Repport from: Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu DXing using his trusty Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot in Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada
550 VENEZUELA, YVKE, Mundial, Caracas, Distrito Federal JAN 6 0356 - with comments regarding this upcoming year "Año Nuevo". Strong with dopple-shifter fades due to a slightly weaker CHLN signal coming in at the same time and due to a fairly unstable propagation. SINPO 32523. At level 3, it is the strongest YV this evening. 780 Radio Coro was heard at level 2. Usually YVKS-750 and YVNM-780 are stronger than YVKE-550. Nevertheless, this powerhouse is usually the 3rd easiest YV for me, as looping SSE usually deals away with CHLN, but not this time, in spite of semi-auroral conditions. Weird evening, as far as MW DX goes !!! (Chiochiu-QC) 555 ST KITTS AND NEVIS, ZIZ, Basseterre JAN 6 0358 - playing a surprinsingly astonishing selection of melancholy-drived soca melodies with chatter at 0402 UTC (2402 UTC). During the chatter, the upbeat voiced DJ, after a timecheck, greeted a listener, sending him his requested song in a highly dynamic way with talkover effect, as the music cameback during this breathbreaking. At tune-in, this was harmed by splatter from semi-local CHLN-550, but the signal got stronger than the splatter, way much stronger ! SINPO 33343 (Chiochiu-QC) 580 PUERTO RICO, WKAQ, San Juan JAN 6 0252 - several "doble u...ochenta" mentions. The only Spanish stations starting with W- (doble u...) on 580 kHz is WKAQ San Juan. SINPO 22412, never really atop unlike Jamaica and WTAG. Semi-regular in the Montreal area. (Chiochiu-QC) 580 JAMAICA, RJR, Galina JAN 6 0334 - featuring a mixture of reggae and R&B jams. At 0434, I recognized an awesome extended version of the lovers rock hit "Take You There" by Voice Mail which was followed by a mid-tempo R&B jam. Good peaks -> often atop channel, deep fadings. Mixing mostly with WKAQ out of Puerto Rico and with WTAG-MA. Occasional QRM from a Cuban Rebelde. SINPO 32423-2. Only 2nd time here. I started to think this 1500 W Jamaican was off the air until tonight. The weird semi-auroral ionospheric conditions definitively helped, although little else of interest could be snagged out of a fairy lousy MW band. The South Americans were almost inexistent ! (Chiochiu-QC) 580 CUBA, CMMF, Radio Rebelde, Baracoa JAN 6 0350 - cha-cha-cha atop the RJR/WKAQ/WTAG/++ pile-up !!!! SINPO 32522. Could be the Mantua outlet too, who knows ? Rare here ! Not // 670 which was having upbeat announcer. I assume CMMF-580 was having the usual Rebelde MW "Solo Música" feed, while CMBA-670 was carrying the Rebelde FM "Música Viva" which is not unusual at all. (Chiochiu-QC) 600 CUBA, CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norris JAN 6 0255 - briefly atop //670 with the apparent Rebelde FM feed. SINPO 22522. Usually this one is stronger, sometimes stronger than even CMBA-670. Weird conditions ! (Chiochiu-QC) 670 CUBA, CMBA, Radio Rebelde, Arroyo Arrenas JAN 6 0247 - with a dark-edged reggaetón track. Strong with fading-drived distortion. SINPO 43333. (Chiochiu-QC) 780 VENEZUELA, YVNM Radio Coro, estado Falcón JAN 6 0147 - South American music way down in the noise and in the splatter. No more than level 2 out of 5. SINPO 23211. The only South American that really showed up this evening was YVKE-550 (see above). Weird conditions. (Chiochiu-QC) 580 was topped by unusual Jamaica !!! A great amount of astonishment from my part, since I rarely hear any English-speaking Caribbean DX on MW other than one Caribbean split almost everyone knows... As far as 580, I still miss "Radio Monteria", a Colombian outlet Mark Connelly is occasionally picking up during his Cape Cod outings... Well, this one is seldom listened too even by him, as 580 isn't the best place for Colombia, but it would be great for a change. The most reported South American in North America on 580 is YVMJ La Fe out of Maracaibo, estado Zulia, but I already have a Zuliano, both on tape and in my logbook, Mundial Zulia 1070 from the same capital city, so it won't be a as big "logbook related thrill", although it is an excellent catche, like everything foreign, of course... The research for Aventure FM almost finnished... More on that later, but something is happening right now concerning the airchecks made of this wonderful short-lived French station... If anyone is having the slightest amount of "Aventure FM" on tape, I would gladly exchange it with a "Radio Coro" tape, with a ZIZ one or even with a "Cité Rock Détente" one... As I'm writing this, at 0452 UTC, CHLN Trois-Rivières is unnulable on 550 and everything outside of North America seems more than subdued -> almost inexistent right now at 0453 UTC. Let's hope things improve over the next few days. The solaractivity was so thigh, that I concentrated on the LAs, although it wouldn't hurt trying somewhat more for some possible TAs... This season has been dull as far as MW TAs, and I have nothing even half-decent for LW TAs, so it doesn't help as far as this saddly missed aspect of our hobby is concerned either... Only one last comment: I should have tried to DX earlier this evening, earlier the semi-auroral conditions were deeper and the 500s were probably full of YVs, HJs and Caribbean signals... Am I close to the truth of what the MW dial sounded like at your QTH ? May the good DX be wirh you ! Bogdan Chiochiu ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2008: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2008 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
