Hard-Core-DX.com: Frank Merrill DX from Macomb, Illinois: darkness hours 02-03 February 2021

Frank Merrill DX from Macomb, Illinois: darkness hours 02-03 February 2021

Friday, February 05 2021


I hope I'm doing this properly.
Seeing Glenn Hauser's report about logging XETT-1430, and he telling us they're the only Mexican remaining on 1430, I decided to run about 850 feet of BOG (Beverage-on-Ground) at a bearing of about 200 degrees...pointed at Mexico City.  This report doesn't have a logging of XETT, though I did very briefly have Spanish on that frequency fighting other stations.  
The possibility of adding the hyper-rare state of Tlaxcala to the logbook was enough for me to go out into the farm-field in 20-degree weather and put out a lot of wire.  After all, KZQZ St. Louis (or whatever their callsign was) is entirely GONE.  There's almost nothing in the way to the southwest.  I hope for an Aurora, which didn't happen this time, and I have only three or four more "shots" MAX. at this, because I'm in Macomb only a couple days a month in the winter.  I primarily live in Chicago, and I'm in the final stages of "closing out" my place in Macomb and hopefully selling it this Fall.
This was my first "real" DX session in more than seventeen years.  I last did this seriously in December 2003 or January 2004.  I had a BOG with about the same parameters at that time.  I'll never forget one session, I think 11/30/2003, when the dial was an insane zoo of Mexicans!  ID's on frequencies like 610, 750 (SLP), 1250 (XESJ), 1310, 1320, 1330, 1340 (ugh, that one got away), 1430, 1470 (2)...KIRT owning 1580...etc.  Strangest reception was XERT-1170 with a *HOCKEY* game...in *ENGLISH*...on a Mexican "daytimer"!  
Come on, 2021 Aurora, make my day!  I'm loaded for bear!
PARAMETERS:  Kenwood R-1000.  BOG about 850 feet, oriented at 200 degrees (toward Mexico and east Texas).  All times are EST.
630  CFCO Chatham, ON (2/2 2240, and most of the session) - country music, and mentions of 92.9 and call letters.  This has become MUCH more common than I remember it a generation ago.
1320  KXYZ - presumed - Houston TX (2/3, 0011) - ruling the frequency, with Black Information Network programming.  This is a new network (born in 2020) with a NEWS format geared to the African-American and otherwise black community.
590  XEFD  Rio Bravo, Tams., MEXICO (2/3, 0028...NEW!) - was pretty much owning the frequency every time I checked.  Oddly I don't think that I ever logged this during my active 1988-2003 period.  Slogan "La Mejor" used liberally between songs
1560 KGOL - presumed  - Bellaire TX (2/3, 0036 et. al.) ruling the frequency with some sort of Asian programming.  This is their format, right?  Congrats to Paul Walker for recently logging this in Alaska!
1490 KPLT Paris TX (2/3, 0123...NEW!) - briefly caught their call letters, just after Charlie Rich "Behind Closed Doors" ended.  Not sure if that was them with the music, but any time I can pick off a new Texas graveyarder is special.  That song can fit a number of formats, including possibly the below:
1490 KDMO Carthage MO (2/3, 0214) - Call letters after a Lew Paul and Mary Ford song, and heard again about half an hour later with similar-vintage music.
1500 KCLF - TENTATIVE - New Roads LA (2/3, 0135, et. al.) - In and out for at least an hour with mostly Louisiana music, ALL STYLES from R&B to jazz to rock and roll.  I understand this is what they do...
1150 WHBY Kimberly WI (2/3, 0204) - Weather forecast (low of 10), and call letters.  Pretty sure I heard this way in the past.
1210 KUBR - presumed - San Jan TX (2/3, 0235) - well on top with regional Mexican music.  Didn't chase this, because it's already logged here years ago.
1350 WLOU Louisville KY (2/3, 0241) - old soul music, call letters not caught, but did hear mention of 104.7...but how did THIS get in there, with this antenna bearing?
Additionally, Spanish heard at least at one point on other frequencies:  630, 660, 700, 880 and 890 (Possibly parallel:  Cuba?), 940 (presumed XEQ), 970, 1330, 1380 (suspect a US station), 1420 (suspect a US station), 1430 (XETT?), 1440, 1530 (presumed KGBT), 1600.  Conditions didn't even favor Mexico.  

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