OXT Skamlebæk, Denmark Meteo HF-Fax

For a couple of days I was looking for a noiseless reception from Denmark, to present you a decent chart. My major problem is noise for this "nearby" station. The schedule can be found in the Danish Meteorological Institute website, except from the well known rfax PDF publication. The station transmits a CW ID prior the Fax transmission, lasting for 2 minutes. The ID is "CQ DE OXT". Running my notebook on batteries reduces noises a little bit on higher frequencies.

17510 kHz, 1335z

NMG New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. Meteo HF-Fax

STANDBY FOR NMG FAX

A 10000 km path opened late this evening from my QTH to the coast of Louisiana, offering the above image (8504 kHz 0000z). While not promising, the next ones are good:

8504 kHz 0115z

And here is the original, from NOAA's National Weather Service:

Not bad for 10000 km travel! And the next one:

8504 kHz, 0125z

Again, the original:

The funny thing is that on the lower frequency, 4318 kHz, Moscow Fax and New Orleans Fax, coexist! Right now (0152z) Moscow is dominant but you can see the black vertical line of New Orlean's transmission! On the other hand, on 8504 kHz things are getting more noisy, (and my eyes more sleepy!) Oh well, I'll wait a little bit to finish receiving this chart and then to my bed!

8504 kHz 0150z

Stay tuned for more Fax & Numbers! Good night!

E25 in Arabic

Here is today's E25 transmission in Arabic. It started at 1209z on 9450 kHz, AM mode as usual. I have no time to translate it. Anyone willing to do it for me? If you are kind enough you can post the translation! I have a feeling that this is an older message, so it might be easier!

Update 26/12/2006:

A fellow DXer provided the translation to the message:

5010/5001
8411/4811
1071/1017
1866/8166
8414/4842
7760/7706
3810/8301
9728/7982
8411/4811
3717/7372

Thanks OM!

E25

I set my PC to record from receiver, from 1200z to 1300z to catch any E25 transmissions. I was lucky!

• E25 9450 kHz AM 1209z 18/12 830 8 (listen!)
• E25 9450 kHz AM 1241z 18/12 785 22 (listen!)
  

The latter has the usual signal quality I enjoy in my QTH, while the former is noisy. On both occasions you can hear the sound the transmitter makes when turned on! Cool!

CFH Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Meteo HF-Fax

The recent solar storm still disturbs the ionosphere but I keep trying DXing Fax stations. Maybe I should rename the blog into HF-Fax-something ! My recent addition is Halifax, which sometimes interferes with E10 numbers station. What defines interference? When listening to PCD on 4270 kHz, Halifax is interference, while when DXing for Halifax, the strong carrier from E10 is interference! Most of my fellow numbers stations fans will probably adopt the first point of view!

Back to subject now: 4271 kHz (among others) is the Halifax HF-Fax service and in between Fax transmissions are RTTY transmissions. More info can be found in the Canadian Coast Guard Internet Site. And here is the image:

4271 kHz 0100z

Not a stunning image but a nice addition to my collection! As the conditions improve, I hope for better ones! By the way, I was browsing old Fax pictures of mine from 2001-2002, when I started playing with shortwave. Compared to nowadays reception quality, then conditions were amazing! Later I may show you later a sample from those images. Then Japan HF-Fax was easy and clear, today is hard (for me at least). Alas, the effect of solar cycle minimum...

Emission for syntony Valparaiso Playa Ancha Radio CBV

A better "tuning aid chart" received today. While this is better than the previous one, still needed image processing (slant fix) and it's not complete. It is obvious I got the final part of the transmitted "chart".

8678 kHz, 2247z

The following transmissions were noisy so I didn't uploaded any of them. Again it is a stormy day, we had 2 X-ray flares within 20 hours.

3-day Solar-Geophysical Forecast issued Dec 14 at 22:00UTC

Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be moderate to high. Isolated X-class flares from Region 930 remains a possibility.

Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to range from active to major storm levels for 15 December. This activity is due to the CME observed on 13 December. Unsettled to active conditions are expected for 16 and 17 December.

That's not a promising forecast... It really discourages me from hunting other HF-Fax transmission from distant places... But right now I have Louisiana... Stay tuned...

New images from downbelow

Here are more images from CBV Valparaiso, Chile HF-Fax service. The quality is not stunning but remember, these traveled 13500 km under stormy weather! (Another X-ray flare occurred today, magnitude X3.4).

The frequency was 8677 kHz (-1.9 kHz if you use USB, as myself) and the time was 2210-2341z

8677 kHz, 2220z and 2241z



8677 kHz, 2310z and 2331z

The last one obviously is a sat image. The fact that the third picture is the best is in par with VOACAP's prediction of maximum SNR at 2300z. Impressing!