[IRCA] Miscou Island DX Report - Part 2

[Niel Wolfish <nielwolf@xxxxxxxx>]

Here is my ?unofficial? report from my stint at the
2005 Miscou Island, New Brunswick DX-pedition.  My
stay was from Friday September 23 to Thursday 29. 
This was my fourth year visiting the island.  Each
year I manage to stay a bit longer.  As Brent Taylor
had mentioned previously, we were joined by Ken
Alexander and Geoff Rivett.  On Tuesday evening, Ken
and I also had ?local? Dxer Roger Roussel (from nearby
Le Goulet) with us for some DXing (and some steamed
mussels for dinner beforehand).  

Brent had previously talked about the unusual Western
Canadian loggings (CKWX, CFFR, CHQR and CHRB).  There
was one more in the form of CKDQ-Drumheller, Alberta. 
 At 7:08 Atlantic Daylight Savings Time I had actually
gone to 910 looking for KCJB in Minot North Dakota
(which coincidentally was heard by a couple of Ontario
DXers this past week).  My scribbles say ?Cat
Country?? and a few minutes later I heard mentions of
Drumheller.  Strange how I had to travel 775 miles
(and one time zone) east to finally log CKWX, CFFR,
CHQR and CKDQ.  The High River station on 1140 is the
only one I had logged before in Ontario although I
might have logged the 660 Calgary during the last WFAN
silent period if I did not live so close to locals on
640 and 680.  Excluding my three years of law school
in Winnipeg the last time I heard a station from
British Columbia was 690-CBU way back in 1977.

We had no luck with any more Western Canadian stations
on subsequent mornings.  I got up too late on the
Monday, Wednesday or Thursday.  That?s what happens if
you stay up listening until 2 a.m.   On the Tuesday
the most ?exotic? domestic DX that we could muster was
both of the Texas X-Banders on 1700 and a very clear
(and alone) WOAI on 1200 (e.g.  no sign of Ottawa or
Framingham).

Ken and I ended up listening mostly with the EWE
antenna.  On Tuesday (after a rainy and miserable
Monday) we decided to reel in the beverage that had
been pointed 90 degrees.  Aside from some Cubans,
Venezuelans and Colombians (nothing that I hadn?t
already logged from Ontario) we did not have anything
too spectacular on the 1836 foot beverage strung along
a NNW-SSE axis. The closest we got to ?deep South
America? was the 4 litre box of Chilean wine that we
purchased from the New Brunswick Liquor store in
Lamèque.  The wine was okay and the box also served as
a handy support for our table lamp!

Most of our focus was obviously Trans-Atlantic DX,
which meant we spent a lot of time wondering how hard
it must be to DX from Spain.  (I sure wouldn?t be able
to COPE with all the stations located in ?Synchros?
and ?Various??. sorry Brent!)  We managed to log a few
new countries (for us), including Nigeria, Lesotho,
Tanzania, Romania, Sweden and the United Arab
Emirates.  And it is always neat to log a
Trans-Atlantic on a ?domestic? channel (e.g. 900,
1080, 1170, 1530).  I?m still trying to hear something
underneath 540, 630, 720, 810 and 1260, but all those
freqs are locals or semi-locals in Miscou.  

Some of the higher TA frequencies like 1332 and 1458
remind me a lot of North American graveyard channels. 
Nobody really dominates.  I could easily amuse myself
in a comfy armchair with my headphones on, read a book
and ?camp out? on one of those channels for a few
hours.  As Ken and I discussed, the chairs in the
cottage (dining room chairs) were really not conducive
to long stints in front of the radios.  

One neat aspect of the Miscou location is that you can
easily hear a few Newfoundland stations during the
daytime, including 870-CFSX and 1230-CFGN.  Nothing
beats sitting having breakfast and listening to the
?VOCM Open Line? program, which seems to be carried on
just about every NL station!  With municipal elections
happening, this year we were treated to phone calls
from just about every mayoral and school board
candidate in the province and their many detractors. 
Then on Tuesday we got to hear first-hand about the
state of emergency in Stephenville, caused by massive
flooding.  Certainly more interesting than the few
remaining AM stations in NB and PEI.  (Who really
wants to hear Paul Anka singing again on Good Time
Oldies 930-CFBC or 720-CHTN?)

I?ll try and post a proper summary of our loggings,
but I hope this long-winded narrative will do for now.

73
Niel Wolfish
Toronto, Ontario     



	

	
		
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