Hot hot hot

Monday was a scorcher in the UK and I spent the day mainly in the garden with my children, where the Tecsun receiver was displaying a massive 113 degrees in the direct sunlight as you can see on the picture. And in fact, it hit a high of 122. Luckily there was plenty of shade.

The MW band was once again a hive of activity during the evening, with the biggest signals coming from Mustang, Dinkelland and Bluebird. 

Propagation conditions were generally stable, with reception possible from around 1900 UTC and improving greatly within the hour - a similar pattern to the previous day. Later there were some deep fades on the Mustang signal before they levelled out and it became like listening to a local station.

With the ideal weather for barbecues, this image made me smile when I saw it on Monday. I wonder if anybody out there has successfully cooked on the heat of a set of transmitter valves?

Here's what I heard as the sun started to fade and after darkness fell:

Monday, August 15, 2016

1640          1903         Veronica weak signal, 34333 at 2019 music programme           

1615          1904         Batavier weak signal, 34333 at 2017 music programme

1650          1905         Vrijevogel weak signal music programme

1625          1937         Twentana 24332-34333, 44444 at 2019 music programme

1645          1941         Blauwe Koe 34333 music programme

1620          1954         Zwarte Golf 34333 report for Monaco

1633          1956         Vrolijke Mijnwerker 45434 testing

1622          1957         Monaco 24222 qsoing

1614          2028         Mustang 55434-55444 music programme

1640          2105         Professor Sickbok 42442 qsoing

1642          2119         Turftrekker 43433-44444 music programme

1636          2137         Arrianne 32442 qsoing

1650          2137         Monte Carlo 34333 qsoing

1638          2141         Bluebird 55444 music progamme

1632          2204         Dinkelland 55444 report for Mustang

1633          2216         Barcelona 54444 qsoing

1615          2216         Monte Carlo 44444 qsoing

1642          2233         Casablanca 44444 short music programme

1655          2233         Noorderzon 25222-35333 music programme
1650          2243         Monte Carlo 45444 qsoing

Observations

• With plenty of stations on air and frequencies at a premium there was a fair bit of congestion on the band. At one point, Arrianne was on 1636, Bluebird on 1638, Veronica and Professor Sickbok on 1640 and Turftrekker on 1642. Sometimes tricky to separate, but fun trying to work out all the ids!
• Arrianne was qsoing until late into the evening on 1636 kHz, but was suffering a fair bit from the massive Bluebird signal. On a clear channel he would have been very listenable
• Good to catch Zwarte Golf for the first time in a while. He was using 1620 kHz, although that part of the band was also busy with Batavier on 1615 and Twentana on 1625