[IRCA] Portugal and Canary Is. on 720 logged from coastal WI

["Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I DXed Thursday and Friday nights from my midwestern DX paradise spot 
in Grafton WI atop a the bluff 150 ft above the Lake Michigan shore. 
The previous Sunday night had also featured good TA cx and I had 
clear suspicions of both Portugal and Canaries under phase nulled 
semi local WGN (91 miles South and 50 kw ND) but wasn't able to be 
sure on //'s for either.

This time I laid out longer BOG's than the previous hoping for 
emphesis on the lower end and indeed the two BOG's 490 ft // 670 feet 
seemed somewhat better for the low end than the previous 335 ft // 
485 used. I simply parked in a spot further down my driveway and 
accepted a bit of a bend. The BOG's start out at about 60 deg and end 
up aiming close to 70 deg for a slight curved bend and averaging 
about 65 degrees. As noticed before when aiming ENE I get CFOS much 
clearer through WIND 560 (SSE) with the longer BOG's. The length 
difference of 180 ft was chosen since my experience indicates that 
this is a good difference for phasing lower band back end QRM while 
not nulling or even slightly enhancing signals from the desired 
direction. 

The results of my setup and lake coast QTH (a good 100 miles of water 
in the direction of the lower path western Medit area TA's) would not 
dissapoint me and note that the bearing from Grafton to Madrid is 61 
degrees and to Lisbon 65 degrees. Local sunset is about 7:30 PM 
(0030) and unlike on the Atlantic coast TA's don't tend to come in 
well over an hour prior to sunset. Friday night was a bit better than 
Thurs and by 0023 the big Spaniard on 684 had a rather readable 
signal and by 0045 the lower half of the dial was full of TA's while 
the upper half only had a few really strong ones barely audible. 

720 had the typical somewhat mellow music (lots of American, but some 
other stuff) played by Portugal around 0115 and also at times some 
Spanish talk, but on Thurs I could get any //'s. With the Portugese 
running only 10 kw and having big slop on 666 and also on 693 Azores 
(CINF is nasty) it is not easy to get clear copy of a //.

Anyhow I continued to tune around, log TA's and some eastern 
Canadians and again WTME 780's 310 watt PSSA from Western Maine.

At 0400 8/31 there was a newscast u/phased WGN but I just couldn't 
pin it down as Portugese and into the typical music it went.

Around 0500 it seemed that Spanish stations really picked up 
strength. I was certain the news and programing on 720 was // other 
RNE's and this was mostly atop other stations, including (if I 
adjusted the phasing a bit, XEDE's Mexican mx u/WGN).

Spain uses several pips on the half hour with the final one longer 
and at 0530 my dream came true as there they were on 720 // the 
network and with a RNE ID ! I soon tuned to 747 and noted a couple 
Canarias ments so they may have been in local pgmg briefly, and 
things like 837 were cleanly listenable with ease (WHAS 840 nicely 
nulled by these BOG's).

OK one down one to go on 720, but by 0545 most TA's have faded and a 
tired KAZ drives his DX car up his driveway and goes to bed.

On 8/31 TA cx seemed even better and it was quite clear to me that 
the language on 720 u/phased WGN (S9+15 to 20 knocked down to S7-8 
(hard to phase groundwave and short skywave) was continental 
Portugese (sounds a bit different that Brazilian) but I couldn't copy 
a // 666 or 693 clear enough to be sure. As for the previous night, 
most every TA channel below 900 produced audio.

As the time neared 0300 9/1 cx picked up even more and the station on 
720 atop the WGN/XEDE phase null had a song that featured distinctive 
piano mx and I managed a 100% positive // to what was on 666 coming 
through the WSCR (somewhat phased by the null on WGN) and WFAN slop.

Ask me if I miss 720 CHTN's Oldies ? ... well NOT !!

Again lots of TA's still audible and a new logging for me of Spain on 
783 (Mauretania can sometimes be heard here earlier and always seems 
to be an early arrival het at least). Also bits of SS on 648 // 
others were noted for a new one. 549 had Algeria // the weakly 
modulated powerhouse on 891 that was strong enough to make it 
unpleasent to listen to WLS on the car rx. 612 has Morocco and some 
AA mx reach audibility from the badly modulated but strong signal on 
711. A few days prior when cx were decent to somewhat more northern 
Europe there was some French on 711. 

More northerly TA paths had a few stations but nothing like the many 
from the western Medit area. 1089 UK audible occasionally as was 909. 
567 Ireland was decent around 0350, but the previous night had SS // 
the others when Spainaird really faded up. 1134 Croatia sometimes 
could put fair audio past my big local pest on 1130. 

High band was less active although the common big signal from the 
mega Saudi on 1521 was in, but faded about 0255, and I could get just 
some audio on 1584 with SER// 1575 and also SS mx from Ceuta. 1602 
pushed some SS audio past 1600 QRM where nothing was strong.

I feel that this Lake Michigan QTH provides mabe 10 to 12 dB enhanced 
of stations towards the east when compared to my home inland QTH in 
Illinois. I have only DXed in WI for at most 25 sessions and have 
loads of eastern US and Canada domestics heard that have been unheard 
inland or maybe only once or twice over the years.

Very happy to finally have some TA's logged on domestic channels from 
the midwest. My previous have only been two tentatives on 1530 with 
eastern Euro languages seemingly right for Vatican at the time, but 
never catching an ID or IS and not being fully readable.

73 KAZ DXing in Grafton WI R8A and Phased BOG System at 65 deg.



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