[HCDX] June 26 sporadic E logs on VHF2 FM

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warm greetings to all of you !

Some of you may wonder how a DXer who is DXing the long, medium and to a lesser extent the shortwave bands all year round could be so excited with FM DXing... The answer is because it is rare and it's so unpredictable... If you get Es from an area that is also getting Es from another one, then you're likely to get double-hop Es and double-hop Es on FM *can* mean foreign DX which is a kind of stuff I usually hunt on either longwave or mediumwave ! Even though Es was heard from as far south as AL, nothing in Spanish from the Caribbean or Mexico could be squeeze out of a rather choppy FM band ! Equipment used was the Sangean ACS 818-CST with its own telescopic antenna which still works well on FM even though on SW it's automatically disconnected and therefore rather deaf !

Right now at 2002 EDT (0002 UTC), the FM band seems to be open again with very weak signals on 93.1 and stronger ones between 89.7 and 91.7 ! I just fired on the Sangean rig as I wrote this and was surprised, too bad the Es opening is on the verge of its end !
 
Into the logs now:

89.7 unID 6/26 2007 - someone playing R&B mixing with a very weak Christian semi-local in Plattsburg, NY ! (BC-PQ)

90.7 unID around 1815 EDT 6/26 playing "In The Hands of God" lite rock gospel track and useless network ID as "K-Love" which is the same network as the Plattsburg, NY station on 89.7 ! Often excellent local-like signal ! (BC-PQ)

90.9 unID playing R&B gospel tracks... "Afternoon expressions on your smooth jazz... From Alabama's university..." No idea who it might be, except that it comes from Alabama just as 100,000 watter WMXS and it would be my third Alabaman on FM if someone is willing to help me, as I googled it to no avail ! This would be AL#5, if someone helps me with an ID... (BC-PQ)

91.1 unID NPR broadcaster, better on 91.05 to avoid splatter from local CIRA (Radio Ville Marie) on 91.3. (BC-PQ)

91.7 unID station with a beautiful sad-sounding chorale singing. (BC-PQ)

92.9 unID playing alternative rock music in a very difficult null of semi-local WEZF in Burlington, VT around 1720 EDT shortly after getting the 101.1 unID. (BC-PQ)

92.9 KGRC Hannibal, MO - innitially an unID 6/26 2020 EDT (2420 / 0020 UTC) playing soothing, yet fairly rhythmic R&B and IDing as "Real 92.9"... Definitively not previously logged WTUG... I found a spot in my bedroom where I can point the telescopic antenna of my Sangean ACS 818-CST away from huge semi-local pest WEZF in Burlington, VT ! Wikipedia points out to this station ! By the year 2000, the station had become "92.9 The River". KGRC currently plays a Hot AC format, and is known as "Real 92.9". Since it plays a mix of hit music such as a Hot Adult Contemporary, but adds hip-hop and Rhythmic Contemporary product to its rotation at night like a Top 40 (CHR), thus it could be considered an Adult Top 40. It also explains why I heard a nice smooth R&B track released a few years ago ! (BC-PQ)

92.9 unID 6/26 2040 EDT in an almost perfect WEZF null heard one with classic country and nonIDing as "Bass Country 92.9" with local ads. Good peaks, but deep fadings and unstable, as if the E-skip opening is slowing down. (BC-PQ)

93.1 IDing as B93.1 with mention of Savannah and playing ONLY R&B... Maybe I was misleading in the fairly few notes I took... I just wish I turned on my rig earlier and find an agenda for taking notes instead of just taping randomly. At 1745 EDT (2145 UTC) heard here an ugly pop-punk song by Simpla Plan. Later, slightly past 6PM EDT, heard a gospel music station here with a huge signal strength and minor fadings though it eventually faded out as the opening ended ! (BC-PQ)

93.7 WFBC Greenville, SC 6/26 1704 - playing up-beat R&B and commercial alt-punk music and IDing with the slogan "B93.7" with mentions of South Carolina. Best on 93.75 MHz to reduce splatter from local CBC Radio Two on 93.5 MHz. "On The Air with Ryan Sicrest on B93.7" with a special tribute to MJ. Is WFBC carrying Ryan Sicrest or have I mislogged this one ? I'm so excited, as I never heard South Carolina before on ANY broadcast band, not even on mediumwave ! Sometimes excellent on 93.75 ! Probably the same station noted at 1807 EDT playing "Pray" by MC Hammer, if WFBC ! (BC-PQ)

93.9 WSEK Burnside, KY 6/26 1740 EDT and beyond - unID country station heard very strongly during this 6/26 E-skip opening. NonIDing as K93 country and giving the website of www.k93country.com for voting for the Top 20 of the station which points out to WSEK which is obviously a new one for me ! This is KY#2 on FM for me and #3 including nighttime mediumwave pest WHAS-840 ! Fairly short Es... Girard, have you received some Montreal area stations if I'm receiving at least one station out of Kentucky ? CKMF 94.3 énergie quatrevingt-quatorze trois should make to your area ! (BC-PQ)

93.9 around 6/26 1808 EDT with "Tennessee 93.9" slogan, not sure if WSEK broadcasting country music to nearby Tennessee or something else, as in spite of occasionally huge signal, it had lots of fades around this time. (BC-PQ)

94.1 someone playing Usher's Yeah smash Hip-hop crossover hit splattering into 93.9, but couldn't get a clear copy on it due to CKMF on 94.3 MHz. The best copy was on 94.00 but still very mushy and distorted with splatter from local-like country & western music station on 93.9. I wish I had fewer AM-FM locals, believe me ! Dear Phil Laruse, you're not the only one complaining ! (BC-PQ)

95.5 WIXV Savannah, GA - around 1730 EDT with nonID as I95 and mentions of Savannah after a great R&B number the jock introduced an awful Papa Roach track ! A Google research makes it the sixth station logged during this multidirectionnal opening !(BC-PQ)

98.1 WHZT Seneca, SC - ID around 1740 as "THE NEW HOT 98-1"... Google research points to WHZT in Seneca, SC not too far from WIXV Savannah, GA and around the same time... SC#2 making it the 7th station logged during this opening... (BC-PQ)

101.1 someone playing Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" around 1745 EDT on 6/24, of course, shortly after logging WHZT on 98.1. In fact, I logged WHZT by carefully reviewing the tape ! (BC-PQ)

102.1 WDRM Huntsville, AL 6/26 around 1745 - mention of a movie and mention of the www.wdrm.com website between one light country number and a rhythmic country one ! Huge, excellent and local-like at times ! AL# 4 considering WEUP-1700 (back in December, 2005), WTUG-92.9 (back in June 16, 2001) and, of course, WMXZ TODAY June 26 ! (BC-PQ)

103.3 WMXS Montgomery, AL 6/26 1800 - IDing as "Mongtomery's Weekend Music Station" and playing oldies. Excellent local-like signal wipping out weak semi-local CHAA 103.3 in Longueuil, PQ. New, AL#2 on FM ! AL#3 ever considerign WEUP-1700 and WTUG-92.9 (with semi-local WEZF nulled out, of course) ! This is the highest frequency where I have been able to ID an FM broadcaster via sporadic E layer skip ! (BC-PQ)


Additionnal comments

While I have been constantly active on LW, MW and SW, I was surprised to see that Gerard Westerberg in KY had a strong signal on his A2 video camera and since I have CBFT-TV on A2 here in Montreal, I decided to try to see if there is some skip on FM from the same area ! I was not disappointed ! 93.9 WSEK K93Country had such a blockbuster signal, it knocked off my socks ! Thogh at times it was splattered by someone on 94.1 playing Usher with "Yeah" that was even more badly splatter by local CKMF on 94.3, and on 94.00 when 94.1 faded down and 93.9 faded up, well this Kentuckyan killed the 94.1 signal, so I had to choose between CKMF-94.3 QRM and WSEK-93.9 QRM which was not easy, so I gave up... Phil Laruse, you are not alone complaining about the crowded status of the FM band... There are only a handful more or less free channels here... On AM, rumors that one of the co-owned CKAC-730 and CINF-690 clear channels will collapse allowing for some interesting Pan-American DX, who knows...

During most of the sporadic-E openings I experienced over the years, I ended up logging an average of 4 stations per opening, so this 7 NEW STATIONS in a single opening, although not much, is record-breaking for me... I must admit that the fadey status of this otherwise huge opening has forced myself of going constantly after new stations...

Its also the first opening where I IDed something above 100 MHz... Although both 102.1 and 103.3 are from Alabama, this state is very difficult to hear on mediumwave here, so FM DXing helps fullfilling the void of AM DXing...

I was surprised of not hearing anything from the Caribbean, maybe the Bahamas if not Cuba... But I'm still very excited with the domestic FM DX nevertheless, its better than the punk-rock French Canadian junk all over the Montreal area FM band !

I have on tape a station in Columbus, OH but I don't recognize its frequency...

I hope to purchase soon a stereo cable... Most of the recordings are in stereo ! I can try using the mono cable, but it won't be as good...

Otherwise, I hope for a repeat as LW and MW DXing became rather dull with the same stations appearing over and over such as Morocco-171 or Germany's French language Europe Un on 183 kHz... I think Cuba would be difficult, though I won't be too astonished though very excited if I could log Radio Angúlo on 93.9 as this frequency is very clean here... Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Bermudes and maybe Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon would be my most likely sources of foreign FM DX ! I heard nothing definitive out of Florida, though I have an Orlando mention on tape but I don't know on which frequency I heard it, so it isn't very helpful...

I think the reason for this opening might have been a huge amount of warm weather being pushed out by severe T-storm, the first heatwave of the summer which took end today as severe T-storm approached Vermont, midway between Montreal and Columbus, OH which is the closest skip station I got...

Dear Phil Laruse, you may try and maybe you will be rewarded with some TA FM skip. Northern Morocco, Spain, Portugal, western France, the UK and western Norway are all within 2Es from your location... They use even frequencies as well such as 92.4 or 92.6 which should be rewarding during prime conditions ! After all UK DXers are occasionally hearing something from accross the pond on FM !

If anyone knows the identity of the AL station on 90.9, please let me know !

All this Es reminds me that back in the summer of 1988 a Swedish DXer caught French Es on frequencies as high as 105.9 from Aventure FM in Paris... This station was a kind of French BFPS, partly run by the French Army, partly by the private organisation Bayard Presse... I had a tape with Aventure FM made in Paris on October 6, 1988 but I deleted it after having got highly hyperactive from the DPT and MMR shots back in late 1998 or early 1999 (I had the shots on Tuesday, December 8, 1998 with the nurse called Lise Desjardins and deleted the tape a few weeks later)... I'm looking for a full C60 unscoped aircheck of Aventure FM... This is the ONLY thing that could surpass the excitment of any sporadic-E opening; hearing the sound of Aventure FM once again ! Even a double-hop FM opening toward Venezuela or Puerto Rico is nothing compared to an Aventure FM aircheck... It is why I have an obsession with French radio and know how the first private stations appeared in France... I try to DX to hear stations around the world that COULD be better than Aventure FM, but it is impossible to get beyond Aventure FM in terms of quality ! Eventually, Aventure FM became MaXXimum and while MaXXimum is off the air nowadays, it is well remembered and there are lots of airchecks from this Techno-House station, the first station in Europe playing such music ! However, before MaXXimum, Aventue FM was not only highly eclectic, throwing toward my ears the best mix of zouk, raï, kompas, French Variety, Californian pop-rock like Hughes Louis And The News, 80s dance music like Mel & Kim or Rick Astley or even Art of Noise, but they had psychopatic jocks that tried to change the world very agressively and hyperactively and a jingle package of a complexity, yet accessibility I never heard elsewhere... I posted messages on all the French radio-related messageboards trying to locate airchecks of Aventure FM to no avail... The only success I had was when a mysterious guy e-mailed http://www.schoop.fr two jingles, including one promo from a tape, but I don't know this guy and can't locate him... If I have one radio-related hobby that is beyond DXing is airchecks collectionning... Most of my best airchecks are DX recordings, but I have some stuff from Montreal area and Bucharest radio stations 11 years ago back in 1998, some of them doesn't exist anymore... I'm looking for Montreal area airchecks except CKOI 96.9 which is too commercial for me from the 70s or 80s, French radio from the mid-to-late 80s (from France) and maybe some Hot 97 NYC airchecks... The number one in my airchecks quest is Aventure FM of course... It used to broadcast on 105.9 MHz in Paris back in 1988, also from Lyon on 95.7 MHz, Grenobles on 105.8 MHz and Chambéry on 105.9 MHz just as in Paris. In 1989, CLT-UFA which were the owners of Radio Luxemburg 208 and of Atlantic 252 asked the French FCC (CSA) for new frequncies for their new network and they received them before transforming Aventure FM into MaXXimum. So during the final months of Aventure FM, back in 1989, it started to operate from Bordeaux on 88.4 and Reims on 90.5 MHz.

Before I leave, I will inform you that I chatted with three Venezuelan DXers in Spanish using SKYPE and they inform me that they have succeded getting good TEP FM reception making me wanting to take the Sangean with me during the next Latin American trip I may plan... I have a phobia with shots and there are no mandatory vaccines for Venezuela, so I should shot VICTORY ! TEP is like sporadic E except it happens during mid-evenings when it is compltetly dark outside and it involves tropical stations from the other side of the equator on VHF1, VHF2 and sometimes VHF3 as well...

Time to prepare for a good night of sleep with some casual LW-MW-SW DXing before that...


This report is brought to you by Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, DXing from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), PQ

May the good DX be with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu
Btw. I: We will perphaps order a brand new PK LW loop and I will give the one that doesn't tune between 153 and 162 kHz to some friends from Morocco I have... They won't have trouble tuning in to Medi Un on 171 kHz, as the modulation is better on LW than on their webstream !
Btw. II: I would like to thank Sylvain Naud for having me inform that CHLT-630 has leaved mediumwave... They were marginal during the daytime and a real pest at night... Now the final step would be to see CFCO-630 moving to FM ! Does anyone knows when CFCO will be moving to FM ? Therefore, on the E/W there won't be any nuisance and in WPRO-630 I will log either TAs or WLAP in Lexington, KY as WHAS-840 in Lousville, KY is right now the only reliable station from this state, as a reponse to my excellent short-haul FM DX catche on 93.9 this afternoon !



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