----- Original Message ----- From: Bogdan chiochiu To: a...@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:28 PM Subject: trans-oceanic logs + some Latin goodies
Warm greetings to all of you ! I'm quite buzy, but not as much as I thought, as I did loose my work (the Colombian person to whom I taught French has to leave for her native country tomorrow at 6AM because some member of her family were trapped by some "narcotraficos"), so instead of preparing pedagocial French-Spanish list of obscure verbs and other kind of stuff, I have time, this afternoon, to send in my latest logs. The TA condx on longwave and EVEN mediumwave has dramatically improven over the past 2 days, probably the best I ever saw, since I own the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop and on MW they were also quite spectacular, though much short-lived than on MW. The MW TA opening I attended did last from about 0130 to 0200 UTC with almost readable audio on 603 (with the same woman voice as on 585 !) and for a few seconds, I could dodge 621 from the 620 WVMT megapest in Burlington, VT even though nulling out WVMT favors Belgium instead of the much more commun Canary Islands. By the way, is RTBF La Première from Wavre still on 621 kHz ? The only null on WVMT I can achieve yet is ENE / WSW, not ESE (east-south-east), so nulling WVMT does not favor much the fairly weak Canary Islands TA signal. Also unusual was that 621 was up with man talk trying to break through semi-nulled WVMT-620 even when much more commun Madrid-585 wasn't making the TA trip. Tonight, I'll likely not have enough time for DXing, because of my lovely frail girlfriend, but condx would likely get even better. So be on the lockout for some spectacular high-latitude east-west conditions on both longwave and...mediumwave, yes -> MW ! Pan-American DX was rather decent Thursday night and way below average the other night, though late Monday night, the Bahía de Honda 1 kW sneaked through WIP-610 Philadelphia for the only noteworthy foreign LW-MW DX of that day. Thursday night, what was unusual, was YVKE-550 which is the strongest most commun Venezuelan in the Montreal area after YVKS-750 and YVNM-780 was good and YVKS-750 was huge, but YVNM-780 was absent, so the opening was toward the Caracas area of Distrito Federal with nothing out of Coro, yet Barranquilla-760 was noted in passing at a quite nice level strength. Into the logs: Trans-Atlantic DX 162 FRANCE France Inter, Allouis JAN 31 0610 - Woman in French noted at a poor level, though not representative at all of the REST OF THE LOGS (see below) ! (Chiochiu-QC) 171 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador JAN 31 0130 - SINPO 24333 -> a Middle Eastern pop tune, then a special request for the "Por Ella" salsa number of Victor Manuel which was followed by "Tous les cris, les SOS" of Daniel Balavoine, someone who sadly passed away while travelling for the Paris-Dakar contest in January of 1986. Seems like Morocco is the third spot after Russia and Japan for non-English foreign music on the planet ! French Caribbean zouk is also VERY popular in Morocco ! After the Daniel Balavoine recorded, heard raï vocals back-to-back ! Around 0230 UTC, they played an Amadou et Mariam track, so Morocco seems highly devoted to World Music and foreign cultures ! Fair at this time, but the best was yet to come ! +JAN 31 0415 - Spanish romantic ballad, then Celine Dion, Robbie Williams, then Arabic rhythmic contemporary vocals. Huge ! Peaking S6 out of S7 on the Sangean CST-818's reading meter ! Probably my best-ever reception of Morocco-171 yet. SINPO 44544 (Chiochiu-QC) 177 GERMANY Deutschlandradio Kultur, Oranienburg, Zehlendorf JAN 30 0359 - noted with time pips as I tuned around. Poor-fair ! Second time here, relog ! (Chiochiu-QC) 183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg (Saarlouis) JAN 31 0520 - Excellent level, almost local-like, with lengthy newscast. One of the items was about the strike of workers in Guadeloupe. Terrific SINPO ! SINPO 54444 with barely noticeable splatter from Iceland-189 ! Best ever reception of Europe 1 for me ! Of all the 4 French stations (France Inter, Europe 1, RMC Info and RTL), Europe 1 is always the most reliable one, good enough even for a non-DXer to enjoy ! (Chiochiu-QC) 189 ICELAND RUV, Gufuskalar JAN 31 0615 - at this time, switched from International pops to classical piano music, then later, as I felt asleep, I was told Icelandic talk was coming out of the bedroom ! Very good ! (Chiochiu-QC) 198 ENGLAND BBC Radio 4, Droitwich JAN 31 0526 - British Accended English talk splattering into the local 201 kHz beacon in AM Wide mode ! The signal wasn't really strong though, just the Sangean CST-818 isn't too selective in AM Wide Mode ! (Chiochiu-QC) 207 unID DEC 31 0510 - talk and music badly QRMed by beacons on nearby frequencies. Nothing usable ! SIO 211 ! (Chiochiu-QC) 216 FRANCE RMC Info, Romoules JAN 31 0510 - French news noted in passing at a nice level, over the beacon that is usually pestering this channel ! SIO 443 (Chiochiu-QC) 225 POLAND Polski Radio 1, Solec Kujawski JAN 31 0014 - first founding of the evening, as I tuned to it, playing the "Lady In Red" smash hit of Chris de Bourg followed by man with comments in Polish, as the Polish talk appeared, the signal started to fade. As usual, the fadings on longwave are slow and deep, deeper than the fadings observed with MW signals ! SIO 353 - fair-good, but not quite good ! (Chiochiu-QC) 234 LUXEMBURG RTL, Beidweler JAN 31 0016 - female country-rock vocal (Fleetwood Mak ?), then man in French. Poor and hetted by beacons from both sides of the channel. SIO 222. Should be better tonight as the past night condx on LW were spectacular especially toward Ireland and Algeria on 252 kHz and the ionospheric conditions are improving really fast these times around ! (Chiochiu-QC) 252 IRELAND RTE Radio One, Clarkestown JAN 31 0051 - playing an amazing blues-rock English vocal that was fading over and under Algeria's French talk at almost armchair level. SIO 423 ! Best on 253 kHz in AM Narrow Mode as usually, though it could be separed from the pesky UL beacon on 248 kHz on 254 kHz in AM WIDE MODE ! (Chiochiu-QC) 252 ALGERIA Alger Chaîne 3, Tipaza JAN 31 0110 - discussion program about the best way to resolve the Gaza conflict. Fair-good, over / under Ireland best ever reception of these guys ! First time readable ! SINPO 33523. Friday night was probably my best yet for LW DX ! (Chiochiu-QC) 585 SPAIN Radio Nacional de España / Radio Uno Santa Cruz de Tenerife JAN 31 0146 - Man and woman in Spanish, fair and occasional words readable through some quite heavy splatter from 580 and 590. SIO 321 ! (Chiochiu-QC) 594 or 595 unID JAN 31 0155 - empty audio noted almost midway between the 590 and 600 kHz American channels on the analog-dialed Sanyo MCD-S830. Any ideas ? (Chiochiu-QC) 603 SPAIN Radio Nacional de España / Radio Cinco, La Sevilla et al JAN 31 0149 - Woman in Spanish, very poor and mushy cutting through the 600 splah and clearly the same voice as on 585. Radio Uno (585 AM) and Radio Cinco (603 AM) carry the same RNE network feed during the late night hours ! Spain #3 on MW ! NEW ! Wow ! Unfortunatly, the tape misfunctioned and when I tried to record it, I only had the talk at a very slow and unreadable speed... Seems like the tape recorder inside my boombox Sanyo MCD-S830 is beginning to be a lil' bit dusty ! I tried to record a few other things and the other times, the speed was perfect... Anyway, SINPO 13512 - not too bad for a mediumwave TA ! (Chiochiu-QC) 621 CANARY ISLANDS Radio Nacional de España / Radio Uno JAN 31 0210 - Man in Spanish strongly breaking through semi-nulled WVMT-620 semi-local at an almost readable level. Tentative ! First time here, if them ! Around 0220 UTC, 621 faded out completly and nothing came back from accross the pond on MW, though on LW, Morocco-171 was huge around 0415 UTC... Unfortunatly, 603 and 585 weren't up then (the TA opening officially ended around 0200 UTC), or I would have //ed this one ! Is Canary Islands considered as a separate DX country or more water separation between it and Spain is needed ? A simple barefoot portable with USB filtering would have produced armchair audio here ! (Chiochiu-QC) Pan-American DX 550 VENEZUELA YVKE, Caracas, Distrito Federal JAN 30 0140 and 0207 - Did tune to this channel at both times, heard with a passionate speech by Hugo Chavez about how bolivarianism is related to social justice. Good to very good, but not quite excellent. Minor QRM from WEVD from Waterbury, VT. SINPO 33534 ! It's the 5th time this season I log this Caraqueño ! Semi-regular ! (Chiochiu-QC) 600 CUBA CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norris JAN 30 0405 - Good over WICC ! Probably the most reliable Rebelde MW frequency in the Montreal area, now that CMBA-670 is heavy pestered by the ugly WFAN-660 IBOC hash ! Of course, you can always use either shortwave (5025 kHz) and the Internet to catch them out ! (Chiochiu-QC) 610 CUBA CMAN, Radio Rebelde, Bahía de Honda JAN 27 0430 - as I randomly tuned around, heard their distinctive "Rebelde, La Habana" IS through WIP Philadelphia. The only noteworthy catche from late Monday night, as during most of the evening, all LW, MW and SW were severely hammered by a strong buzz which dissapeared around local midnight allowing for this weak 1 kW Cuban to sneak through the Philadelphia pest, in CHNC null ! Semi-regular here ! (Chiochiu-QC) 750 VENEZUELA YVKS, Caracas, Distrito Federal JAN 30 0150 - carrying the "Librería Sonica" litt. program with reviews of novels and poems. According to the announcements I caught, this is a remake of a program heard during the daylight, those unavailable to overseas listeners ! Huge, SINPO 43533 ! At the Saul Chernos, Coro on 780 is the most commun YV, but in the Montreal ares, the biggest Venezuelan pest is YVKS-750 (RCR). (Chiochiu-QC) 760 COLOMBIA HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla JAN 30 0135 - Spanish talk noted in passing at a fair-good level, in a very deep WJR null. SIO 343 in WJR null ! Didn't stay with it. I'm tired of this being the ONLY Colombian coming through with any degreee of regularity ! A few weeks ago I tentaitvely logged HJHP-580 in Cali which is probably the best bet for North American DXers wanting to log a Todelar station. Todelar is the the third biggest Colombian network after Caracol and RCN ! (Chiochiu-QC) Additionnal comments: While I mostly collect tape recordings of my best catches, I'm also a QSL hunter to a moderate degree and I'm still waiting for the YVKS-750 and WOON-1240 QSL cards ! Right now, I only have 3 QSLs from midwestern USA stations I received via sporadic-E on the FM Broadcast band (ultrashortwave or "unde ultrascurte" in Romanian. One of my project for the next F2 season is to try for OIRT and Japanese FM broadcasters since their lower FM frequencies are more prone to F2 skip if the solar activity will begin damaging life on Earth like the parapsychological channels are predicting for 2012. I wonder if regular summer sporadic E layer skip from Yukon or Alaska to Fareast Russia on OIRT-FM (65.80-74.00 MHz) would be possible, but I doubt someone ever tried it, otherwise I would have found references on the web which is not the case yet. Well, I'm get ready to attend the metamorphosis to the shape of the innocence of my girlfriend, but I WILL FIND SOME TIME FOR DXing AS WELL, since condx on LW and low-band MW seems almost spectacular ! I can't believe I could follow the Gaza conflict coverage over Algeria-252 - it's the first time I have armchair copy of this North African broadcasted which has eluded me before I even had the really astonishing PK's Magnetic Shieled longwave loop (see below)... I would like to thank once again Paul Karlestand in Canberra, Austrlia for having built this loop with so much devotion... Before that, I could only get Latin American and the occasional European MW broadcasters on the regular AM broadcast band using the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot, now I can enjoy all kind of broadcast DX from all over Europe and North Africa on longwave ! I'm thinking seriously of getting a similar loop for MW that will only amplify the wanted frequency on the fairly prone to overload Sangean CST-818 ! What kind of MW loop would bring the best TA MW audio at my Montreal area QTH using the Sangean CST-818 (since I don't have money yet for a Drake R8B) ? I'm thinking of an antenna able to surpass the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot performance, especially in the 800-1000s where this receiver is rather deaf, since on the low-end and high-end it is a serious and lovely DX machine ! If you look carefully through my logs, you will see most of my foreign MW DX is done between 530 and 780 kHz. Yet, if I want to log the YV "estado" of Táchira on 860 kHz (YVOL, Mundial Ocho-Sesenta, in San Cristobal), I need something to dig this birdie out of the receiver threshold sensitivity noisefloor that I get in the CJBC null (Toronto) ! Also, can anyone confirm Ecos del Torbes, YVOD, is still active on 780 kHz ? I would be gladly happy to log something other than Coro on this nice channel ! Is their SW transmitter on 4980 kHz still broken ? I haven't heard them since at least 2002, if not 2001 ! The last time I reported YVOC-4980 (the call letters are slightly different on SW) was during the fall of 2001... Thanks a lot for your help ! Sorry for so many questions, but it's been a long time since I've last DXed with so much joy... The PK's Shielded Magnetic LW loop is partly the cause of so much enthousiasm for a hobby I only enjoyed randomly over the course of the last couple of years ! This repport is brought to you by Bogdan Chiochiu, DXing from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada using the Sanyo MCD-S830 / internal ferrite bar antenna combo and the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Magnetic Shielded longwave loop along with his ears and his heart, since DXing without your heart is DXing without enjoying the program content of those unique distant signals ! May the good DX be with you ! Bogdan Chiochiu Btw. I: During the upcoming days, as time permits, I will make available more of my files to the ABDX crew ! Btw. II: I only labelled this repport as "...Latin goodies" because of the presence of the MORE OR LESS regular Latin signals on 550 and 610 kHz, but, please, do take the relative value of its meaning... During an aurora, a goodie would be something like Dos Mil on 1500 kHz (YVRZ, Cumana, estado Sucre), Once-Treinta Ideal on 1130 kHz (Maiquetía, Distrito Federal) or maybe YVSX Radio Cristal on 610 kHZ (Barquisimeto, estado Lara) if Cuba-610 isn't too strong. Hearing Cuba on 610 kHz with only 1 kW during NON-auroral conditions is, at least for me, a Latin "goodie" ! 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