Warm greetings ! I have been working very hard on finding Aventure FM tapes and I almost succeded... Let's see what comes inside my snail mail bag the next few weeks... I need to talk about Aventure, because the 23rd of October we sadly celebrate 20 years since Aventure FM was replaced by MaXXimum and this is unfortunate for me ! I love MaXXimum, just it didn't have a goal and wasn't eclectic enough to keep my mind high on life ! I also like better MaXXimum instead of Fun Radio rather than MaXXimum instead of Aventure FM ! However, I do enjoy the MaXXimum airchecks I found, since late 80s dance music will always be a part of my eclectic musical tastes ! Is anyone having any unscoped MaXXimum airchecks ? I'll thank you so much !
As far as the DX goes, a lot of good things and a constant, albeit VERY slow increase in the solar activity could sooner or later provide us with some astonishing auroral conditions... I'm so glad to see the A and K index both at 2 instead of 0 or even 1 ! The past week, at the MTL-EST cottage, LW was quite good after midnight, but almost useless during the early evenings time slot... MW was interesting in that I caught for a few minutes some music on 1215 kHz in heavy domestic QRM and I actually caught READABLE AUDIO on 623 kHz in AM Narrow mode from the Canary Islands in a deep WVMT-620 null... WVMT's audio on my fairly selective Sangean ACS 818-CST goes from 618 to 622 and the Canary-621 het goes from 619 to 623, so 623 in AM Narrow mode was quite clear, but the low modulation and the slight albeit still bothersome 620 QRM didn't allow me to extract too much program content. Still, I was rewarded with two mentions of "Radio Nacional" ! Latins are improoving, even though right now I'm only hearing the regulars, nothing beyond north coast South America ! Into the DX logs: Trans-Atlantic DX 153 unID OCT 22 0305 - two or three signals mixing. Nothing readable. (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 162 FRANCE France Inter, Allouis OCT 20 0503 - to fair-good peak. Didn't took any specific notes while I was listening, as even though the signal was almost good, it is often noisier way down there and the station is a run of the mil catche during average conditions. LW condx were slightly below average with some pleasant surprises (see 252 below). (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 171 MOROCCO (no) Medi Un, Nador OCT - still no reception of this station. However, one night (OCT 22 around 0305 UTC) I caught very weakly some Slavic talk and some Dance Music which lead to either Ukraine or Russia. Are they leaving longwave for good in order to allow for better shortwave coverage ? If Morocco-171 is gone, then hearing Arabic on LW will become more difficult... Well... (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg OCT 20 0415 - with the news stories of the day... A man in Montpellier (southern France) has killed a thief who had a gun on his hands and was trying to stole gold and money from his house. He was sent to justice, but he appears to be avoiding jail, since he tried to fight for his life and the one of his family. Also, weather warnings for southern France and Corsica concerning huge thunderstorms that were predicted for later the same day... Often huge with slow and deep fadings, while an annoying buzz was popping in and out... SINPO 45332 (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 189 ICELAND Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskalar OCT 22 0344 - playing some lite rock. Poor. Condx were poor on OCT 21 / OCT 22 UTC on longwave with some nice, albeit weak surprises. (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 198 ENGLAND BBC Radio 4, Droitwich OCT 20 0348 - playing a World Beat program made by BBC World Service. Fairly good, best signal from them in ages ! I have to admit, however, that my weekend home isn't the perfect choice for DXing on 198 kHz, because I have a weird noise RIGHT ON this channel ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 207 GERMANY Deutschlandfunk, Münich OCT 20 0407 - Tentative with woman in German weakly through some threshold-strength NDBs. (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 216 FRANCE RMC, Romoules OCT 20 0420 - with their ever lengthy morning newscast. They carried pretty much the same stories as Europe 1 (see 183 above). Huge, over / under what was perphaps CLB if I understood morse. (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 234 LUXEMBOURG RTL, Beidweler and / or Junglister OCT 20 0403 - to good peak with an item regarding the swine flu (H1N1) vaccine shot and the beginning of the vaccination campaign... It's scary because I had huge traumas with the first shots here (I even deleted my Aventure FM 06.10.1988 tape after two painful shots), but that's another story and isn't related to this log ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 252 ALGERIA Alger Chaîne 3, Tipaza OCT 19 0246 - playing traditionnal Arabic music that was midway between raï and folk. Huge at tune-in, but quickly faded away leading to Ireland underneath to come atop ! Ireland had its best peak after 0400 GMT / UTC. SINPO 4232-1 +OCT 22 0340 - playing "Je l'aime à mourir" by Francis Cabrel from 1979. Somewhat fair with deep fadings. This station plays Techno, raï and French chanson, it is as eclectic as a public radio might be... It's the French service of Algerian public radio ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 252 IRELAND RTE Radio One, Clarkestown OCT 19 0406 - to fair peak with traditionnal Irish flutes. SINPO 32322 (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 585 SPAIN RNE, Madrid OCT 19 0342 - man in Spanish saying that good things should be done step by step. In fine for a few seconds, best in a while, but was blowed away a few dozens of seconds later by a buzz. SINPO 35131 due to the appearance of the awful powerline buzz. 585 is one of the VERY few noisy frequencies at the Montreal-East cottage, it is noisy ALMOST all the time (see this log) ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 621 CANARY ISLANDS RNE, Santa Cruz de Tenerife OCT 19 0343 - man talking in Spanish and saying "Radio Nacional" twice. Poor, detuned to 623 in AM Narrow mode to avoid 620 QRM, in WVMT-620 null. Too much 620 splatter to pick out more specific words or program details ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC). 1215 ENGLAND or SPAIN Absolute Radio or COPE OCT 19 0412 - either of them; some rock music getting through some annoying splatter. I presumably had Virgin here during the chemo back in 2005 (see http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/hard-core-dx@hard-core-dx.com/2618650.html), so this is my second best attempt at DXing something on 1215 kHz. (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) Pan-American DX 555 ST KITTS ZIZ, Basseterre OCT 19 0356 - playing some nice English Caribbean music. Listened to them for about 1 minute as I was buzzy chassing TAs on 585, 621 and 1215 ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 600 CUBA CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norrís (Holguín area) OCT 23 0011 - Man with Spanish sports-related comments mixing with WICC and CKAT. Has CKAT in North Bay, Ontario any plans to switch to FM in order to make the 600 and 603 channels easier to DX ? In Pierrefonds, they are stronger than WICC, while in Montreal-Est, I didn't gave yet much attention to this overall potentially attractive channel. (Chiochiu-PIERREFONDS-car-QC) 640 CUBA CMBC, Radio Progreso, Guanabacoa OCT 21 0140 - playing some cuban salsa inside their daily Ritmos program. Good in mess, in null of the Toronto's megapest. SINPO 42523. They upped their Habana area transmitter power during the last few years, but the lack of auroral condx and the crowded frequency (+ WNNZ sometimes "forget" to power down at sunset) means it isn't the easiest Cuban catche here... Florida is possibly a different story, I don't know... Has any FL DXer heard an improvement on CMBC-640 during the last couple of years ? (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 750 VENEZUELA YVKS, RCR, Caracas, DF OCT 21 0050 - Ad for a restaurant located near a body training center, then several IDs followed by a news-talk program. One item of that news-talk program was a meeting between teacher and father's of all college students in order to help them achieve their pedagogo-parental goals or something like that... This item was followed by a news item dealing with water issues. Huge, over WSB ! Consistently stronger than WSB ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) 760 COLOMBIA HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla OCT 21 0156 - man in Spanish advertizing for a website ending in "...punto com punto co" followed by other announcements. Pretty good in a more or less solid WJR null ! SINPO 33333 (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) +OCT 23 0010 - man in Spanish talking about "siente" (the only readable world) way under a blockbuster WJR signal on a friend's DX unfriendly omnidirectionnal whip / car radio combo. (Chiochiu-PIERREFONDS-car-QC) 780 VENEZUELA YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, Falcón OCT 23 0055 - after some trop. mx. (cumbia), the jock begun his speech with "Amigo conductor...". He is doing that almost everytime on La Discoteca del Pueblo... It seems to be a show very listener by car or truck drivers. It was more reliable on 780 AM than on http://200.6.157.20:8034/listen.pls wich had so many bufferings and the sound was skipping ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) +OCT 23 0216 - a psychologist talking about why Venezuelan teenagers are taking drugs, for being like their mates "para parecer a los demas"... Very good with little in the way of fadings ! +OCT 24 0325 - the last of "Romantica Siete Ochenta en el especial" followed by "las gloriosas notas" of the YV anthem, canned ID and "Ruta Musical Siete Ochenta". The first number was a salsa vieja Oscar d'Leon one. Huge with deep fadings but many long peaks at a huge level. SINPO 43534 in a fairly deep WBBM null using the Sanyo MCD-S830 / PK AM loop combo ! (Chiochiu-PIERREFONDS-QC) 910 CUBA CMAF, Radio Cadena Agramonte, Camagüey OCT 7 0107-0108 - some cha cha cha music occasionally fading up under WLAT, in WABI null. Heard on a broken Kossi AM-FM Hi-Fi portable with its intact ferrite bar and no additionnal antenna. This was my first foreign log at the Montreal-Est QTH, before I bringed here the PK AM loop ! (Chiochiu-MTL-EST-QC) Additionnal comments as well as some additionnal questions: On 780 AM, Radio Coro is stronger than ever... Medi Un is missing since over a week on 171 kHz. What's up ? Have anyone ever used Koss radios ? I have one at the Montréal-Est cottage with half-decent sensitivity, but excellent selectivity ! I can hear Latins two channels away from my locals with not the faintest trace of splatter and one channel away, the Latins are still DXable... Sooner or later, at Montreal-Est, I will be hearing something on 790... Of course, CJAD-800 is almost fringy down there, but that's not a big deal, as back in 2006 I had Radio Reloj on 790 and even PJB way under CJAD (on the same bearing as my local pest), on 800, so I'm having high hopes (take a look at http://www.mail-archive.com/hard-core-dx@hard-core-dx.com/msg15173.html for understanding my high hopes better as far as the MTL-EST QTH goes) ! I will move soon once again... I'll keep you updated ! I need to eat, but will comeback later... I'm looking forward chatting with some of the ever-friendly Venezuelan DXers later this evening, if I don't get the chance to meet some of my friends from the college radio. This report is brought to you by Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, DXing yesturday from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island) using the Sanyo MCD-S830 / PK AM loop combo... However, Bogdan Chiochiu was mainly DXing from Montréal-Est using the Koss AM-FM / PK AM Loop, the Sangean ACS 818-CST / PK AM loop and the Sangean ACS 818-CST / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop combo for LW broadcast DXing May the good DX be with you ! Bogdan Chiochiu Btw. I: I'm looking for Aventure FM, MaXXimum, La Voix du Lésard, RFM La radio couleur, Transitalia, Canal 89 and Pacific FM airchecks from the 80's and early 90's Btw. II: Is WICC-600 still in stereo ? I don't take our old car anymore with the Sony XFD-A33 AM Stereo tuner, but why I never received WICC in stereo ? Should I first tune in AM Mono then switch to AM Wide Stereo (Motorola C-Quam) mode ? What should I do in order to enjoy Motorola C-Quam DXing ? Btw. III: Are there any LW AM Stereo tuners for Iceland-189 which, here, is sometimes huge ? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "For enjoying love at its full meaning, you need to act passionated and not instinctive" ! ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2009: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2009 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. 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