish

9685 GERMANY WYFR-Wertachtal English

9745 TAIWAN V. of Guanghua, Chinese

9770 CHINA CRI-Kashi Cantonese

9975 N. KOREA VOK English

Long path

17640 S. AFRICA BBC-Meyerton English

17715 SPAIN REE-Noblejas Spanish

17735 TUNISIA Arabic

17800 RWANDA-Kigali English

Short path

21630 USA WHRI English

Propagation – see this Video about String Theory. Which Universe are you living in?

http://youtu.be/_B0Kaf7xYMk

Monitoring research - Olinda Forest - Easter Day 2010

At the Picnic Ground

Eagle Nest Track

At the picnic ground

I was out in the Olinda Forest on Sunday April 4 2010, and took the opportunity of researching spectrum occupancies in the mid-afternoon on 7. 9 and 11 MHz.

The field site was at the Eagle Nest picnic ground, quite distant from any overhead power lines!

Good longpath propagation from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; good shortpath signals from Asia and the Americas.

This summary may be of interest, for the 0500 to 0530 window:

7250 VATICAN VR var langs

7275 TUNISIA Arabic

7295 FRANCE RFI-Issoudin French

7325 ENGLAND BBC-Rampisham Arabic

7430 ENGLAND DW-Rampisham English

7450 GREECE VOG Greek

7520 USA WYFR Spanish

7555 USA WEWN Spanish

9370 USA WTJC English

9305 EGYPT Arabic

9410 ENGLAND BBC Rampisham English

9420 GREECE VOG Greek

9430 ZAMBIA CVC English

9450 ROMANIA RRI French

9465 RWANDA DW Kigali German

9630 COSTA RICA REE Spanish

9635 LITHUANIA IBB

9655 ROMANIA RRI French

9740 SLOVAK REP. IRRS various langs

9840 UKRAINE RUI English

11780 BRAZIL R. Nacional

11790 ROMANIA RRI French

11980 TURKEY VOT Turkish

See the Location Map - click the link below!

The B09 transmission season has commenced!

The B09 season commenced, as expected, on October 26, 2009.

Compared with the A09 season, there has been an immense number of frequency changes and schedule variations, many of which have been activated by Transmission Providers as a result of continuing negligible solar/sunspot activity.

Associated with the new Season, there has been a significant increase in the usage of brokered relay sites for many broadcasters, particularly for improving long-distance coverage into target areas which have proven unreliable for direct multi-hop broadcasts.

Concident with this, there has been a wholescale movement into the 6, 7, and 9 Mhz bands for transmissions over long distance darkness and semi-darkness paths, due to the uncertainty in delivering effective results on frequencies above about 12 MHz for those circuits.

Amateur Band Intrusions
Most broadcasters have now moved out of the recently authorized exclusive amateur radio spectrum 7100-7200, and those which remain are being investigated and identified by the various national Intruder Watch organizations. They include transmissions originating from North Korea, Russia, various African states, and broadcasts of a political nature targeting the Middle East and Asia.

Frequency Clusters
Research into actual operations reveals several "Frequency Clusters", for various broadcasters, which have moved in to spectra which was previously the domain of point-to-point and other stone-age technologies, generally classified as "utility". Shared use of this spectra is permitted by the ITU, on a non-interference basis, but there are so few of these obsolete operations remaining, that the concept of "shared usage" has become virtually meaningless.

The main Clusters may be observed in these spectra:

5700 to 5900
6200 to 6300
7500 to 7700
9300 to 9400

Frequency Usage within Clusters
Analysis made here in Melbourne of spectrum usage in these Clusters since the start of the B09 season reveals these operations in the time window 1700 to 2100 - these are selected snapshot entries only - there are many more!

5750 KUWAIT VOA Pashto/Dari 1850
5790 ENGLAND BBC-Skelton Arabic 1900
5810 MARIANAS RFA-Tinian Mandarin 1730
5820 GERMANY RFE-Lampertheim 1800
5825 GERMANY RFE-Biblis 2015
5835 KUWAIT VOA Pashto 1815
5840 UZBEKISTAN DW-Tashkent Russian 1830
5850 GERMANY VOA-Wertachtal Farsi 1845
5860 MARIANAS RFA-Tinian Mandarin 1810

6250 N. KOREA Pyonygang BS 1715
6260 UZBEKISTAN CVC-Tashkent Hindi 1830
6260 EGYPT R. Cairo Urdu 1900
6270 EGYPT R. Cairo French 1915
6280 INDIA AOR GOS Arabic 1900
6285 N. KOREA VOK German 1815
6290 EGYPT R. Cairo Arabic 1915

7520 THAILAND R. Farda Udorn 1930
7530 ARMENIA RFA-Yerevan Korean 1915
7550 INDIA AIR GOS 1845
7560 THAILAND VOA-Udorn Dari 1815
7560 KUWAIT VOA Pashto 1915
7570 THAILAND R. Thailand, Udorn 1900 English
7580 THAILAND R. Farda, Udorn 1800

9310 THAILAND R. Farda Iranawela 1830
9320 SRI LANKA VOA-Iranawela Tigrinya 1900
9325 N. KOREA VOK German 1800
9335 KUWAIT VOA Dari 1730
9335 SRI LANKA VOA-Iranawela Farsi 1915
9365 FRANCE RTI-Issoudin French 1930
9380 SRI LANKA R. Parfur, Iranawela, Sudanese 1815
9385 SRI LANKA RFA-Iranawela Korean 1800
9390 FRANCE R. Algeria, Issoudin Arabic 1830

As the above data reveals, the 6, 7, and 9 MHz is grid-locked in the period 1800 to 2100, with serious congestion due to multiple occupancies of many channels, for broadcasters targeting Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Study of languages observed in this winmdow reveals a large increase of broadcasts in Farsi, Pashto, Dari, and Arabic, mainly originating from the BBC and IBB giants, maximising transmitter capacity from relays in Sri Lanka, Germany, the United KIngdom, Kuwait, Oman, Thailand, Cyprus and the Philippines.

China Radio International has stepped up its usage of 7 MHz channels in the European evening, especially in the spectrum 7300 to 7500, with direct transmissions from China, and also from the relays in Albania, France, and Mali.

I would be interested in your own observations and analysis of spectrum occupancy in your location, which you may submit in the "Comments" area of this Weblog!

Regards from Melbourne