[IRCA] Caribbean trip part 2 of 2

["Bob Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Part 2 of 2 - Miami - East Caribbean - Bob Foxworth

Stations heard 15 Jan between Miami FL and SJU-SXM
-return January 2006. Location 23 deg 38 min N,
073 deg 00 min W., hdg 130 deg, 22 mi/hr. North
of Mayaguana Is., BAH. Local time 1400, listening
from aft deck. DX398, no ext. antenna.

1380 Cuba strong, mention Camaguey. 1540 Nassau good.
640 WJNA good, 1 Hz SAH with unID. 740 Sp. beisbol not
// 770. 850 Palm Beach good, newstalk. Sp. 880 and
890, muddy audio. Sp. 910 clear and good // weaker 930.
1020 Reloj on top w/100 Hz het. 940 WINZ decent, nulls
180 deg to ship. Cuba 1040 // 1050 equal levels, nulls
135 deg to ship (mid-Cuba). 1240 ZNS2 poor, gospel,
"station for nation" ID at 1430. 1180 noisy het, null
140 to ship (E of Habana but a vague, unreliable DF).

810 a noisy Sp. talk, mx, no sign of ZNS3/C6B3. Check
of x-band, it's empty except for trace on 1660
(Marco or PR?). 600 Cuba exc, beisbol. null 130 deg
to ship (nr. Camaguey) // weaker 590, 610, 620,
the 610 o/WIOD. 580 good at 1500 from D. R. w/loud
R. Monte Cristi, call ID "HIAF". Now 640 showing null
of 160 to ship, Sp. o/u WJNA, 1 Hz SAH, // 630. 770
Rebelde loud, beisbol, null 125 deg to ship. 790 w/
buzzing QRM, reloj audible on high side. Heard this
buzzing on other Cuban freqs, sounds like an unstable
light dimmer. 950 Reloj decent, 125 deg to ship,
not Habana, time as "4:20" at 1519 EST. Hrd a couple
other presumed HI including a 1330 ID as // RVC 530
in Sp. Never heard any Wobbler activity.

At 1520, I tuned FM - 89.7 fuzzy Sp. rel; 89.9 Sp rel;
91.3 Eng. rock; 92.1 Sp. content indicates Dominican;
93.1 rock, 93.9 Eng. rock; 94.5 Aretha Franklin song;
signals on 94.9, 96.3 (strong but sloppy pgmg), 97.9,
98.1 Sp., 98,3 Sp. Salsa, 99.9 Sp. salsa, 100.3 and
101.1 for which I have no notes. 101.9 Eng requests,
"102 Jamz" with 407-area code (Orlando FL) and lit RDS,
102.1 Eng. rock, 105.7 Sp, 107.5 "Amor 107" on RDS
with Sp. good level, unID, and then found jazz mx on
88.1 missed earlier, at 1540 local time.

LW band tuned, no noise but no beacons found. RFI
on ship amazingly not present, at least ID'able RFI.

At 1547, 840, rel. vocal grp. then Fr. talk, tubby
audio, good, surely Cap-Haitien, had Cuban here earlier,
decent signal. At 1555, loc 23 deg 16, 72 deg 27, hdg
134 deg, 23 mi/hr. (per GPS) directly N of Haiti.

At 1740 listening from cabin window on 2nd (low) level,
port side (view north), excellent signals from NYC
on 660, 710, 770, 880, 810 WGY, 1010 WINS, 1220
Cleveland., 1500 WTOP, 1030 WBZ.  WOND atop 1400
amid QRM. Possible WHN 1050 and WTIC 1080 in QRM.
No time, again, for further checks. Choice: Eat,
or DX? (on a cruise ship that's a no-brainer!).
I had a bit of Don Bosco 1640 but quite weak.

16 Jan, 0800, 710 "Radio Isla" WKJB good. 850 "Wah-Bah"
WABA good. 600 good with "WKAQ" ID (nx feed to a half
dozen relay stations). Buzzing QRM atop 570 and 760.
1390 "RPR" (have to check tape), ID from WCMN on 1280,
1230 fair Camuy? // 1120. 1340 Aguadilla always playing
nice music, "Radio Uno trece cuarenta", many ad
strings, at 0940. On 1230 // 1120 ID as "Radio Once",
Arecibo. At 1130 EST at 19 deg 17 min, 66 deg 51 min,
130 deg, arrive due at SJU 1630 for 5-hour stay.

FM dial in SJU: 87.75, 88.1, 88.9, 89.3 weak, 89.7,
90.5, 91.3, 92.5, 92.9, 93.7, 94.1, 94.7 (was // 94.1),
95.1, 95.7, 96.1, 96.5, 96.9, 97.3, 97.5, 97.7, 98.3,
98.5, 99.1, 99.9, 100.3, 100.7, 101.3, 101.9, 102.5,
102.9, 103.3 (//102.9), 104.1, 104.7, (//99.1), 105.1,
105.7, 106.1, 106.5, 106.9, 107.3, 107.7. This is well
over twice the number I thought I'd hear. Needless to
say, all I could do was log active freqs. Of the above,
the following ID'ed with RDS: 94.1 "REGG 94", 94.7
(which is // 94.1) lit RDS but no text showed, 95.1
"LA MEGA", 99.1 sequencing "758/1105/SAN/JUAN/KQ105/
LA/PRIMERA/787/758/1105...." about 8 seconds per bit,
then 100.7 "LA X", 104.7 "KQ105" ( // 99.1).

I did catch WIPR 940 with old style mx, tangos, very
nice. Eng. was hrd only from WOSO 1030 and WBMJ 1190.
Did not do any real radio survey in St Thomas (was here
once before), caught a bit of WGOD however.

Next day, I did not do a good FM survey when in St
Maarten. AM survey showed no surprises (new/unk's).
555 sounds good and clean, about hour before sunset
(and sailing), 895 weaker, good audio but less punch,
and IDs as "VON" (soundalike to Vaughn), not as V-O-N.

640 ORTF a good signal, Fr. variety. PJD2 1300 P'burg
sounds all comcl now. Used to be relig ("Proclaim
Jesus' Deliverance To [the West Indies}), interviews
about upcoming elections. Heard one "PJD2" call ltr
ID. 1610 Anguilla there but not much of a signal.
In this area one of the outstanding signals is 1480
WMDD Fajardo PR.

Of note is the Antigua station on 620, fair (not
as loud as expected). Had thought it was a class op'n,
but some nut-job has gotten in there with one of
those bass extenders that kids put in cars, music
they play is full of distorted, clipped bass that
flatlines and don't modulate but just distort.
Really awful. There is at least one local Fr. lang
FM in St Maarten all the shops had turned on but I
didn't catch details.

20 Jan 0830 return, E. of San Salvador, 24 deg 05, 74
deg 00, Cubans, 1110, s-8, no ID. WVCG 1080 weak s-2
but clear, but at 1400 an s-7 Cuban on 1080 unhrd
earlier. 950 Reloj s-6, 940 WINZ s-3, Cuban on 910
s-7 with 2 Hz SAH, 890 Rebelde s-9 but low audio,
820 Reloj s-3. Buzzing again on 790, 570, 1520, 1380
and 1140. Not sure if this is local noise or not, but
seems to squarely cover these particular freqs.

>From this far out, 1540 Bahamas s-7 and 1240 s-3 and
no QRM. I discovered a mid-afternoon talk show by
fe. who used the "Zed-N-S-2" ID several times, but
not hrd on "official" IDs, just the "station for
the nation" ID. Weak Cuban on 1490 (was too far off
shore). 1180 choppy, hum, unlistenable. Weak Cubans
on 1120 and 1150, tedious to trace w/time available.

The 1040-1050 pair again, 1040 s-5 and 1050 s-3.
930 s-4 with phone guests, s-4, mention Matanzas.
910 with m/w talk, ment. R. Cadena Agramonte at 0923.

At 0930 a good signal on 740, thought "Radio Riberon"
by woman, at 0945 def. ID as "Radio Ecos de Sagua"
and ID as town Sagua de Tanamo (in Holguin)* (appx.
75 deg 17 W., 20 deg 34 N) 0952 gave date, praise to
F. Castro Ruz, mention of Rebelde network, detailed
wx, all local pgm, good production values and content,
probably one Cuban most unlike "typical" content and
a real surprise from this out-of-the-way place. By
1000 EST was a trace of Eng. behind, surely WBSR, faint.

Much was not covered, or missed, nonetheless I hope
this is of interest and possibly value.

- Bob Foxworth

* Sagua de Tanamo, prev. unk to me, is on my "Kuba"
1:850000 map, published by Monda Medien, 37154 Northeim,
www.netpaper.de.
                                      20060128_b_trip


sent 1430 est



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