[HCDX]: DX

[WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I've got some brief notes to follow on this weekend's DX,
but first of all, hearty congratulations to Ben Dangerfield
in PA for hearing India on 1566.  I think that the present
roster of US DXers who've heard India on medium wave is as
follows:

Mark Connelly - Rowley, MA (DXpedition site)
Ben Dangerfield - Wallingford, PA
George Hakiel - West Islip, NY
Pat Martin - Seaside, OR
Richard Wood - Hilo, HI

>From Canada, I know that Jean Burnell in NF (on his own
at home and with DX teams in Cappahayden) and Brian Vernon
in the Yukon have bagged various Indians over the years.

There was recently a comment about the Al Mustaqbal /
Voice of the Future clandestine from Kuwait.  At coastal
sites in MA, I've logged it on 1575 and 1584 (not at the
same time).  I think it's related to (or is the same as)
things heard on 1526, 1534, 1559, and 1566 at various
times over the last 3 or 4 years.

Al Merriman told me that his loggings from the NF DXpedition
were of stations reported already by Neil, Jean, and John
so it looks as though Jean has the majority of the material
that will go into the finished report.  When I have this,
I'll post it on my Newfoundland DXpedition Web page.

Weekend listening was primarily on Sunday evening (28 NOV,
2100 UTC to 29 NOV, 0130 UTC) from the Windmill Park / Beach
site in South Yarmouth, Cape Cod, MA.  Trans-Atlantic activity
was sub-par with just a few of the big stations showing.
Western Sahara on 711.04 was the strongest of the lot.

Much more interesting was a virtual "feeding frenzy" on
stations from the Caribbean and north coast South America.
The lower end of the dial was especially good.  The highlight
was a pipeline to the Dominican Republic with R. Cristal - 570,
R. Monte Cristi - 580, and R. Santa Maria - 590 all coming
through in a matter of a few minutes.  None of these stations
is a common catch here.  Some rarer higher band DX showed as
well.  A good ZDK-1100 Antigua signal led me to 1160 where
Caribbean Radio Lighthouse dominated briefly with preaching.
I don't think I've heard this since it left 1165 many years
ago. Puerto Cabello, Venezuela was battling with Providence,
RI on 1290.  Ecos del Palmar (Colombia) peaked up with a nice
ID on 1520 with WWKB nulled.  In fact, there was so much
stuff taking turns on 1520 that I could have bagged 3 or 4
other Latin Americans there if I had enough time and patience
to wait for fades and ID's to coincide.  R. Amanecer on 1570
from the Dominican Republic had a good signal and almost no
QRM.  In general, the floodgates were open for many local-
quality signals from Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica,
Puerto Rico, British V.I., St. Kitts, Neth. Antilles,
Dominican Republic, Grenada, etc.  Domestic DX was Florida-
oriented, e.g. huge WIOD completely dominating 610.

I used the Drake R8A and an antenna system consisting of a
30 m (100 ft.) wire (running east across the park and beach
towards the water) phased against an MFJ-1024 whip on the
car roof.  This set-up works just as well as the loop / whip
cardioid array that I usually run.  For phasing, I used the
Superphaser-1 (a veteran of many road trips).

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

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA, USA
e-mail: WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
homepage: http://members.aol.com/MarkWA1ION/weblink.htm
RF circuit page: http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/index.html
Newfoundland DXpedition page: http://members.xoom.com/MarkWA1ION/nfdxpage.htm
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