[HCDX] foreign LW-MW logs + 1 noteworthy domestic log

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warm greetings to all of you !

The TA activity has lessened year on Thursday night on LW and was pretty much inexistent on MW. I wonder if the trend has continued Friday night, but as I was buzy with my German (who's Grammar only bear little ressemblence with the English one) I can't tell much as I didn't bother to change the batteries for the astonishingly well built PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop and during the brief checks I did on my Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot, I couldn't get the slightest trace of a TA, especially on the low-end where DXing is easier for me.

Latin American mediumwave DX continue to be abysmal. I haven't heard Coro for a few weeks and the only South Americans that seem to be heard during such below-average conditions seems to be YVKS-750 and HJAJ-760, though it's still challenging to hear at least those ones during such subpar non-auroral conditions. It's interesting to count at least one South American or non-Cuban Caribbean signal (ex.: ZIZ-555) during what is for everyone a domestic feeding-frenzy at, to a lesser extent, a TA feeding-frenzy experience !

Into the logs now:



Trans-Atlantic DX (all times UTC)

153 unID FEB 8 0445 - woman talking in an unID language. Very weak and noisy ! SINPO 15231 ! Algeria was tentatively received here on 2 or 3 occasions, but it could be something else this time, like Germany or maybe Romania. (Chiochiu-QC)

153 ALGERIA   Alger Chaîne 1 / RT Al Jazaira Radio Wahad, Bechar FEB 6 0220 - Presumed with Arabic music at the same time the Tipaza transmitter on 252 kHz (actually 253 to get rid of local UL on 248) was almost booming in with Dance music. Weak-poor level with the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop set to amplify the lowest frequency possible ! I think the frequency limit is 162, not 153 or 150 kHz; I doubt it is a receiver problem. I never get good audio on 153, though Algeria is almost a pest for several DXers in eastern North America ! (Chiochiu-QC)

162 FRANCE   France Inter, Allouis FEB 2 0358 - booming in with weather reports about icestorms, time pips, followed by a short newscast, then an obscure (to me!) lite rock number. Very good, booming in with some heavy static scratches from a thunderstorm somewhere mid-Atlantic, but NO computer-related growl or CATV noises ! SINPO 45243. +FEB 4 0440 - with a radio drama regarding some marginal woman (sexual workers) working in "maisons closes". Quite good with, surprisingly, no computer hash that night ! SINPO 35443 +FEB 8 0400+ - with their usual Sunday litterature related program. Good, but noisy signal. SINPO 45232 ! (Chiochiu-QC) 

171 MOROCCO   Medi Un, Nador JAN 31 0130 - special request for the "Por Ella" smash salsa hit of Victor Manuel and "Tous les cris, les SOS" of Daniel Balavoine. Usually fair-good when tuned to 173 kHz to avoid a growl on the low-side of this channel ! +FEB 8 0105 - with an eclectic set of Arabic vocals (Middle Eastern pop, Algerian and / or Moroccan, raï, trad, dance, etc.) that were taped as I was going to a party ! The only LW broadcaster with even half-decent audio the past night ! Geomagnetic conditions were unsettled ! (Chiochiu-QC)

183 GERMANY   Europe 1, Felsberg (Saarlouis) FEB 8 0504 - This one, France-162 as well as Algeria-252 were the longwave broadcasters with listenable signals the past night around midnight local (0500 UTC). SINPO 45333 ! +FEB 9 0330 - Good through some annoying buzz, playing an old-fashionned disco-sounding French song. SINPO 45242 ! (Chiochiu-QC)

189 ICELAND   Rikisutvarpid, Gufuskalar FEB 4 0420 - playing a wide variety of English and Icelandic pops that did include the "Message In A Bottle" early 80's smash hit by The Police. Very good, SINPO 45544 ! This and Europe 1 on 183 kHz are usually the strongest longwave broadcasters in the Montreal area ! (Chiochiu-QC)
  
198 ENGLAND   BBC Radio 4, Droitwich - threshold to poor and noisy during most of the past week. (Chiochiu-QC)

207 MOROCCO   RTM, Azilal FEB 5 0310 - Presumed with apparent Arabic programming (traditionnal Arabic music and plaintive male talk) in heavy beacon QRM. Best ever audio from this one ! (Chiochiu-QC)

252 ALGERIA   Alger Chaîne 3, Tipaza FEB 1 0410 - woman with weather forecast in French with temperatures ranging between +14 degrees and twenty-something. Definitively not a local receiver-generated image from a local French-speaking Montreal AM broadcaster ! Finally had some decent audio here. Fair reception ! +FEB 6 0210 - back-to-back dark-edged raï influenced house tracks over assumed Ireland ! SINPO 33332 Poor-fair reception ! +FEB 8 0510 - in and out with news as well as weather repports that dealed with rain and snow and temperatures lower than the average for this time of the year in Algeria. After the weather repport, the female announcer kept talking about Algeria. Good to fair signal stregth, but splatter from the local UL non-directionnal beacon on 248 kHz made readibility quite a thrill after the wx repport ended (even when detuned to 253 or 254 kHz in AM Narrow Mode) ! Still, during the wx repport, Algeria-252 was armchair (SIO 433-4) ! (Chiochiu-QC)

252 IRELAND   RTE Radio One, Clarkestown FEB 9 0335 - Man in Irish-accented English slightly over Algeria. Both very poor with heavy QRM from local UL non-directionnal beacon on 248 kHz. SINPO 22432 ! 

585 SPAIN   Radio Nacional de España - Radio Uno, Madrid FEB 1 0340 - playing a Cuban jazz song, then male announcer in Spanish talking about how the Cuban music became a major force worldwide. Fair-good signal w/ at least partial readability. Medium-level splash from 580 and 590. Better fidelity in AM Wide mode on the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop combo ! SINPO 33524 - still a lovely nice sound - the Sangean CST-818 does sound reasonabily good and the reception was quiet in spite of a rather poor quality - the overall of the SINPO is personal and subjective ! The antenna was set to amplify around 500 kHz which is the highest frequency that this loop can be tuned to ! When the batteries are fresh, the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic LW loop slightly outperforms the Sanyo MCD-S830 in the 500s. When the batteries are average, the reception is slightly better than on the Sangean CST-818 barefoot and slightly mushier (poorer) than on the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot. (Chiochiu-QC) 



Pan-American DX (all times UTC)

526 BAHAMAS   ZLS, Stella Maris FEB 1 0231 - Non-directionnal beacon throwing some very slight splatter against Cuba-530 on the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Magnetic Shielded longwave loop combo in AM Wide Mode. SIO 243 poor-fair ! (Chiochiu-QC)

530 CUBA   CMBQ, Radio Enciclopedía, La Havana FEB 1 0230 - playing a Muzak instrumental version of the Billy Ocean's 1984 smash Dance hit "Caribbean Queen". Fair-good in CIAO null on the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop which was set to amplify the highest frequency (500 kHz) which throws quite some gain around the bottom end of the mediumwave band too ! Slight splatter from ZLS-526, in CIAO null ! SINPO 34433. This one isn't quite as regular as the former Radio Visión Cristiana tx in South Caicos, it is at least slightly weaker than RVC-530, though it does make in at listenable levels even during below-average conditions to the Caribbean ! (Chiochiu-QC)

555 ST KITTS   ZIZ, Basseterre FEB 8 0520 - back-to-back calypso music with some English-Caribbean DJ chatter using the TALKOVER effect, part of it was Carnaval related. Switched to BBC World Service by 0600 UTC ! Very good peaks with slow fadings that were deep, though it always comeback at the very good level mark. SINPO 45434. I still have the radio on at a very low volume with barely noticeable splash from semi-local WEVD-550 at 4:30 PM (1630 EST - 2130 UTC). (Chiochiu-QC)

750 VENEZUELA   YVKS, Caracas, DF FEB 7 0320 - Woman in Spanish noted in passing at a nice but fadey quality and atop WSB. Very regular, easier for me than Coro-780 which is unheard here since a couple of weeks (last heard in January of 2009, of course, but weaker than YVKS-750). +FEB 7 0125 - w/ the "Ventana Deportiva" sports program. Poor-fair signal w/ some good peaks. Deep fadings, WSB QRM ! (Chiochiu-QC)

760 COLOMBIA   HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla FEB 6 0025 - news repport regarding someone who died, followed by ads, one of them being for "Banco Popular" with the "está es sú banco" slogan then time pips at 0030 UTC (1930 EST; 7:30 PM local) leading once again to "RCN Noticias..." news. This and YVKS-750 are the only South Americans that reach Montreal during such abysmal Latin American conditions ! Radio Coro in the Falcón state is missing here... +FEB 9 0145 - woman host taking call from listeners that were, among other things, bothered by their work. Unstable propagation, deep fadings, very good peaks in WJR null ! SINPO 45422. With WTIC-1080 staying quiet with their IBOC hash, I may always try to pick up Emisora Atlantico HJIJ-1070 now that hard-to-null CBA Moncton is gone for good ! However, as I write this, at 9:02 PM Eastern (0202 UTC), WJR Detroit has become unnulable ! Grrrrr...! (Chiochiu-QC)



North American DX (all times EST)

550 WGR Buffalo, NY 0200 - legal ID "Sports radio Fife-Fifty WGR Buffalo" with the Sanyo MCD-S830's barefoot perpendicular to the wrong direction SSE instead of WSW. Fair level ! Condx must have been quite good toward Buffalo, since this one is rarely making above the 550 kHz jumble ! I think it beams away from Montreal in order to protect semi-local WEVD and former semi-local CHLN ! WEVD beams north-west, to protect CHLN from the north-north-east and WGR from the south-west. I wonder what is the directionnal pattern of WGR and why I heard them with the radio oriented toward the wrong bearing ! (BC-QC)


Additionnal comments: DXing the TAs has up and downs and the unsettled and not completly quiet conditions make LW a bit noisier than it used to just 1 or 2 weeks ago !

A nice discovery of the last couple of days and nights was the ability of the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop I had for present this Xmas, when tuned to amplify the highest frequency to provide reasonabily good reception on the botton of the mediumwave band and, if the batteries are fresh, to outperform the Sanyo MCD-S830 / internal ferrite bar combination. With this in mind, we are seriously thinking of purchassing a dedicated mediumwave antenna from Australia as well as, maybe, a tropical band one. Even though the number of tropical bands broadcasters are diminishing quickly, there are still obviously some mediumwave harmonics on the 2 and 3 MHz band that could be heard using a decent antenne setup, so everything is not lost yet.

Last, but not least, I finally joined the NRC, so I should be able to have more success mediumwave than I had during the first half of the 2008-2009 season and as I seldom watch TV in English, it would get my English as good as my Spanish which has dramatically improven over the past couple of weeks

Also, more or less radio-related (more about my psychological ability to DX rather than the DX itself), the inability to see my girlfriend which I really love (someone in her family died) has turned off my appetite for DXing, though writing this repport seems to make that lack of DXing appetite fade away like a strong domestic fading away leaving a Venezuelan or Colombian in the clear ! Heading toward astrology, everything should have improven by the last day of February, even though I'm scared since too many times my emotional sensitivities put my mind away from DXing, otherwise I would have been more active...

The interest in airchecks peayed off once again, after having found Aventure FM jingles (Paris, 1988), I found unscoped airchecks from CKMF 94 Dance Music (94.3 MHz) from Montreal, from 1985-1989... Seems like 2009 is a good year for me !

Appologies for my inability to post anything to ABDX during the past week... Things are changing !

I'm included lots of details such as "non-directionnal beacon" instead of NDB in order to avoid confusing the non-DXers who are curious about my hobby, who are friends of mine and who are receiving those logs as well.

I'm trying to make it short this time, since the next exam is already knockin' on my door.



This repport is brought to you by Bogan Chiochiu DXing from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada using the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot as well as the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop combo


May the good DX find yourself in perfect shape !
Bogdan Chiochiu
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