Tropical bands by camcorder...

Photo of Zanzibar BC from http://www.tvz.co.tz/tvz.html

Extracts from my column in Radio User April 2013.

Andrew Kirby in Bournemouth sent me an SD card loaded with camcorder recordings he had made by videoing his receiver. A novel way to capture DX.

I felt lucky to be receiving such wonderful DX recordings in the post! It was like spending the day with Andrew in his radio shack as I went through his recordings. Andrew didn't assign them SIO codes and it would be a little unfair if I gave SIO codes myself after the date, so I have tabulated over 30 of his DX catches for readers. 

They are mostly from the Tropical Bands over a period of eight hours. I hope that they will whet your appetite to scan the Tropical Bands. In addition to try for some South Americans try from late at night until dawn for Radio Rebelde from Cuba on 5025kHz and Radio Clube do Para from Belem in Brazil.

Andrew Kirby DX session 1100 to 1930 UTC

Frequency	UTC	Station and location
4800	1615	All India Radio, Hyderabad
4800	1615	CNR1, China National Radio, Golmud
4810	1615	All India Radio, Bhopal
4835	1830	VL8A, Alice Springs, Northern Territory Australia
4840	1830	All India Radio, Mumbai
4850	1615	All India Radio, Kohima
4880	1550	All India Radio, Lucknow
4880	1630	SW Radio Africa, Meyerton and unknown station
4905	1930	Xizang People's Broadcasting Station, China
4910	1545	All India Radio, Jaipur
4920	1630	Xizang People's Broadcasting Station, Lhasa, Tibet
4920	1640	All India Radio, Chennai
4940	1645	All India Radio, Guwahari
4950	1600	All India Radio, Srinagar
4976	1830	UBC, Kampala, Uganda
5010	1700	All India Radio, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
5935	1830	Radio Myanmar
9765	1100	Radio New Zealand International
11735	1830	ZBC, Zanzibar, Tanzania
12085	1100	Voice of Mongolia, Ulan Baatar
17720	1645	Radio Pakistan (presumed)

I think 17720kHz may not be used by Pakistan anymore but is a BBC and China frequency.

Andrew could not identify a signal which signed off at 1900 UTC in English on 4960 and another at 1800 UTC on 15176kHz. Both All India Radio and Voice of America (via Sao Tome) use 4960kHz in English so it could be one of them, and All India Radio use 115175kHz. As ever, I stand to be corrected.