Re: [HCDX]: Moroccan Bandscan

[WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hello Martin.  Here are a few comments on your Moroccan DX outing.
Since the stations from that area are often the strongest signals
crossing the Atlantic to this side, I'll add a few comments based
on my receptions.

On 8 Oct 1999 16:12:10 you wrote:
>
>Hello,
>
>this Wednesday I returned from a two-weeks trip to Agadir in southern
>Morocco. Of course I had my Sangean ATS 909 with me, and as the receiver
>is rather deaf on mediumwave with the built-in ferrite antenna, I had a
>50x50 cm loop with me to boost signals. DX-friend Erik Kugland made this
>collapsable antenna, it fits perfectly into a suitcase and can be
>assembled within 5 minutes. Tests here at home showed a significant
>improvement of reception with this loop compared to a barefoot Sangean.
>
>The hotel in Agadir was about 300 or 400 meters from the Atlantic, so I
>had expected a lot. Madeira, Gibraltar, Azores, Senegal's regional
>station R. St. Louis and Radio Syd from Gambia were hot favourites,
>but...
>

907.8 Gambia is occasionally heard here, but never really strong.
Also 648 gets by Spain if it's auroral enough.

>Noise-level on the balcony was moderate, but in the early evening hours
>a lot of TV interferences. As reference I had Hermann Boel's excellent
>list of LW and MW stations with me. Sunrise was at 0630 UTC, Sunset at
>1830 hrs UTC. Fade-in started about 60 minutes before sunset, after 1800
>UTC the MW was crowded with Spanish stations.
>
>Daytime reception was confined to Morocco, Canary Islands and Madeira.
>Here's a short summary:
>
Best Moroccan here is 1044, often very strong around 2300 UTC.
SER Spain is under until Morocco goes off.  612 and 1053 are also
good, frequennty stronger than the co-channel stations from Ireland,
Spain, and the UK.  819 is sometimes audible over the Egyptian.
936 and 774 have been heard, but Spain usually dominates those
channels.  711.04 (Western Sahara) has a very strong carrier
most early evenings, though audio is often thin.  Safi-909
occasionally shows in the mix with UK.

>MOROCCO: Agadir on 936 was the strongest station, 600 kW about 20 km
>south of the city. Second was 774 kHz, 50 kW running the Berber
>programming for Agadir. Hermann lists this station as active from 06-14
>hrs, but that's definitely wrong. Don't know, when they sign on, it was
>not on during the morning hours, also not audible at 1000 hrs, but when
>I checked later at 1300 UTC it was on. And it's used till the late
>evening, but reception is disturbed through Spain in the evening hours.
>711 kHz Laayoune was the third strongest Moroccan station. Strong
>signals, but audio-quality varies a lot. Usually it was good, when they
>were in // with 936 (and FM 91.0 MHz) relaying nationwide programming,
>but during local programmes the audio was rather muffled, e.g. at 1800
>UTC. Medi 1 was heard weak on 171 and strong on 9575 kHz, // to local FM
>104.6 MHz. (Third FM station audible in Agadir was the French service on
>92.4 MHz, with English at 1030 hrs. All FM stations in Mono only without
>RDS.)
>

Algeria's big guns here are 549, 891, and 981.  Also common are
531, 1422, and 1550.  My best receptions are invariably at local
sunset on this end.  On the sunset openings, seashore receiving
sites have a 20 dB or better edge over nearby inland sites.

>ALGERIA: The Saharan clandestine on 1550 came in from 0700-0800 s/off
>and from 1800 s/on. Surprisingly the longwave 252 suffered from heavy
>interference through Atlantic 252! Hadn't expected that.
>

1530 has too much Vatican plus domestic QRM for the Madeiran
to make much of a showing.  Sao Tome is best in the 0300-0400 UTC
time slot, especially if it's a bit auroral.  Madeira on 531 and
603 aren't too difficult (though Spain often makes these harder
to hear than if they had clear channels).  1125 has been logged
once or twice at coastal locations hereabouts.

>MADEIRA: Two stations audible only. Posto Emissor de Radiodifusão do
>Funchal on 1530 was the best, audible even on the barefoot Sangean, fair
>to good with the loop. After sunset in a mix with Vatican and VOA São
>Tome, but most times dominant. RDP 603 kHz was weaker and only audible
>during daytime. From 1730 hrs onwards it was wiped out by Spain. No
>trace at all of 531 kHz, maybe they are on the other side of Madeira,
>screened by the hills over there. And absolutely no beep of the 1
>Kilowatters on 1485, 1332 and 1017 kHz.
>

Canaries-621 is a powerhouse almost any evening.  576, 837, 882,
1008, and 1179 are also quite common here.

>CANARY ISLANDS: All of the listed stations were audible in good quality.
>R. Ecca on 1269 has poor audio, is rather overmodulated. 1008 kHz,
>listed as Radio Voz in Hermann's list is in fact identifying as R. Las
>Palmas and is belonging to Onda Cero network.
>

Senegal used to have a huge signal at local sunset on 765. 
I haven't heard them for at least 3 months.

>SENEGAL: Bad luck with Senegal. No trace of St. Louis on 1368 kHz. On
>765 kHz I heard French, but that turned out to be Switzerland. So I
>guess they are either off or on low power only. Bad luck also for the
>rest of Africa, nothing from R. Syd.

Azores-836 is often logged in the early evening.  They and Canaries-837
take turns in terms of superior signal level.  693 has recently been
drifting up to about 693.7, so a good receiver can split them away
from the 693.0 mix (UK/Spain).  1259 het (and even bits of audio) have
been heard at Rockport, MA but the WPZE/CIHI/SER-Spain mess on 1260
is usually overpowering.

>Also nothing heard from the Azores. 836 kHz impossible due to powerhouse
>COPE Las Palmas, not even a heterodyne in the night. 1259 also
>impossible, with R. Algeciras coming in loud on 1260.
>

I think that Gibraltar has been logged tentatively from Newfoundland,
but not from the USA.

>GIBRALTAR: That was on top of my list. I heard Gibraltar in the 80ies in
>Spain and Portugal, but they didn't answer my reports at that time. And
>as there was the news in the DX-press, that they are using a new
>transmitter now, replacing the old, ineffective outlet, I thought that
>would be a piece of cake. Wrong, completely wrong! Absolutely nothing
>during daytime, one hour before sunset a signal faded in, turned out to
>be Albania, relaying VOA and later on Deutsche Welle for Kosovo. From
>1800 hrs onwards Sunrise Radio came in, they were extremely loud.
>Infact, Sunrise Radio is giving better reception there than Luxemburg's
>1440 kHz! I never heard Sunrise Radio so often in my life than down
>there... Luckily, on one day I got pop tunes between 2000 and 2020 hrs
>and English commercials. Bjarne Melde reports in today's HCDX, that the
>new transmitter will come into service in November, so that explains a
>lot. Nearby R. Algeciras in La Linea had a powerhouse signal on 1260
>kHz.
>

Ceuta-1583.6 is one of the first signals to show at sunset, sometimes
even before the Saudi-1521 monster.  Initially Ceuta is stronger than
the SER synchros on 1584, later (after 2300) the 1584 stations get the
upper hand.

>CEUTA: 1583.6 kHz spoiled reception of 1584 completely. Nasty
>heterodynes must make it unpleasant to listen to even in Ceuta. Alas, I
>never heard a local programme.
>

Portugal is best on 1035 (though I have a sloppy local on 1030 to
mess things up some).  963 is probably next best.  Less common are
594 and 783.  In the "old days", 666 was loud, now they get covered
by a melange of Spain, Algeria, and others.

>PORTUGAL: Renescenca strong on 963 kHz, and R. Comercial on 1035, IDing
>as "R. Nacional".
>
>All in all nothing spectacular. With a barefoot Sangean results would
>have been even more disappointing. Which leaves me with the question, if
>there is any good receiver for travelling on the market? Lightweight,
>digital readout, sensitive on MW and with good selectivity? I don't find
>the Sangean very convincing on MW.
>

Sony ICF-2001D / 2010 is still hard to beat, in my opinion.

>73's
>Martin
>

----------------------------------

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA, USA
e-mail: WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
homepage: http://members.aol.com/MarkWA1ION/weblink.htm
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