[HCDX] a few MW logs from my NJ trip

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Repport from:
Wildwood Crest, NJ and also from the car-radio in Cape May, NJ, Atlantic City and all around
Equipment:
Sanyo MCD-S830 portable with its internal ferrite bar antenna

Hello to all of you !

I just got back from a trip to the South Jersey shore last night. Seeing the lack of Es activity on the FM band, I only took my trusted mainly AM rig with me, the Sanyo MCD-S830. Although I missed some fairly great tropo (heard it on the car-radio, but couldn't record the music and stations IDs out of the nice catches), no sporadic-E opening seemed to have been in progress during my stay, from June 15 to June 27.

The DXing was not too bad. Two disappointments -> I couldn't catche anything ressembling even vaguely to a Colombian and I couldn't ID a Mexican, although I'm ALMOST sure I received XEX-730 and XEDM-1580. On the other hand, Venezuelan DX was quite better than expected. RCR-750 which wasn't audible at all this summer from my home QTH, was often winning the battle against WSB, especially during the early evening hours and so was YVRQ-910 against co-channel Cuban pest Radio Cadena Agramonte Cuban. On the other hand, CFDR-780 maked Radio Coro 780 the toughest YV of these 3 Venezuelan I was able to identify. Didn't expect that, since its the opposite here !

The Cubans were VERY dominant like expected. Since many of them had near local quality reception with nearly no fadings or distortions, I didn't bother writing down logs of them and neither I did for Caicos-530 (Radio Visión...).

Into the logs:

630 ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD (a small island, also part of Cuba),   CMOA, Radio Progreso  JUL 17 0314 - with Nocturno AC ballads px in // with CMBC-640 (through the Radio Disney semi-local - back on at what power level ?), CMDZ-890 and CMKP-900. This and CMCH-1100 are the most prized Cuban catches from this trip ! The 740 outlet was only heard on the evening of July 25. (Chiochiu-NJ)

700 JAMAICA,    RJR, Montego Bay  JUL 25 0240 - presumed with "Don't Lie" by the Black Eyed Peas. Poor-fair at tune-in and fading down to almost nothing in 2 or 3 minutes. Powerline noises. SINPO 24222. (Chiochiu-NJ)

730 MEXICO,   XEX, Ciúdad de Mexico, Distrito Federal  JUL 17 around 0220 - Presumed ! SS gospel, then man announcer w/ "...exito...". Overpowering a very weak CKAC and a maybe second station with a pretty fair signal. Considering XEX is knowing to overpower the Washington, DC local at the David Yocis QTH, I believe it was this Mexican powerhouse, but many times CKAC had this channel to its self, so can't be sure. (Chiochiu-NJ)

750 VENEZUELA,   YVKS, Radio Caracas Radio, Caracas, Distrito Federal  JUL 18 0250 - ID "...Siete-Cincuenta AM, palabra está radio" fading down way under WSB, though way atop at tune in. SINPO 32322. +JUL 27 0045 - Already booming in with political and economical talkshow. SINPO 44333 (Chiochiu-NJ)

760 unID,   "La Nueva Buena Siete-Sesenta"  JUL 25 0215 - In WJR Detroit, MI null: Spanish music and announcer mentioning this type of programming will continue until way late -> in the early morning hours. SINPO 34333 with no sign of RCN Barraqnuilla, the usual Colombian pest. Definitively the same station that was heard in Pierrefonds/Montreal almost 6 years ago in November 2000 which was non-IDed at that time as "La Nueva Buena 7-60". Probably WLCC in Brandon, FL which is nowadays IDing as "La Ley". I *think* I heard La Ley during my listening period, but I don't have the tape here as I tape this to verify. More on this later ! (Chiochiu-QC)

780 VENEZUELA,   YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, Falcón  JUL 17 0402 - fading up to a fairly strong level for 1 minute playing the national YV anthem "Gloria Al Bravo Pueblo" then down to weak-poor levels with slight co-channel QRM from CFDR Kicks Country 7-80 out of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia with "Desde Coro, ciúdad capital del estado Falcón..." top-of-the-hour ID. SINPO 22322. Quite regular, but WAY much poorer than expected !!! On 2 or 3 occasions this summer, such as on the early morning of July 3, they were better heard here in Pierrefonds/Montreal, more than 700 kilometers further from Venezuela. (Chiochiu-NJ)

790 CUBA,   CMAQ, Radio Reloj, Pinar del Río - buzzing cuban transmitter heard almost every time I tried. Could have been very regular in Montreal too, providing I didn't have CJAD-800 as a problem. This is one of the two or more defective Cubans I heard. (Chiochiu-NJ)

890 CUBA,   CMDZ, Radio Progreso, Chambas  JUL 25 0200 - Special live program with music and political chatter for the day of the electricity revolution. Tx problems observed today en-route from a buffet in Atlantic City to the temporary home in Wildwood Crest. Despite the special px, tx was switched in and off, revealing a fair-strenght co-channel WLS Chicago and when on, often not even a peep from WLS not even in the background. I also noted problems from this tx in Montreal, in December for instance when they switched on and off. Also, the sound quality on 890 kHz is slightly distorted. CMKP-900 Cacocúm is slightly better - definitively stronger audio but still distorted. The next evening CMDZ-890, althoug still a bit on the distorted side, didn't had tx problems and I taped 3 or 4 sad and melodic hot Cuban songs back-to-back. I'll share the tape with several of you, very soon !  (Chiochiu-car-NJ)

900 Spanish religious station dominating this channel always around sunset. CMKP, Radio Progreso, Cacocúm (// w/ the big 890 local-like blowtorche) sharing dominance with English stations (mainly CMHL Hamilton, ON I think) during the mid-to-late evenings and early mornings listening sessions. (Chiochiu-NJ / Chiochiu-car-NJ)

910 VENEZUELA,   YVRQ, RQ-910 AM Center, Maiquetía, Distrito Federal  JUL 17 0657 - Very good at tune-in with woman singer doing a salsa dura tune about the northern coastal HJ city of Cartagena. "RQ nueve cientos diez AM Center" ID at 0700 mixing with Radio Cadena Agramonte, Camagüey, Cuba. (Chiochiu-NJ) +JUL 27 0928 - astonishing song of the "música llanera" type ending in "doble doble doble v la leona punto com" which is popular in Venezuela right now. Fair-good in mess with domestics. Maybe Cuba in too, but not too sure. (Chiochiu-car-NJ)

930 unID,   tropical music (mainly merengue) noted several times here. Almost certainly a domestic and the NYC station is a perfect candidate, I believe. Mostly audible during the early evenings (Chiochiu-NJ)

1020 CUBA,   Radio Reloj  JUL 17 0151 - Time peeb and "Radio Reloj 9:51 minutos" getting through a very strong KDKA Philadelphia blowtorche while in Cape May. The big interference out of KDKA was the only problem. No sign from YVRS or YVMX ! (Chiochiu-car-NJ)

1100 CUBA,   CMCH, Radio Cadena Havana, La Salud, La Habana  JUL 25 0138 - Man announcer talking about the program in progress "nueve con trenta y ocho minutos...desarollando...Radio Cadena Habana". Very good, atop WTAM in the car-radio in Cape May. (Chiochiu-car-NJ) 

1580 MEXICO,   XEDM, Hermosillo, Sonora  JUL 16 0250 - Presumed with woman singer with norteña tune. Strong fade-ins for about 2 seconds with deep and quick fades, then it came-back again. No co-channel QRM, just a high-pitched growl from maybe an off-channel domestic. It would have been quite probable for XEDM to reach my home QTH in Pierrefonds/Montreal without that damned pest on adjacent 1570 (CFAV Radio Boomer) which is completely swamping the 1500s. (Chiochiu-NJ)

As veteran New Zealand DXer Paul Ormandy suggested, coastal propagation was quite intriguing. WABC on 770 had a good signal with cancelled flights due to the extremely warm weather that did hit New York City, speculations regarding the Middle East semi-war and other interesting things. However, WABC was the highest frequency NYC station to be listenable during the day. Also, a bit surprising, WMCA 570 was very weak. Must have been because of the directional pattern of this regional. During the night, Radio Reloj was dominating this frequency. Coastal propagation was indeed in the play as far as FM tropo DX was concerned. Q104.3 New York's only classic rock station was dominating over a smooth jazz semi-local. I must say our 'classic rock' semi-local, CHOM-97.7, is way much better. I hdon't like at all rock'n'rol like The Beach Boys at all, but I love progressive rock and for me, the best 'classic rock' is not a station playing Eric Clapton, but one playing Genesis, Supertramp, Focus, Air Bag or Pink Floyd which sounds more contemporary with their synths and organic sounds and a whole less old and kidding. When in Atlantic City, WKTU 103.5, a favorite of mine, was getting its way against adjacent channel splatter from the Philadelphia station. Something more amazing was the Baltimore's country station on 93.1, probably around 300 kilometers away or perphaps more, fighting with WPAT Pattesron, NJ "93.1 Amor" and with the WDTH The Touch translator of WTTH-96.1 Atlantic City Adult R&B outlet. It's really strange to see how near Atlantic City, a Baltimore station toward the same direction as a pesty co-channel near-by translator, rised to dominance ! But the MOST AMAZING DX was the Norflolk, VA station on 104.5 fighting with Sunny 104.5 out of Philadelphia ! Really, a great catche ! But, no sporadic-E to speak of, as far as I know... Therefore, I didn't missed that much by not bringing with me the Sangean 818-ACS-CST too along with the Sanyo MCD-S830 I almost always use for MW DX.

And, the past night, the only Latin American mediumwave DX from my present QTH was apparent Radio Rebelde on 710 WAY under the big NYC WOR powerhouse with man doing sports comments BARELY noticeable. Very, very weak the past night, but, generally speaking, 710 too was a powerful cuban this summer both here and in New Jersey. But, still very abysmal and back to mid-summer standards the past night from here in Pierrefonds after splendid progpagation in June and early July !

Before I'm done with this repport, I'd like to congratulate two very friendly and helpfully French guys for having helped me with airchecks from Maxximum and, very soon, with Aventure FM, two astonishing stations, especially the last one which is my favorite radio station of all times from which I have nothing yet.

Any suggestions with the unID Spanish domestic signals or apparent confirmation regarding the two presumed Mexicans would be greatly appreciated !

The next week, on the 1st of August, I will receive the results for the beated cancer. I'm a bit stressed as I write this, considering the real nightmares I was going too the past fall, but with the prooved effective natural medecine I'm taking, it MIGHT NEVER came-back.

May the good DX be with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu
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