[IRCA] Travelogue from the Caribbean

[Walter Salmaniw <salmaniw@xxxxxxx>]

I hope that this is not being too far out of line, fellas,  but I thought that I might share a little bit of my travels the past couple of weeks.  We left Victoria on the 19th, and returned last night 1/1/2006.  We spent a week aboard the Costa Mediterranea, a 980 foot, 85,000 tonne behemoth.  Luckily our cabin had a small deck where I was able to do a modest amount of dxing.  In tow with me was my most recent receiver, the Kaito 1103 portable.  99% of my listening was on the AM and FM bands using the built-in ferrite rod and telescopic whip.  Despite this drawback, I was most impressed with the performance of this receiver.  I brought along my i-River 795T MP3 player/recorder and taped some 10 to 15 hours of programming.  Guy Atkins clued me into this receiver.  I did find that it produced some noise in certain modes (when paused for instance) within a meter or so of the receiver, but while recording, this didn't seem to be much of an issue.  I loved the fact that it would record up to some 80 hours or so at a bit rate of 16 kbps at 16 kHz Mono.  What an advance over cassette tapes (what I used to use...the Sony 1000T), or MD recorders.  The Costa Mediterranea set sail from Ft. Lauderdale heading south/south-east to Puerto Rico, and then to the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands before returning to Nassau and back to Ft. Lauderdale.  Not at all as extensive a cruise as my last between Tahiti and the Marquesas a couple of years back, but nonetheless still fascinating from a radio perspective.  I was unaware of the ship causing any significant RF to my reception.  I focused especially with the split frequencies on the MW band, and was pleased with the reception, but rather peeved at the paucity of IDs.  I found myself leaving the receiver and MP3 recorder on the balcony while going to dinner, shows, etc, in hopes of snagging an ID.  I'm still having to review the recordings to see whether I was successful or not in this regard.  

Regarding the three MW Bahamian transmitters, 810 ZNS3 was by far the easiest to hear, and was usually heard day or night wherever we were on the cruise.  It ID'd as "810, the Service in the North" heard at 04:50 on Dec 24th.  ZNS1 on 1540 was next easiest to hear with the following ID at 0259 on Dec 25th:  "Covering the entire Bahamas, this is ZNS, Nassau".  The final outlet, ZNS2 on 1240 was the most difficult to hear, except when in Nassau.  This is a religous outlet, IDing as "Inspiration 1240", and "Excellence in Christian Broadcasting".  I was not able to monitor this one very well outside of Nassau.  I believe that all 3 of these stations are government owned and operated.  I also heard many FM (mostly private) Bahamian stations.

As we sailed south the first 36  hours, I attempted to monitor AFN from Guantanamo.  A few years ago, I recall picking them up quite well in the middle of the night as our Holland American ship sailed westward to the south of Cuba on our way to Jamaica.  This time, the best I could hope for was sailing to the north of the waters separating Cuba and Haiti.  Neither AM 1340, nor FM 102.1 or 103.1 yielded anything definite this time.  Interestingly, as we sailed by Haiti, I did pick up an English language FM station from Port au Prince called Signal FM on 90.5.  I wasn't expecting to hear any English, of course.  

I then aimed my sites on the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on the X-Band.  1660 from San Juan IDs only in Spanish as "Gigante 16-60".  The legal call is WGIT, and the IDs were usually heard a couple of minutes after the top of the hour.  WDHP on 1620 was quite a powerhouse in the Caribbean.  They never ID'd at the top of the hour, but usually after cutting away from network news at 6 minutes past the hour, with a local ID, but not always.  The news feed was always USA network news.  The IDs were usually full legal IDs "1620 WDHP St. Croix, US Virgin Islands", but at least once instead I heard only "non stop jamming on your hometown radio station".  I didn't bother with any other Puerto Rican stations, and instead concentrated on the US Virgin Islands which were all heard.  970 WSTX ID'd frequently, as did WSTA 1340 (one of the reasons that the tiny AFN Guantanamo transmitter was not heard, I think).  WVWI 1000 was well heard but didn't seem to ID much (It was one of the stations I left my recorder running in hopes of an ID). I did hear ID's as "Radio 1 AM 1000".  CBS news on the hour.  1090 WGOD was obviously also religious and well heard only in the immediate vicinity of the Virgin Islands.  They were in parallel to a much stronger FM transmitter on 97.9 (50 kw vs 250 watts), and would ID as "98 FM, 1090 AM WGOD".  1290 WRRA rarely ID'd, and ran southern Baptist style religious programming.  Christmas carols continued as well even 4 days after the 25th.  There were times of open carriers up to 2 minutes, but no IDs.  Gonna have to listen to the MP3 to find an ID there.  

The British Virgin Islands, I believe, only have a single MW transmitter on 780, ZBVI.  They were widely heard with totally local programming and Christmas greetings and mostly mentions of the "BVI".  Ads for "Cable and Wireless", the "BVI Social Security Branch" and the like.  The closest thing to a real ID is usually at the bottom of the hour when they present the "weather for ZBVI".

As we sailed towards the Virgin Islands, I also checked the various split frequencies and heard all of them to a greater or lesser degree.  895  from St Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla was heard with a local ID at 00:30 on Dec 27th with "895,  10000 watts, The Voice of Nevis, covering the whole Caribbean".  Well not quite, as they were quite weak at that point, but did improve later in the evening with local holiday greetings, carols, and Auld Lang Sye at 01:57, but no ID at the top of the hour (seeing a pattern yet?).  555 ZIZ Radio St. Kitts had rather weak voice modulation compared to music, and somewhat muddy audio.  Despite listening for over an hour, not a single ID was heard.  Mostly stronger than 895, and very good by 00:55 on the 27th.  They would mention St. Kitts and Nevis, though.  Splatter from 550 was a problem.  Despite my 2005 WRTH saying they signed off at 02:00, they were still going strong after 03:05 on the 27th.  

535 Grenada GBN ID's as Klassic (or Classic) Radio and was heard with the "Twelve Days of Christmas" at 01:43 on the 27th at mostly fair, but occasionally good levels.  

As we sailed north to the Bahamas on our return leg, I switched over to check for Bermuda (our cabin was on the starboard side of the ship, and faced north on the cruise northward).  I was able to hear the BBCWS cochannel and weakly on 1160, and possibly 1280 with "FRN news" at 03:03 on the 29th.  No luck on ZFB 1230, ZBM 1340, or 1450 AM Gold.  

So, as you can see, I didn't do a whole lot of dxing (too much happening on the ship and on shore for that), but still some fun in listening to something virtually impossible to monitor back home in Victoria.  If you care to see the ship, here's a link:

http://www.kreuzfahrt-reisen.de/costa-kreuzfahrten/images/00007464.jpg.jpg

Our cabin was on the side facing you, and was about midship, and just above the life boats.  Hopefully I'll be able to get something useful from the MP3 recordings, and possibly post them somewhere. Hope this brief travelogue was of some interest to you........Happy New Year,.....Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC.


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