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Re: [IRCA] First report from Murray Harbour, PEI

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Excellent report Walter.

Bruce Conti has a DXpedition website up:
http://www.bamlog.com/2016pedx.htm

Interesting to see 845 (rather than 846) Eritrea.

1566 Benin has always been a tough pull here with 1560 NY and 1570 QC making a rather huge slop sandwich most nights.

1458 Gibraltar has tentatively made it to Tonset Rd. Orleans and Granite Pier Rockport but I have no at-house loggings yet.

You definitely have the advantage on the more northerly routes (eastern Europe, deep Middle East) since my run from the house around 45 deg. is over about 16 km / 10 miles of sandy pitch pine forest before hitting the ocean in the Orleans - Eastham area.

Oman and Moldova are just not going to have much traction on 1413 with RNE Spain co-channel on a more southerly route with somewhat less land in the way.

Interesting on the Sao Tome report since they recently lost one of the towers and are now running non-directional.  Signal at 0300 UTC here seems weaker versus WCKY than previously.

Of the stations listed, 783 Mauritania - being southerly - is often smokin' loud here too.

Last night I did take a listen and found that UK, Spain, and Canaries stations were doing well but nothing new or rare in the mix.  1431 has been all Djibouti.  2000 UTC is still a bit early here, especially with nearby power lines (rather than antenna / receiver) setting the noise floor.  The previously most reliable early signal - 1521 Saudi - is out of service now so there's less to go on pre-sunset especially away from the immediate shoreline.  Even at 2100 UTC there isn't too much coming in, just the major Brits, Spain, Algeria (531, 549, 981, 1422), Morocco (612), Canaries (621, 1008), W. Sahara (711), Mauritania (783), and France TWR (1467).  Not as much from the Middle East: 1575 UAE is reliably there on the spectrum plot but it gets absolutely hammered by the 1570 WMVX / CJLV slop monster: stations off the side of the cardioid rather than the rear, hence not nulled very much.

Wishing to spice things up - weather permitting - I may DX out of the car at Orleans or Eastham, MA Wednesday around sunset.  Plan would be to take Perseus captures starting around 3 p.m. EST / 2000 UTC and wrap up at 6 p.m. EST / 2300 UTC.  Live DXing (allowing shortwave parallel checking and strategy adjustment) will be done between the captures.  I may bring a conventional radio (Palstar R30?) as back-up in case of any problems with the PC or Perseus.  Even though the car-roof loop is only 2m x 2m, I am sure that, at the beach site, there will be DX that seldom / never shows up at the house, half an hour's drive away.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA, USA

<<
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2016 13:33:57 +0000
From: Walter Salmaniw <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [IRCA] First report from Murray Harbour, PEI

A good start to our DXpedition to this farmhouse in south-eastern PEI.
Joined by well-known DXers Bruce Conti, Neil Wolfish, Brent Taylor, and
Nick Hall-Patch, I felt like a newbie with such a profusion of TA and
African targets. The star antenna, IMHO, is the DKAZ erected by Nick aimed
60 degrees, in many instances outperforming a 1500' Beverage/BOG in the
same direction, and vastly superior to corner fed super loop. 73, Walt
Salmaniw


BENIN 1566, 2208-, TWR Africa Nov 6 Up to very good reception of TWR Africa
in French with IDs and postal address at 22:09. Then an interesting
sounding IS twice (not the usual TWR), and into an English ID as TWR
Benin. Rapidly faded down into oblivion. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

ERITREA 845, 0318-, Dimtsi Hafash 2 Nov 7 A very nice dawn enhancement
noted over east Africa with typical Horn of Africa music. Not as strong as
Sudan on 765 (and 1296) but still very listenable. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour
PEI)

GIBRALTAR 1458, 2355-, Radio Gibraltar Nov 5 Very nice reception, and // to
their internet feed, but of course, fading down and now cochannel to
several other stations. Time check for 12:00 in English, so likely a UK
station. But came back with a nice 'Radio Gibralatar' jingle ID at 00:02.
(Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

GREENLAND 720, 0440-, KNR Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa Nov 7 Excellent
reception in Greenlandic. Almost sounded a bit like south Pacific islands
music for a bit! Parallel to their internet feed found at:
http://tunein.com/radio/Kalaallit-Nunaata-Radioa-720-s102522/ A little
later, was replaced by the BBCWS, likely from Lisnagarvery with listed 10
kW. Latter at fair/good level. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

IRELAND 1494, 0337-, Nonstop 90s Nov 6 This just has to be Ireland with
clearly accented English then into music. Fades down to nothing at times,
though. Only one that makes sense to me! Checked the online receiver at
the University of Twente, and sure enough, it's them. Mostly music, but
with announcements in English clearly (more or less) heard. I'm very
pleased with this catch. Faded before 04:00, but no longer sounds
English. Neil Wolfish tells me, however, that they apparently went off the
air, and so it might be a Pirate instead. Comments, anyone?.
(Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)


ISLE OF MAN 1368, 0900-, Manx Radio Nov 6 Nice ID at 09:00, including 'Isle
of Man'. Fair reception. Probably commonly heard, but still a thrill for
me, a west coast DXer!. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

LITHUANIA 1386, 0014-, Radio Baltic Waves International Nov 7 With Radio
Svoboda (Liberty) relay at excellent level with program in Russian. A very
nice variety program. Seems a lot more interesting compared to VOA
Russian. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

MAURITANIA 783, 0458-, Radio Mauritanie Nov 7 Very strong reception with
presumed call to Prayer. Parallel to on-line feed on
http://www.radiomauritanie.mr/ Nothing at the TOH, just continued with
same. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

MOLDOVA 1413, 0045-, Vesti FM Nov 7 Dominating now for some time, with
weather and an ad for an upcoming fishing program. At 00:57 now hearing
Spain cochannel. Good to very good at times. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

NORTHERN IRELAND 1341, 0900-, BBC Radio Ulster Nov 6 Very good reception
announcing 98 95 FM and 1341, 'This is BBC Radio Ulster'. (Salmaniw,Murray
Harbour PEI)

OMAN 1413, 0000-, BBC Nov 7 Cochannel, just before the TOH with Grigoriopol
in Russian, but soon dominated with BBC gongs and into listed Dari. Vesti
back to dominate as I type this at 00:45. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

PIRATE 1730, 0246-, unid Pirate Nov 7 Non-stop music, sometimes at good
levels, but in the 30+ minutes I monitored, not a word was spoken. Carrier
cut at 02:46:19. Anyone have any ideas who this might be? Deep Purple's
Smoke on the Water at 02:35. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

PIRATE? 1730, 0124-, Unid Nov 6 Fair reception playing American Pie, but
with a lot of static crashes. At 01:31, playing The Night They Drove Old
Dixie Down. Anyone have any ideas?. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

SAO TOME PRINCIPE 1530, 0258-, Voice of America Nov 6 Yankee Doodle, and
into VOA ID at 03:00 and English news. Cochannel 15 kW Romania. Sometimes
one stronger, and sometimes the other, but mostly the edge to STP. Good
reception. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

SAO TOME PRINCIPE 1530, 0300-, VOA Nov 7 Very strong reception tonight
compared to last night with Yankee Doodle starting at 02:58, and into
English with Daybreak Africa. Romania only weakly heard. (Salmaniw,Murray
Harbour PEI)

SUDAN 765, 0310-, SRTC Sudan Radio Nov 7 Very good reception and // to 1296
during local dawn enhancement. Very nice! Horn of Africa type of
chanting. Faded down within a few minutes. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

TANZANIA 1377, 2331-, Radio Free Africa Nov 5 Excellent reception with a
call in show with many mentions of the phone number, hip hop music, Radio
Free Africa and RFA IDs. All this using Nick Hall-Patches DKAZ aimed 60
degrees. Incredible reception. Lots of English, but with presumed Swahili
otherwise?. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

TUNISIA 963, 2120-, RTT Radio Tunis Chaine Internationale Nov 6 A really
difficult and frustrating channel. I was pretty sure I heard Cyprus
earlier, but with so many fades, it was hard to keep the stations
straight. Finally, I definitely found Tunis on line feed working, so at
one point it was them (the give away was a French announcement just now),
and the on-line site: http://www.rtci.tn/streamplayer/. Cyprus I found
at: http://www.riknews.com.cy/index.php/radio-main/proto-live.
(Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

UKRAINE 1431, 2000-, Radio Ukraine International Nov 6 Excellent reception
in Russian to Crimea, with occasional fade-ups from Radio Sawa in
Djibouti. Impressive signal. No luck this afternoon on Ukrainian Radio's
1278 transmitter yet. Continues to 21:00 sign-off. (Salmaniw,Murray
Harbour PEI)

UNITED KINGDOM 909, 0900-, BBC Radio 5 Live Nov 6 Nice ID at TOH, as 'BBC 5
Live'. No 'Radio' mentioned. Numerous transmitters up to 400 kW listed.
// 693 was stronger. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

UNITED KINGDOM 1458, 0900-, BBC Radio Cumbria Nov 6 A tentative logging. I
could hear a BBC ID, and 'From the heart of Liverpool'. 3 English BBC
networks are listed, BBC Radio Newcastle, BBC Radio Devon, and BBC Radio
Cumbria. The latter is closest to Liverpool. (Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)

UNITED KINGDOM 1557, 0900-, BBC Radio Lancashire Nov 6 Poor reception, but
clear ID just after 09:00 UTC as, 'This is BBC Radio Lancashire'.
(Salmaniw,Murray Harbour PEI)
>>

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