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Report from Australia

W

wildthangjim

I haven't been on here since I moved to Perth a few months ago, but thought I'd check in. Perth is in the far southwest of Australia, they say the most remote large city in the world. I have been too busy since I arrived to do much radio (new job, wife and 2 kids, house hunting, etc), but have had a bit of time to tune around on MW. Unfortunately, I'm using a barefoot portable and the house is very noisy (all CFL's, 3 computers, streetlight just outside), so not ideal conditions.

The biggest change from the US is how open the band is. I mostly gave up DXing some years ago due to the band crowding, RF noise, and IBOC. Down here, there are still quite a few frequencies with nothing strong enough to ID, even at night. During the day, probably over a third of the frequencies are clear. In the daytime, I have been able to hear 5 kw or less stations 200+ miles away, so should start hearing more as we get into our winter, but I doubt if it will get much better.

The biggest surprise has been the lack of non-Australian stations I"ve heard so far. The big 1000 kw VOA in Thailand is a regular, but other than that most everything I've heard has been w/in Australia. Conversely, I have heard several <2 kw stations in the southeast of Australia.

I will try to post again here when I get a chance and have some interesting stuff to report.
 
wildthangjim said:
The biggest change from the US is how open the band is.
Click to expand...

Also true for FM? IIRC Canada (and maybe New Zealand) is the same way with TV and radio excluding the American stations.

I was in the Philippines exactly a year ago and tuning shortwave on a relatives' boom box, shortwave seems to be still going strong in Asia. (Might want to check that out while you're in that part of the world!)
 
Looking forward to your reports!

I can say, that from a Digital Tuners node in WA (not the Broome node, there's another north of that, which comes online from time-to-time), I've bagged Radio Monte Carlo Doualiya/TWR broadcasting from Cyprus on 1233 kHz, so the opportunities are out there!

And KTN Corp is correct about the Asian SW scene, which will offer up some exotic catches not heard often in our neck of the woods. :)

Happy hunting!

~BG
 
I need to check into SW, I would expect it to be interesting from here.

The FM band in Perth is pretty light on stations compared to a comparable US city (MW is too for that matter). During the summer I could hear a few stations down south along the coastline from ~200 km away but didn't notice any serious tropo like I was used to on the US Gulf Coast (probably was some, but aren't really that many stations to catch). I would expect that up on the tropical north coast you could hear some interesting stuff on FM. There are a lot of FM's in Indonesia/PNG, etc that could probably be heard via tropo.

I think if I can solve my noise problems I can do OK here. A problem w/moving somewhere totally new like this is not knowing what is possible and which frequencies to monitor.
 
I wonder if Perth is a good spot to try to DX AM signals from East Africa right around sunrise! Too bad that the 9 kHz plan is the same in Africa; but maybe Madagascar or the Seychelles might be a possibility----

Or even that monster on 1521 in Saudi Arabia (or other Middle East monster AM's) at around Perth sunrise....

I hope that the AM doesn't generate a lotta "buzz" on your radio there!

cd
 
I've seen reports of Perth's ABC 720 being heard over in South Africa. It's over 4,000 miles to Madagascar from here, but should be doable under the right conditions. I would also expect India to be a good bet at sunrise, closer and they have a lot of higher powered stations.

No IBOC here, but we have the same problem with noisy plasma tv's, fluorescent light bulbs, computers, and the rest as you do!
 
I do think conditions are improving here. Tonight in the car on the way to pick up a pizza, I got a clear ID from Radio Taiwan International, starting their English program at 7pm my time (1100 UTC) on 1359 khz (listed at 600kw). There are only 2 Australian stations on this frequency, each <250w and on the other side of the country, and I've checked the frequency before with no luck.
 
Tincap said:
And KTN Corp is correct about the Asian SW scene, which will offer up some exotic catches not heard often in our neck of the woods. :)
Click to expand...

When I arrived back home, I went to Fry's and bought the Grundig G3. It worked well but there wasn't anything to listen to in the U.S. So back it went!
 
Yes, an unmodified Nissan X-trail car radio. I was pretty surprised considering the lack of international signals so far, but it was a clear ID in English and matches their schedule. Nearly ran off the road... This gives me hope that the numerous frequencies with no Australians on this side of the country will be fun DX in the winter.

Winter starts down here the same day Summer arrives in the US, June 21. So it's the equivalent of US late-November here.
 
Just noticed the timing of my Taiwan reception was 20 minutes past Taiwan sunset (Perth sunset was over an hour previous), so sunset enhancement may have something to do with it.

I found the little SW antenna that came with my Sony ICF-SW7600GR, so may have to give it a go in the next few days.
 
I was just thinking about you, wondering if you made it to Perth.
Our TV Anchorman retired this week, and is moving to Perth, to head up the LDS Church missionary efforts there (for a year, I believe). I was wondering what he might find interesting about radio and TV down there, and how different it might be from here (in Salt Lake, we have about 100 radio stations, AM and FM).

How professional is the market there? Does it sound/look like big USA markets? Small markets?

Looking forward to hearing your comments and experiences.
 
KTN Corp said:
Tincap said:
And KTN Corp is correct about the Asian SW scene, which will offer up some exotic catches not heard often in our neck of the woods. :)
Click to expand...

When I arrived back home, I went to Fry's and bought the Grundig G3. It worked well but there wasn't anything to listen to in the U.S. So back it went!
Click to expand...

My goodness, that was perhaps a bit hasty! Here in eastern Ontario, I've been able to pull in SW stations from central and western China, the Philippines, India, etc., with both the G8 and DX-440. A good resource is handy and I find this one very useful ~> http://www.short-wave.info/index.php

~BG
 
I basically don't have much to contribute from my own personal experience, but I wanted to pop in for a moment and thank the OP for starting this thread. The remoteness of Perth makes for an interesting DX location.

I've never heard standard AM/MW broadcasts from Australia in the U.S.....including my year as a teenager in Honolulu during the mid-60s. (Not that I didn't try!) But up until about the mid-90s, when I spent more time listening to SW, both Australia and New Zealand used to be fairly regular on the 31 meter band.
 
cyberdad said:
I basically don't have much to contribute from my own personal experience, but I wanted to pop in for a moment and thank the OP for starting this thread. The remoteness of Perth makes for an interesting DX location.

I've never heard standard AM/MW broadcasts from Australia in the U.S.....including my year as a teenager in Honolulu during the mid-60s. (Not that I didn't try!) But up until about the mid-90s, when I spent more time listening to SW, both Australia and New Zealand used to be fairly regular on the 31 meter band.
Click to expand...

I did pick up the 1116 in Brisbane when I was in Hawaii several years ago.
looking forward to your posts from Perth.
 
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