After our highly successful and enjoyable visit to Jongensgat in late March I decided another visit later in the year would be a good idea. With reception conditions during 2006 being favourable it seemed like the right thing to do. So at the beginning of July we (wife Sonja and myself) found ourselves back at this lovely spot. Gary Deacon and family were along this time but John Plimmer was not able to make it. So we hired the big house again.

Town of Stilbaai

Learning from mistakes made on the previous trip, I knew more or less where I wanted my antennas to run this time. In March I'd mistakenly used a longer wire for the most northerly antenna but had encountered the service road, thus causing the last 100 metres to kink off to the North West. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to beverages, so this time I knew the northerly wire would have to be the shortest and would have to stop just short of the road. The other two antennas were to be run along the same bearings as in March, but the Perth antenna could be somewhat longer this time. As usual the erection of these wires was a time-consuming & frustrating job with the pain factor of the scratchy thorn bushes added for good measure. Mother Nature seems to have it in for me, I always seem to encounter the hugest bushes directly in line with my antenna bearing! Makes it difficult to follow a straight line because the bush completely obscures the view of the wire that's just been installed!

Four hours of sweating and huffing and puffing up and down the steep slopes and all three beverages were up. A new interest area of DX has opened up for us lately, South East Asia, so the longest wire was aimed at this area with the hope of snaring some more Japanese & Philippine stations, plus whatever other delights that region would throw at us. After Guam last time, we were getting bold enough to start thinking of other Pacific Island stations as targets. Gary's logged so many Aussies by now I think he needs a new challenge!

Beaches of Jongensfontein

Gary, Sandy, & daughter Nicole were delayed at home and only arrived around 5PM, just as I was finishing the antennas. I think the thought of bushwhacking had encouraged Gary to have a lie-in that morning, actually!! To give Gary his due though, he eagerly tackled bushy monsters on the second day and we extended the Asian wire by at least 150m. Strangely this didn't seem to have any effect so we removed this extension and Gary ran a short beverage from the house at about 265 degrees which would consequently be beamed slightly more northerly than our Asian beverage. As usual each antenna displayed specific characteristics. Different wires were noisier at different times and some stations would only be audible on one of the respective beverages.

Once again Jongensgat didn't disappoint, especially during the evening sessions. Signals from the east were audible at 4:30PM local time, with sunset still over an hour away. Each evening offered something different, with the last one being particular interesting in the way it favoured Asia but not Australia. Mornings were less rewarding because our main target area of North America did not feature all that much. Unfortunately Jongensgat is not ideally located for signals from this region so we tried our hand at some South American DX and were rewarded by great signals from Argentina & Chile.

Receivers

All three afternoons found us at the dials from around 5PM through till about 10PM, and Gary even got up to listen at around 1AM on one evening. I made sure I rose at around 5:30 AM on all 3 mornings but Gary wasn't quiet as devout, missing out on some of the morning listening periods (and not actually missing much, in hindsight!). Evening highlights were some very strong signals from the Philippines and Japan, and KTWG Guam putting in a much more consistent signal than in March. Also noted were some tentative low power Aussies on the top of the MW band. New Zealand, PNG and the other exotic South Pacific Islands still elude us but there's renewed hope after hearing KTWG. Maybe next year perhaps?

In between the Dxing we even managed to do some socializing and relaxing. Sonja and I did the 5KM beach walk to the nearby village of Jongensfontein, and we all took a trip into the town of Stilbaai for visits to the local craft & curio shops. Mother Nature also had a final trick up her sleeve, leaving me with another memento of Jongensgat, a chubby little tick which I found munching on my lower leg about a week later. Fortunately the little blighter didn't give me tickbite fever but I now know to check all body parts after bushwhacking.

Vince with the antenna poles

Three days DXing in Jongensgat always inspires me. I just wish it could be longer though, because I really start getting into the swing of things when it's time to depart again. The great DX, fresh clean air, beautiful secluded setting and pleasant company make it worthwhile every time.

Rxers: Yaesu FRG-7, Drake R8A
Antennas: 200m Beverage beamed magnetic North, 336 deg (Canada, NZ over the shoulder), 300m Beverage at 306 deg (NY City, Perth over the shoulder), 350m Beverage at 276 deg (Central America, Indonesia over the shoulder).

Highlights from Jongensgat 3rd to 6th July 2006

684 0028 MAURITIUS Radio Mauritius, Malherbes w relay of the "Classic Rock Show" from VOA Music Mix Network - good 5/7

710 0556 ARGENTINA Radio Diez, Buenos Aires w anns and id - good 4/7

756 1943 AUSTRALIA 6TZ Margaret River w ads and R.West ID, fair 5/7

801 1608 GUAM KTWG, Agana w dramatised religious px and an ann at 1630 UTC requesting support for KTWG - poor 5/7

819 1915 AUSTRALIA 6KW, Kununurra w ABC talk back px // 720 kHz - poor * Aussie station # 100 since March' 06 - Gary

850 0018 URUGUAY Radio Carve, Montevideo w id – poor

882 1729 INDIA AIR NE, Imphal w address in Bangalore – poor 5/7

790 0020 CUBA Radio Reloj, Pinar del Rio w ann including Havanna (tent) - poor 5/7

900 1732 INDIA AIR South, Cuddapah w nx in EE on Sri Lanka & Nepal – fair 3/7

981 1727 CHINA CRI, unknown location w CRI.com address in EE then goodbye, fair 3/7

999 1754 INDONESIA RRI Prg 4, Jakarta w World Cup chat then ID & nx in Indonesian – good 5/7

1026 1605 AUSTRALIA 6NW, Port Hedland w wx forecast and The Spirit id - poor 4/7

1026 1603 PHILLIPINES DZAR Quezon City w huge list list of all network sister stations & frequencies & ID's as 'Sonshine Radyo' – poor-fair 4/7

1030 0545 ARGENTINA Radio del Plata, Buenos Aires w id and anns - very good surprising signal - 4/7

1062 1905 AUSTRALIA 4TI, Thursday Island w ABC Far North id - very poor 4/7

1062 1959 PHILIPPINES DZEC, Pasig w sign on of Philippine National Anthem and full id incl tx power - fair w good peaks 4/7

1080 1440 UNIDENTIFIED, Far East w talk back by male presenter - good peak 5/7 (logged by Vince as 1080.4 kHz)

Vince packing poles

1116 1630 AUSTRALIA 6MM, Mandurah w ads, fair 3/7

1180 0550 CHILE Radio Portales, Santiago w talk back (tentative) - fair

1251 1917 INDIA AIR South (presumed) //1017 w WC football comm in EE – poor 5/7

1269 1708 CHINA Voice of Russia relay, Yunnan in EE - poor w fair peaks

1270 0549 ARGENTINA Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires, La Plata w gospel and blues mx - good 4/7

1278 1859 JAPAN JOFR, Fukuoka w soft chime and station id as "RKB Radio" by female presenter and mx - fair w surprising good peaks - 5/7

1314 1550 PHILIPPINES DWXI Paranaque w anns by female presenter - fair w good peaks 5/7

1395 1828 AUSTRALIA 5AA Adelaide w ID – poor 3/7

1413 1830 JAPAN JOIF Fukuoka w All Night Nippon px. Mx included "Moon Shadow" and "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens.
The music mix seems to be quite varied - a jazz Jaco Pastorius piece was aired on the 3/7. fair w surprising good peaks 5/7

1449 1745 MALDIVES Voice of Maldives w anns by male and female presenter - excellent peak 5/7

1450 0545 ARGENTINA R.El Sol, Provincia de Buenos Aires w EE pops incl Bread, Chrissie Hynde etc, ID in SS – poor-fair 5/7

1467 1658 THAILAND So. Wor. So. Bangkok w id and anns by female presenter - fair w good peak 4/7

1476 1817 AUSTRALIA UNIDENTIFIED w ads & phone no. - very poor 3/7

1476.1 1915 PHILLIPINES DXRJ Iligan City w what seemed like a sign-on then full ID & frequency at 1922 – poor 3/7

1485 1705 CHINA Unidientified, various locations w anns by male and female presenter - poor but clear 3/7

1494 1458 PHILIPPINES DWSS, Quezon City w music and id as "DW double S" followed by "The Overcommer" christian px - poor/fair with good peaks 5/7

1494 1545 THAILAND Educational Broadcasting System, Wanhua w BBC relay - poor 5/7

1512 1525 PHILIPPINES DYAB, Cebu City w anns by male presenter in between rapid fading in and out of dramatic mx stings - fair w surprising good peaks – 5/7

1512 1609 AUSTRALIA 6BAY Morawa w pops – good 3/7

1530 1600 PHILIPPINES DZME, Balacan w s/off ann incl station id - fair w surprising good peak 3/7

1548 1544 AUSTRALIA 4QD, Emerald w promo ann and id as "ABC Local Radio Queensland" - surprising very good peak 3/7

1584 1553 AUSTRALIA Unidentified w talk back px. An interesting low-power freq. 7SH St. Helens (100 w), 2WA Wilcannia (100w) or 5WM Woomera (50 w) - very poor 3/7

1584 1830 UNIDENTIFIED w reggae music. 4CC Rockhampton (500 w) a possibility ? - very poor 3/7

1602 1552 AUSTRALIA Unidentified w talk back px. Another interesting low-power freq. 2CP Cooma (50w), 3WL Warrnambool (250 w) or 5LC Leigh (100 w) - very poor 4/7

1620 0104 ARGENTINA Radio Italia w ann - fair 5/7

1630 0056 ARGENTINA Unidentified w ann - fair 5/7

1690 2345 ARGENTINA Unidentified w Christian mx and the song "Hero" - fair 4/7

Many unidentified US stations heard on the first two mornings: on 1310, 1370, 1380, 1460, 1500, 1510 and 1700 KHz. No positive Id's on any of these though.

(published on October 3, 2006)