BC-DX 789 05 Jan 2007 Private Verwendung der Meldun

1530-1630 on 11520 IRA 250 kW / 299 deg English
1800-1830 on 4940 SAO 100 kW / 010 deg Hausa Sat/Sun
1800-1830 on 9565 SAO 100 kW / 335 deg Hausa Sat/Sun
1800-1830 on 11720 MOR 250 kW / 260 deg Hausa Sat/Sun
1800-1830 on 12080 BOT 100 kW / 350 deg Hausa Sat/Sun
1800-1830 on 17785 MOR 250 kW / 172 deg Hausa Sat/Sun
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX June 19)
BULGARIA The photographs of this site establish clearly that the
partially completed 8 mast array is one of the very standard Russian
design. I have made extensive impedance measurements (in the snow) and
modeling of one of these, and they are a really elegant design. The basic
design is fully described in the standard Russian textbook on MF antennas.
This one not only doesn't have the 8th mast and has some towers lacking
the skirts, it doesn't appear to have any of the open-wire feed system.
These can be constructed for unidirectional or bidirectional operation,
and can be constructed with about +/- 30 degrees of slewing, as was noted
in your item. They are usable anywhere in the MF band. As nearly as I can
tell no two are identical, but the masts all have a driven upper skirt and
a parasitic lower skirt, and are matched entirely with open-wire quasi-
coaxial short-circuited transmission line stub sections rather than
discrete component networks.
One row of towers is driven, the other is a parasitic "reflector." They
appear to have been used primarily for nighttime skywave operation, often
paired with a much simpler, usually omni, antenna for operation during
daylight hours. These, together with the 1.5 km and 2.5 km long "small
sunrise" and "large sunrise" traveling wave MF arrays, represent very
substantial capital investment, the likes of which we will probably never
see again. Nice thistles, too.
(Ben Dawson-WA-USA, dxld June 11)
I analysed the pictures on the website
in order to have an idea of the target area in Arab countries.
This planned R Moscow relay site at Varna Kaliakra is much closer to the
Mediterranean area - save of some 350 km - compared to other R Moscow
external Kamo-ARM or Grigoriopol-MDA relay sites.
One row of towers is driven, the other is a parasitic "reflector." They
appear to have been used primarily for nighttime skywave operation, often
paired with a much simpler, usually omni, antenna for operation during
daylight hours.
SGP4+4/SV 4+4 antennas array - of 145 meters mast height - could be meant
for towards 190/220 degr target at Istanbul, Athens, Albania, Sicily, and
Libya.
Other R Moscow MW superpowers to NE/NoAF:
Gavar Armenia (190 degr towards Baghdad),
Tbiliskaya Caucasus foreground (210 degr towards LBN, ISR, JOR, EGY), and
Grigoriopol Moldova (245 degr towards Serbien-Montenegro, Sicily, Tunesia)
Frequencies to take into consideration some 20 years ago were: ex-MDA 999
and/or 1431 kHz, also former DWL Malta 1557 kHz channel was freed after
USSR collapse. All long before of R Sawaa and R Free IRQ services did
appear.
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX June 12)
CHAD Tentatively CHAD station moved around 7316.4 kHz around 1730 UT
fade-in time. At 1745 UT around 7314 to 7315 kHz, June 17. Distorted
carrier signal, wandering around 7311 to 7319.