[HCDX] Recent MW and SW DX logs

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Foreign logs:

MW (AM Broadcast Band)

 530 TURKS AND CAICOS, Radio Vision Cristiana DEC 17 0209 - Very, very strong signal with spot and jingles followed by a Spanish gospel song then a "pastor" sermon inviting childrens to go with their parents to a church and that there there will be very great activities. Some co-channel computer QRM, noticeable especially during drops in strenght. (Chiochiu-QC) 

 640 CUBA, Radio Progreso DEC 16 UTC - Very strong signal all evening that had 8 or 9 minutes cycle fadings, under as way as well over the WNNZ/YVQO/Radio Guadeloupe mess. I.e.: DEC 16 0321 - Radio Drama about a 36 years old worker in Cartaña just after the Ritmos program. Excellent to poor and messy. Another i.e.: DEC 16 0342 - with the "Trios en la noche" program; very good signal and totally dominant with flamenco tune followed by woman announcer talking about borelo music and introducing the next song wich was a borelo one. By the time the flamenco tune ended, the signal slightly faded down, but the interferences were much bigger. (Chiochiu-QC)

 640 VENEZUELA, YVQO, Unión Radio, P-to La-Cruz, Anzoàtegui DEC 17 0205 - Man with mention of "Unión Radio". Poor, but briefly slightly OVER co-channel QRM ! (Chiochiu-QC)

 640 GUADELOUPE, RFO / Radio Guadeloupe DEC 18 0436 - 0443 - with news about snowstorms and icestorms in France that did lock the interstate A6, about the supervision of sick persons followed by time-check "Il est cinq heures quarante-deux sur France Inter" followed by news about George Bush and Saddam Hussein. Very strong at tune-in and during much of the listening period, but quickly faded under WNNZ and the SS stations by 0442 UTC. + DEC 18 2302 - Woman in Parisian-accented French noted at a weak and fading level with sports comments. My earliest reception of this station ! + DEC 19 0413 - French folk song with accordeons and lyrics about Paris, followed by man talk about this song with the comment "chanson du patrimoine" and mention of France Inter. When Radio Guadeloupe don't air their own programs, they now relay France Inter instead of France Info like they did the past season. In my opinion, this is a way better decision because one can hear variated programs, like curious comments, French music, etc. instead of the continuous and after a certain amount of time boring news line-up and also this makes the North-American DX'ers to really discover French radio, not just French news ! (Chiochiu-QC)

 670 VENEZUELA, YVLL, Radio Rumbos, Caracas, D. F. DEC 16 0121 - Notirumbos dorbells. Very poor signal with co-channel QRM from CMQ or WWFE. The voice was mostly inaudible, just the dorbells were able to passe well throught the QRM like a hot knife throught butter. (Chiochiu-QC)

 670 CUBA, CMQ, Radio Rebelde, Arroyo Arrenas DEC 16 0208 - Very good reception until about 0212-0213 when WWFE faded in with political speach in // with 1180. (Chiochiu-QC) 

 750 VENEZUELA, YVKS, RCR, Caracas, D. F. DEC 16 0430 - Signing off at this late time, due to extended sport schedule as announced earlier in the evening after their jingles and liners. Also, this one was audible all week long. (Chiochiu-QC)

 760 COLOMBIA, HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla DEC 16 0112 - Man announcer saying "La unica emisora deportiva en en pais, Antena Dos (...?) escuchando" then man on phone with sports comments followed by woman talk from the studio. Good signal that faded down to very poor barely 3 minutes later. This was possibly a simulcast from the Antena Dos network. However 650 wasn't up to check it. (Chiochiu-QC)

 770 COLOMBIA, HJJX, RCN Cadena Basíca, Santa Fé de Bogota DEC 17 0419-0421 - WABC was running an open carrer for 2 minutes (probably an error on the computer that structure the times when the differents part of the program begin explain this dead air), so heard extremely weakly this one // 760 wich was very good at the time. No sign of the much wanted YVKK wich is the most reported Carabobo state stn in North-America and the best chance to log my 7th YV state on MW. (Chiochiu-QC)

 780 VENEZUELA, YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, Falcón DEC 16 0021-0025 - Tentative with Spanish Xmas salsa tune from a male singer. Poor-fair signal in next-to-adjacent local CJAD slop. Sometimes very weak remains of nulled WBBM wich had news about Saddam Hussein wich didn't resist (as heard clearly when aimed for 1 or 2 minutes the Sanyo with it's ferrite bar antenna E-W) were in too degrading to an even slightly bigger extent the quality of the reception. (Chiochiu-QC)

 1110 COLOMBIA, HJJP, RCN Cadena Basíca, Villavicencio DEC 18 2335 - Man with mention of RCN very briefly over WBT and YVQT (Radio Carúpano). New, Colombia #7 ! Spanish was heard on 1110 all evening long, usually under WBT. (Chiochiu-QC)

 1110 VENEZUELA, YVQT, Radio Carúpano DEC 18 2312 - Venezuelan sports talk mostly under WBT. Both this and WBT were killed by powerline noises coming in at 2316 until 2331. + 2332 - End of talk, then segment of llanera music followed by ads for "Su (perdata?) salsa" (not sure if the name of a CD or the name of a program), then back to talk. (Chiochiu-QC)

 1180 CUBA, CMBA, Radio Rebelde, Villa-Maria DEC 16 0209 - Very good reception with political sermon by a man (Fidel ?). // 670 wich was almost as strong as this one (Chiochiu-QC)

SW:

 11815 unID asiatic station DEC 20 1233 - 1306 - Initially noted only occasionally when "Radio Católica Mundial" faded down in strenght and even then this one was at least slightly weaker than the weakest RCM signal. However when at 1300, they changed QRG, so the Asiatic stn was better. Always with exotic instrumental Oriental music. Fair at best. Nothing listed in PWBR matches even closely with the exotic Asiatic station, while Radio Católica Mundial may be a feed or maybe a program aired separately from Radio Marti on the same Greenville, NC. This morning (DEC 21) when I listened, all I could hear on this channel was Radio Marti very strong with the bubble jammer way underneath, unfortunatly. (Chiochiu-QC)

11815 BRAZIL, Radio Brasil Central, Goiânia DEC 20 2219 - Tuned in back home after shopping CDs with my mother in downtown Montreal yesturday to find this strongly with the ANT. TERM. of the Realistic DX-150A in the position permitting the maximum signal strenght without overloading w/ PP futbol (soccer) game. Very excited announcer. (Chiochiu-QC)


Domestic MW DX logs:

670 WWFE La Poderosa Seis-Setenta A-M  Miami, FL DEC 15 2112 - Very poor w/ Radio Rebelde at a slightly stronger (poor-fair) level. Man talking and mentioning "Radio Mambí" and "visión" (the other words were incomprehensible due to the rather weak signal, Radio Rebelde co-channel QRM and the very slight 20 kHz het from local CINF) followed by a woman who very, very briefly talked about "Radio Mambí", then legal EE ID "This is WWFE 6-70 AM Miami" then SS non-ID "Esta es La Poderosa 6-70 AM, con (?) (?) (?) siempre porque el hombre (?)". (Chiochiu-QC)

780 CFDR Yarmouth, NS DEC 17 2012 - Presumed with country tune by a woman. Very good at tune-in, but by around 2014-2015 it faded down in strenght to poor and WBBM faded up a bit and by 2019 there was nothing copiable from CFDR anymore. This one would be a new one here. I hope to get it soon again. (Chiochiu-QC)

890 WPBS Chattam, MA DEC 16 2043 - with "Mega" slogan after a bachata tune. New ! (Chiochiu-QC)

1040 WHO  Des Moines, IA DEC 18 2315-2316 EDT - WHO ID. Very good signal, mixing with remains of nulled local CJMS. My first DX log on a frequency with a local on it ! (Chiochiu-QC)

1310 WDKD Kingstree South, SC DEC DEC 17 1910-1914 EDT - Very strong for about 4 minutes with collage futboll then pestered by remains of nulled CIWW Oldies 13-10. Presumed ! This one is a favorite of mine for South Carolina because Pensylvannia DX'er Harry Hayes of Wilkes-Barre who reported them to DDXD-E on Sept., 20 saied it's "a sure sign of fall when this dominates here" wich means during the fall (and during the winter) this one dominates and a dominant station is a regular obviously and as I never heard anything from SC, I decided to start with a dominant - with a regular station as to log this state easily. Harry did help me a lot with his log of WDKD, before I talked with Barry McLarnon of Ottawa this spring who told me that he heard quite some SC but all of them are rare and most of them like 660, 1390 and 1580 station were heard only once by him, so until I seed his log of WDKD saying it is a dominant, a regular station in the fall I didn't hoped much from this state. Now, the next step would be to get an ID as to really confirm this station and to add a 25th state to my US states count on my MW logbook. (Chiochiu-QC)

1450 CFAB Windsor, NS 1746 EDT - "Up" by Shania Twain followed by another Country tune. Initially good, then faded down to the mush. No sign of // 1350. Presumed ! I have been after this one after seeing the recent Barry McLarnon report on this in the DDXD-E of the October 13, 2003 DX News issue. If come to get an ID from these guys, then they would be my farthest GY catche from here and by far. (Chiochiu-QC)

1450 WWCR Glenn Falls, NY 1755-1758 - briefly in before CHUC faded up with NOS music. Presumed logging based on having heard it very regularly this spring. I even reported it to DDXD-E. (Chiochiu-QC) 

1450 CHUC  Cobourg, ON DEC 19 1758-1802 EDT - Ads about how to make more money. One of the ads gived an Internet address ending in "dot ca", then "14-50 CHUC" ID, into "CHUC news". Very good signal, but only SLIGHTLY over the other signals present on this 'graveyard' channel. New ! (Chiochiu-QC)

Bogdan Chiochiu
4190 Edward Higgins
H8Y 3M9
Montreal (Pierrefonds-Est), QC, Canada
Equipment for MW: the good ol' Sanyo MCD-S830 AM/FM with it's great internal ferrite bar antenna and tape recorder
Equipement for SW: Realistic DX 150A solid state communication receivers with 30 meters long long-wire in our yard

This week, during the breaks in exam studies as well as this week-end I have been very active on both MW and SW, despite the still missing pieces of my equipment. For exemple, one of the 2 radios that broke up this summer was a Phillips LW/MW and with it I very tentatively received 2 European LW stations the past season (Europe 1-183 and RUV-189). With the decreasing solar cycle, this winter, high-latitude paths on LW are and will be much better than in 2002-2003, and I have nothing to profit of this fact. Also my Sangean 606 receiver have been stealed when I was in the Vieux-Port area of downtown Montreal last month along with several DX tapes that I wanted to make them listen to my friend with some really great CDs (I had the excellent album "The new sound of the Venezuelan gozadera" of the acid jazz and melodic electro Spanish Venezuelan group called "Los Amigos Invisibles". I discovered Los Amigos Invisibles while listening to Kys FM on the Internet and thanks to their "A Venezuelan Journey to the Space" album wich we borrowed from the library wich was also very good. If someone can help me to find CDs of this group, I'll be very thanksfull. I checked with my mother on amazon.ca and it is out of stock. Another low-light, thought an interesting one this time, is the extreme dominance and strenght of NYC stations after the briefly semi-auroral conditions in the beginning of the December 18 evening. WRVA-1140 was almost completely killed by overspills from WBBR-1130 (to hear distorted, but comprehensible overspills instead of totally incomprehensible splatter means that the adjacent signal must be at least 3 times stronger I think, just to give you an idea of the strenght and extreme cleaness of WBBR-1130) on my Sanyo wich is really selectif + 1150 was full of WBBR Bloomberg News Radio slops and I could hear some slops from WQEW-1560 on 1580, yes on 1580 not 1570. It's not a writing mistake ! Next-to-adjacent channel interference from skip signals, I never thought it could happen even on receivers much less selectifs than my Sanyo MCD-S830. The strenght of the NYC stations especially 1130 and 1560 was not excellent, but urban quality ! This phenomenon lasted 10 minutes. I even wonder if the Delco car-radio of the car that had an accident wich don't receive nothing on AM (even the extremely strong 690 and 730 are either completely inaudible or extremely weakly received) could have, perphaps if it was open during the 10 minutes slot, picked WBBR-1130 and WQEW-1560 (Radio Disney) at least with very poor reception or maybe fair one.

To the good things now: Friday afternoon after school I did go outside and re-installed the long-wire antenna that I used for almost 1 year with the Sangean 606 radio. My father came with the Realistic DX150A solid state communication receiver from the basement 
and I connected the long-wire antenna to the A2 and GND jacks. Friday during the evening, I got to do some listening on it without noting much interesting things, then on Saturday morning: a big surprise, instrumental Oriental music on 11815 (I know the frequency because RCM did announce it over the air, the receiver is analog so very often I don't know where I am at the dial and the digital thing that Nick Hall-Patch did sent don't seem to work well). I don't wich station it is because it is not listed in the 2002 PWBR and I hope some of you guys will help me here. I'm sure it is a great DX catch. I know that in the mornings, on the SW bands from 120m to 25m there are lots of low-powered Asiatic stations audible. The only low-light as far as the Realistic DX-150A goes is that it don't work anymore in SSB and CW. The distorted Morse signals that are comprehensible in AM mode aren't audible almost at all in CW/SSB. This "ALMOST at all" means extremely poorly with also "little" extremely high-pitched sounds and high frequency noise floor sound. With SSB it is even worse; anything weaker than the "very good level" is completly inaudible and anything weaker than "urban quality" level on the good and excellent signal level there is the same small sounds as described in CW with the same effects. I tried to fix it up in all the way I could (and even in those I couldn't - hi!) - for exemple, I played with the BFO control in all the levels and I even switched beetwen fast and slow on AGC and all the other things obviously, but it don't work. Nick, if you read this, tell me how can you help. Do you think I should contact Sheldon Harvey for obtaining help with this radio. I would like to make it work in SSB once again like when it arrived. I miss a radio with SSB capabilities and with the long-wire arranged mostly in E-W directions, I could really profit of the SSB capabilities to hear trans-atlantic stuff on MW. The selectivity for splits is still very good in AM too, so here it is not a selectivity but more of a sensitive problem. Most radios are much more sensitive in SSB than in AM and most of the time in inland location the TA or for some DX'ers the TP signals will be just strong enough to be BFO detectable. Maybe there is a trick to do that I forgot.  

DX'ing-wise, I have been doing very well this week, logging 4 new stations on MW and several rare ones. 

The utility of the tape recordings have sometimes been extreme, especially with WWFE-670 wich reception was very poor and a really tough copy. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to report it and it would have been sad since this one if rare here. the past season I only heard it once and without ID and I didn't heard it all during the 2001-2002 MWDX season. What I'm looking toward now is to get more Floridans. 710 where Radio Mambí is a probable target, but not an easy one because of WOR, CKVM, Radio Rebelde and YVKY Radio Capital co-channel interference + only a very small part of their power may reach me, since they are very directionnal toward Cuba as to overcome the Radio Rebelde co-channel "jamming", don't they ? On the GY channels like WSBB-1230 wich is quite regularly reported the situation is a bit different. During auroral conditions when the high and mid-latitude +100 Canadian and US stations that share 1230 are killed by Aurora, there remains only a handfull of southern domestics and WSBB is the only one with an exceptionally good antenna system. The biggest difference is that there are no strong Latins on 1230 to pester the channel like on 670 and 710, this the biggest reason why for me this may be the best bet to log Florida for US north-easterners and south-eastern Canadian DX'ers.

Well, that's it for now !
I hope everyone have a Good Holiday and a Mery Christmas !
I hope someone will help with the unID Asiatic station on 11815 heard yesturday morning, with the Los Amigos Invisibles CD and with the Realistic DX-150A SSB/CW capabilities.
Thank you very much and Mery Christmas to all your family, friends and DX collegues !
73 and good DX,
Bogdan---[Start Commercial]---------------------

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