Wow... what a night!!!!
St. Helena Is. logged on MW!!!
I got very happy when I heard my 16th Department on ULR with my Eton E-100,
sitting on my backyard on a warm late evening that resembled more summertime
than Fall...
URUGUAY. 1180 LV de Artigas, 0113, with play by play soccer and mentioning
"Oribe (street name)... para todo el Departamento de Artigas" (Nigro, Uruguay,
Mar 29).
The remaining Departments (Uruguay Geographical divisions total 19) that remain
to be heard with ULR are: Rivera, Flores, and Salto.
--
At 0330, my wife was already at bed, I was preparing to do the same, my
listening post is at my bedside. I started to search with my Kenwood R-600 and
first got CB118 Radio Corporación from Santiago, Chile. Good! Also checked with
the E-100 and positive!. A new Chilean added to the ULR log.
I continued and stopped at a carrier on 1548. Great!!!, this is the first time
I get a offset European frequency signal in Montevideo.
In the dark and with my flashbulb I opened the WRTH 2009... looked at the most
powered station in the listing, there appears: R. Sawa Kuwait 600/300 kW and
Grigoropol 500 kW...
Signal was enough strong to get a woman with talks in English at 0325 I checked
on the E-100 and it was there too. But signal was fair and faded out for 5
minutes. On the E-100 it was evident more QRM from a Brazilian station.... on
the R600 the carrier was more evident due to the nice narrow filter on this
last receiver. Suddenly a short tune melody was heard
and I thought... this sound is familiar: it certainly was the ID musical
signature for R. St. Helena, the one we usually heard every year at their
annual St. Helena Day!!!.
The audio degraded for several minutes, but there was still a carrier
detectable, while on E-100 there was more activity from the 1550 channel.
At 0400 the signal faded-out.
While I was in this special thrilling moment I tried -in the dark- to connect
my mp3 to the E-100, something I didn't expect to do earlier, a mix of cables
from different earphones, line in/out... the flashbulb the logbook, trying to
keep the WRTH open... it was too late to get the significative part and it
wasn't recorded. I still cannot plug the recorder to the R600 since it has no
line out audio level. So I regret to not bear a recorded proof of this St.
Helena log. But this forces me to further keep trying on this offset frequency
in the future...
R. St. Helena on MW and without Beverage in a suburban quarter in the capital
city...and also on an UL!?? Yes it's possible!!!! ! Incredibly possible.
Recap log:
ST. HELENA 1548 R. St. Helena (p), Jamestown, 0325. Carrier and English talks
by woman, detected with my Kenwood R-600, (+15 m randomwire, 9:1 balun +
ferrite balun in series). Faded out till 0335 when back. R. St. Helena well
known ID musical signature strikes my ears!!. Also checked with UL Eton E-100
getting the signal. In the interim, the UL had more QRM from 1550 UNID
Brazilian. Degraded and faded out at 0400 with a short peak at 0353, with
apparent choir music. (Nigro, Uruguay, Mar 30)
---
At this time:
By now, I feel a sort of bitter hang-over... it was a short but incredible
moment, those that DXing fortunately gives time to time and keep us connected
with the hobby for the entire life. But I have no no recording to show as proof
and it's a pity.
St. Helena and me were alone in a hot romantic affair last night, and it was
indeed a pretty young lady.
But there's no "photo" to show just the memory. :(
Checked the mp3 this morning and there's no recording for St. Helena... just
the 1550 Brazilian and one "AM 15-50" ID in Spanish surely from Argentina,
(this latter was not hrd on the R-600)
I am sure I will be every night sticked at 1458 from now on. I hope it wasn't a
propagational extreme coincidence and will have another chance. Very recent
reports from Brazilian SWers in the "Radioescutas" YG tell that at that moment
all bands were closed, only local Tropical banders were present, not even a
single one on 25m or 31m. They report a similar situation didn't take place
since last July.
And will be better prepared next time.
Horacio Nigro
Montevideo
Uruguay
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