[HCDX]: S.African DXpedition logs

[Vince Stevens <vince@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings all

Went back to my tried and trusted spot in the Karoo desert, 200Km NE of Cape
Town. These are the (somewhat disappointing) results:

kHz    UTC Date

990   1758 12/7 AUSTRALIA (unid station) ID as "Information Radio" at 1800
and a mention of Perth. Pop music played and references to "volunteers from
all walks of life", poor. (Perhaps some kind of community/HAP type station -
any ideas ????)

1080 1731 14/7 AUSTRALIA 6IX. Easy listening pops and ID's, fair with fading
& local static. (Enough info for a report but last time I tried I heard
nothing from them.....)

1116 1734 12/7 AUSTRALIA 6MM. ID & ads, poor-fair

1206 1610 14/7 AUSTRALIA (station unid?) with horse racing results, poor
(Racing Radio ?)

1242 1648 14/7 VIETNAM VoV. 'Letterbox' programme, ID and nx in EE, fair.
(First time I've heard this country on MW)

1375 0400 13/7 ST.PIERRE ET MIQUELON (Presumed) with R.France Relay: ID's
etc, good.

1449 1705 13/7 AUSTRALIA 6TAB. ID as Racing Radio and tape loop featuring a
few songs repeated over & over. This due to a technical problem apparently
(according to an announcement to that effect between every song). fair-good
signal. This was probably the most consistent Aussie over the 3 evenings I
listened. {Do these stn's QSL ?, and if so, to whom do I write?}

1460 0501 13/7 USA UNIDENTIFIED. Talks about the 'Bill of Health', ads for
an Internet site, Top stories for the hour, financial news (Microsoft etc.)
and news about pollution in the Ganges. poor overall with occasional peaks.
(any ideas anyone?? - most likely an East coast station)

1560 0454 15/7 USA R.Disney (WQEW?). R.Disney ID and pop mx @ 0500. "AM 1560
New York" ID at 0509, poor.

1566 1540 13/7 INDIA AIR. ID & nx in EE, fair.

1600 0522 13/7 USA WWRL. "New York's ultimate AM, WWRL", poor-fair

1611 1712 12/7 AUSTRALIA 6GS. Pop music (Talking Heads) then chat. poor-fair
w fading (heard at this location last year as well)

1630 0526 13/7 USA KCJJ (Tentative) Songs by Cher and Rick Springfield and a
partial ID: "The new 16-30, KC.....", poor.

1690 0456 13/7 USA WMDM. ID as "Baytalk 1690", fair. (one of the most
consistent USA signals this time, also heard last year.)

Others were heard, including many ABC stations on
558/612/720/810/828/1044/1188/1395 but I just listed the more interesting
ones.
Day one (12/7) was probably the best as there was almost no static noise,
unlike the 14th where everything got wiped out by HUGE static crashes every
coupla seconds. The culprits were these ominous looking black clouds
overhead. The last day was quieter but hardly anything came thru. I was
using the same equipment as last time when I got much, much better results:
Icom R-70 (modified) operating off 12V and an unterminated Beverage of
approx. 600 metres beamed at the Northern part of the USA East coast. (or
central Aussie in the reverse direction!).

Incidentally I've noticed that mid-winter is often not a good time for DXing
locally. Either side of the months of July & June seem to work better.
Indeed I've had good expeditions in October (spring in Cape Town). Does this
correspond with other's experiences both in the Northern & Southern
Hemisphere? In fact I remember DXing in December (mid-Summer) with good
results but that was some years back when DX in general seemed a lot better.

greetings

Vince Stevens
Cape Town
Southern Tip of Africa
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