Monday, April 16, 2007

Australia shortwave observations


AUSTRALIA 4910 It's 1100 UTC and I'm listening to VL8T ABC Tennant Creek, loud and clear on 4910 kHz when they should be on 2325 kHz.
I guess it is a transmission problem but it's nice to hear them so well. I always wonder why they change down to 2 MHz, along with their Katherine and Alice Springs clones. Surely 60 mb should work equally well day and night. It would make then easier to hear outside Australia and local listeners would not have to retune their radios twice a day! (Barry Hartley-NZL, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 7)

Google Earth imagery.
VL8T Tennant Creek 19 40 09.23 S 134 15 41.45 E
VL8A Alice Springs 23 48 50.68 S 133 50 48.84 E [Roe Creek]
VL8K Katherine 14 23 44.27 S 132 10 46.08 E

5025 Katherine / 4910 Tennant Creek / 4835 Alice Springs Apr 5 all fair in \\ at tune-in 2140 UT, but rapid fade out and barely audible 2205. Long since I heard them on 60 mb. (Finn Krone-DEN, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 6)

It seems that the Katherine transmitter has some problems today. It is still on 5025 kHz at 1015 UTC with a football commentary, over-riding Radio Rebelbe, Cuba. I would be very happy if the ABC transmitters in the Northern Territory stayed on the 60 metre band for 24 hours, reception here would be some much better! (Barry Hartley-NZL, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 8)

2485 VL8K 1241-1305 Apr 5. Sports talk (Australian Rugby League), interview with team member; highlight reel at 1257; into a different program at 1300 with no fanfare. Good signal // 2310 (fair) and 2325 (good). The latter two freqs lagged about 1 second behind 2485.

4910 VL8T 1238-1313 Apr 7. Country music songs, M&W hosting, continuing past 1300. Good signal // 2485 (good) and 2310 (fair); 2325, of course, was off. 2485, again, was nearly 1 second ahead of 4910 and 2310. Started deteriorating, finally, after 1330. (John Wilkins-CO-USA, DXplorer Apr 7)

VL8T, TENNANT CREEK, 4910. Today, 7 April, I heard VL8T from 1131 to 1300. WRTH says the Northern Territory Shortwave Service stations have been known to run beyond their scheduled times; 4910 is scheduled until 0830. This is the first time I've heard VL8T on this frequency. Football play-by-play at 1131; ABC news at 1230; VL8T ids at 1235; "Saturday Night Country on ABC Local Radio_ at 1238. Still on at 1300. This was fairly strong _ strong enough to be mostly readable over a strong 4910 spur from classical music KXTR 1660 which is located in Fairway, Kansas, about 5 miles from my home (Wendel Craighead-KS-USA, DXplorer Apr 8)

11695 fair signal from RA Shepparton 2100-2330 UT in English on direct path at 329 degr. (wb, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 7)

A-07 for CVC International via DRW=Darwin:
Chinese to China
2200-0200 on 15170 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg
0400-1000 on 17830 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg
1000-1500 on 13775 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg
1500-1800 on 11770 DRW 250 kW / 340 deg

English to South East Asia and Indonesia
0600-0900 on 15335 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
0900-1100 on 11955 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
1100-1800 on 13635 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg

Indonesian to Indonesia
2300-0200 on 15250 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
0400-1000 on 17820 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
1000-1300 on 9670 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
1300-1700 on 6090 DRW 250 kW / 303 deg
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX Apr 10)

4835 VL8A, Alice Springs NT, 0801-f/out 0825, 10 Apr, English, music; 15331.

4910 VL8T, Tennant Creek NT, 0711-0830*, 10 Apr, English, talks, pops, news 0730, music; 25331. (Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX Apr 12)
(Source: BC-DX #803)