[HCDX] Africa Bandscan during Aurora conditions

[Jari Lehtinen <dx@xxxxxxxxx>]

In 7th September 2002, sun erupted. Northern Lights 
reached even Southern Finland providing some majestic 
entertaiment on clear, moonless night sky.

At the moment I was in a DXpedition in Western Finland 
with Pauli Holm. Equipment used were Yaesu FRG-100 
receivers and two 700 metres long wire antennas directed 
to 60 and 240 degrees. Earlier in day we had already 
dismantled two other wires as the dxpedition was near 
the end.

After the solar effect began with full force, Russian and 
West european stations practically disappeared on dial. 
Mediumwaves were dominated by Switzerland, Germany, 
Austria and Romania. On shortwaves some rare African 
SW stations, logged last time here years ago, became
suddenly audible, some of them with astonishing strength. 

It was a pity that the real session began only after East 
African stations had closed down. The following bandscan 
is by no means complete, but we think it gives a pretty 
good idea about the SW activity in (West) Africa right now.

All stations logged in 7th September 2002. All times UTC.

HEARD

3290 2100 R Namibia, Windhoek. Surprisingly now here, 
3270 was perhaps off?

3320 2230 R Sonder Grense. Meyerton. No difference in 
reception. Signal strength was average, if not even less 
than average. 

3326 2127- FRCN Lagos. Strong distortion in audio.
Long time no hear. DJ told that they have made some 
improvements and they asked reception reports from 
shortwave listeners! Send your report now! *wink*

3366 2120- GBC Accra. Solid as usual. 

4770 2200- FRCN Kaduna. Really good signal, and 
a nice audio, unlike other Nigerians.

4783 2130- RTM Bamako. As //4835, 5995

4820 2130- R Botswana, Gaborone. 

4835 2130- RTM Bamako. Hi-Fi number 1.

4845 2130- ORTM Nouakchott. Hi-Fi number 2.

4915 2100- GBC Accra. No problems ever here.

4950 2230- RN Luanda. I had hoped that these conditions 
would improve the signal of Luanda, but it didn't happen. 
Weak as usual.

5025 2107- ORTB Parakou. Holy smoke, said Batman. 
In summer I spent numerous nights here, hearing only 
a couple of minutes of national anthem. Now Parakou 
was booming with only a slightly less force than Burkina! 

5030 2100- R Burkina, Ouagadougou. S9+30 dB.

5100 2308- Liberian Communications Network, Monrovia. 
ID as "International Service" (of R Liberia or of LCN). 
In summer BBC Listening Post in Caversham reported 
they hadn't heard this since early spring. Is operating 
still - or again. Everything spoken live to microphone was 
very silent, but music pieces and prerecorded programmes
were heard normally.

5995 2130- RTM Bamako. 

6050 -2147* FRCN Ibadan. Humorous DJ, I would say. 
"Yay yay yay, it's Saturday night!" he said, closed the 
station, and off he went - to spend Saturday night, perhaps.

7125 2230- R Guinea, Conakry. "Radio Guineé". 

7210 -2259* ORTB Cotonou. Can't even remember when 
this was heard last time in Finland. Talk show.

UNCERTAIN

4850 2150- UNID. It sounded like French, occasionally. 
It sounded like vernaculars, occasionally. But it was 
very distorted and weak. CRTV Yaounde? Even if it was, 
and that would be first Cameroon logging for years in 
Finland, reception was practically useless. 

SEMI-ACTIVE

5985 2200- RTV Congolaise: Not here that night. Has been 
heard occasionally. Not operating every night, but was 
logged frequently during summer and again in the end of 
August. 

NOT HEARD

These stations are apparently inactive.

3232 2200 R Kara: NOTHING.
3316 2200 Sierra Leone BC: NOTHING.
4800 2200 R Lesotho: Only very weak Chinese here.
4905 2130 RN Tchadienne: Only station here was very 
weak Tibet.
5003 2130 RN Bata: NOTHING.
5020 2130 RN Niger: NOTHING. 
5035 2130 Radio Centrafique: Only station here was 
Radio Aparecida.
5047 2130 RN Togolaise: NOTHING. 
6015 2130 RT Ivorienne: NOTHING.
6250 2200 RN Malabo: Some very weak station was 
playing Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly, but we believe 
this was an European pirate.
7215 2130 RT Ivorienne: NOTHING.
11920 2130 RT Ivorienne: NOTHING.

TO RECORD

To illustrate the situation, here is also a gigantic 49 mb 
bandscan, including every station heard between 
5800 and 6300 kHz at 2330 UTC:
(unid = unidentified = station with signal hanging at 
s/n level)

5960 unid
5995 Mali
6005 Deutschlandradio
6025 unid
6060 unid
6075 DW
6085 MDR-Info
6095 Spanish
6135 unid
6200 Iran
Now that is what I call impressive.

73's Jari Lehtinen




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