You could try the other cape, Cape Naturaliste out from Dunsborough, which would favour the north.
As an aside, you sure have a lot of holidays.
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Within Perth metro area, Cape Peron in Rockingham is a good spot for FM DX up and down the coast. Also try some AM dxing at Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. Would be interesting to see if you can get long distance signals across the waters such as Geraldton at Cape Naturaliste and Albany and beyond at Cape Leeuwin.
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Tropo levels will likely be pretty low over there though; weāre stuck in a ācold west, hot eastā pattern at the moment with the cold fronts slamming into SW WA. Expect a lot of wet, windy weather. Cold weather over WA is common in an El Nino/positive IOD combination (when the east goes one way, WA usually goes the other).
MW DX will be the go, I think, unless you want to head up to Exmouth.
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In Bunvegas, the Marlston Hill look out is the spot. Get the car bay on the left. Guarantee hearing a Perth Suburban station on FM. Bridgetown, Wagin and Katanning also, Adelaide tropo has also been heard there.
Further south, the Meelep beach lookout is amazing. Even on a rainy day.
On AM, anywhere near the beach, day or night is the secret spot. For some reason, Yallingup beach is the best Iāve found. SEN Track 657 is like a local station, 1008 Racing Radio Geraldton another. East coast stations start coming in from 430PM. 1548 ABC the first. You should hear 10+ foriegn language stations. Ill post some frequencies shortly.
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Thank you! And to all!
Iāll definitely try out some of those spots and post my observations here.
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I see thereās now another slight design variation of the TEF6686 DX portables available now & a lot cheaper too.
This one showing as: AU$129.61 + Shipping: AU$9.36
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How many countries have you confirmed on MW from SW WA? Itās a totally different soundscape over there, DX wise.
In the early morning you have a chance at Africa on MW, 909 kHz VOA Botswana and 1530 kHz VOA Sao Tome are the easiest to hear and identify. Iām sure there are others but it would be a bit like going on an actual safari: the most prized āgameā are the hardest to spot!
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Yes, Iām looking forward to some night time AM DXingā¦. When I was last in WA in 2007, it was a unique experience in having an seemingly equal number of vacant AM frequencies and foreign language frequencies, totally different to over here in the east. On the Sony radio I had at the time, I could not get any NSW stations, and only 1 from QLD (the 1548 behemoth from Emerald).
I like the safari analogy, maybe I could ask for a brown Camry and Iāll buy some brown clothes to go with it!
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I do need to work on my international DX ID game. The MWList.org website is a useful resource Iāve found. But so far I can confirm -
Thailand 1575 VOA
Philippines 1350 DWUN
New Zealand 1035 Newstalk ZB
China 684 909
Africa 909 1530 VOA
Unidentified (evening reception) 576 711 729 774 792 801 846 891 1026 1044 1170 1287 1368 1413 1422 1467 1584
Early morning yields others. A safari indeed! Although we do have a lot of clear frequencies here, a lot of these are doubles. Including 684 China under my local ABC. I do have a full evening band scan saved somewhere - must be on my other laptop.
The TEF portable in my front yard is all you need. @ozbark has posted a good one above. I wouldnāt recommend the touch screen - It does cause a small amount of AM interference.
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Getting New Zealand in WA is impressive too!
As its not a 100 kw plus blowtorch like some of the Asian ones are (āonlyā 20kw).
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I remember I was in the car in an inner city carpark, 930PM WA time. I only stayed on frequency because I heard a time call ( or it might have been the date) first.
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I can guess some of those. 576 is likely Myanmar, 774 likely Japan, 846 likely Philippines, 891 likely Thailand, 1170 likely South Korea, 1287 likely Sapporo Japan, 1368 likely Thailand, 1413 likely Philippines, 1467 likely South Korea. Thatās based on what has been logged in Australia before.
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Great effort @dxnerd
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I wonder how these DXers really know whatās what when it is a foreign language station though.
They are probably having an educated guess based on power output and location?
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Itās definitely a problem, unless the DXer in question is a polyglot. We often get confirmation from other DXers who know the language. Experienced MW DXers tend to get to know the most commonly heard languages after a while.
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To expand on this topic further.
- If you live in, for example, Melbourne or Sydney & mix with a large number of cultures either socially or through work & have seen through several decades of existence & take an interest in language & culture, then over the years, you are likely to either identify a language or with greater certainty perhaps identify a global region where the language originates.
- Seasoned shortwave dxers might be more likely to have better language identification skills than say a FM or MW dxer, just purely due to exposure.
- Additionally recognition & exposure to folk music across many lands will also make it easier to zero-in on a possible language or country or region re station identification.
- Some dxers try to learn a little of some popular languages to assist with their dx skills. Does come in handy when traveling too.
- Marriage or co-habitation with a partner from a foreign land of different language background will surely assist too.
- Lots of travel to foreign lands.
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Iāve received 1440 Radio Riyadh a few years ago in early morning along the coast while camping - the old PR-D13 still does a magnificent job AM-wise as I more recently found out last October going along the Great Central Road, especially with the Tecsun loop to help with the noise clarity.
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Saudi Arabia - well done!! So early morning here would make for a complete night path to the middle east. And 0 RFI in the outback.
Ahh, Iām gunna have to get up early 1 time and have a scan!
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Funny you mention 1440 Saudi Arabia; I was thinking of them just now. Apparently it used to boom into the east coast many years ago in the very early hours of the morning. For a 1600 kW blaster this isnāt entirely unsurprising, despite the vast distance. DXers have wondered why this is no longer the case. I think I have a plausible explanation. AsiaWaves says that they are now using a directional array (aimed away from Australia):
āDirectional antenna with maximum towards 050Ā°ā:
50 degrees would be towards north/central Asia from Saudi Arabia.
Another high powered station with a highly directional array is 1566 HLAZ South Korea (it targets China and Japan with Christian programming, much to the chagrin of the government of the former Iām sure). HLAZ is logged in Europe but rarely in Australia.
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When I had an unknown FM station a few years ago I rand the recording through a translation program on the computer and found the location in Indonesia. I canāt recall if I needed to know the original language to start with though.
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