[HCDX] foreign logs (NOV 23 through DEC 21)

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warm greetings to all of you !

First of all, I didn't sent a report in a while for two reasons... There are some reparations of SEVERAL highways that are taking places local evenings in my area disturbing any weak or even fair-strength signals with an awful buzz that is making me really upset (they SHOULD end on Wensday, according to what I understood, making DXing way easier). Secondly, I had to struggle with other hobbies, some radio-related ones (such as looking for ANY full-length Aventure FM aircheck) and some not. That being said, if I didn't sent a report it doesn't mean I haven't DXed at all. While my DX activities have slowed down, I heard a few interesting things along with the regular ones. The problem is that the better conditions get and the noisier the band gets too, so after local midnight when the buzz stops, I'm left with lousy conditions as the sun is rising in Europe and the lack of any auroral enhancement means poor Pan-American DX with, fortunatly, a few pleasant surprises as you can read below.

Into the logs:


North American DX

1310 WORC Worchester, MA "Power Trece-Diez" DEC 12 1940 EST - man announcing in Spanish they have the best salsa, merengue, bachata, raeggetón and Freestyle classics (Latin Freestyle Dance Music - Bogdan) of all the time and to come up and party at a nightclub playing the same type of music as on "Power Trece-Diez". Heard while driving toward a help center for becoming a radio jock and overpowering semi-local CIWW in Ottawa, ON. I think CIWW is using their required nighttime pattern, while WORC Massachussets is sending out their 1 kW daytime power instead of their nighttime power which is a lot LESS than 1 kW and which would sent less signal our way and less signal in the way of CIWW too ! (BC-QC)

1340 unID "WSPJ Storm Center forecast" DEC 21 1540 EST - Heard several call IDs as "WSPJ", but Google makes something on 1400 as WSPG or WSPJ and nothing on 1340. QRMing semi-local WIRY in Plattsburg, NY as the local "graveyarders" are starting to make this frequency a real mess. Any ideas ? I think the minute I will have an AM Stereo receiver I will give North American short-haul domestic DX more attention, as I'm YET to hear FOR REAL something in Stereo on a broadcast band other than the FM one (ultrashortwaves in Romanian or "unde ultrascurte") ! WSTJ St. Johnsbury, VT ? Where are they located ? Are they further than Newport, Burlington or Montpellier for a real not-that-short-skip DX challenge ? Ore are they another run of the mil catche ? Maybe they are in the Rutland area which would be NICE ! (BC-QC)

1340 WSTJ St. Johnsbury, VT DEC 21 1553 EST - finally IDed. NEW ! Wow ! It's been a long time since I gave up on North American short-skip DXing, but hearing endlessly the same TAs and Latins is certainly making me want to try a new kind of DX, so here it is. This is perphaps my closest unheard ! (BC-QC)

106.7 local RADIO ENFANT (c.f. Kevin Redding) DEC 20 2120 EST - as I cameback from the movie theater, heard this one strong enough to knock out another country music pirate (according to Scott Fybush) with no sign of semi-local WIZN. A flea powered RADIO ENFANT (c.f. Kevin Redding) from a neaby school with kids saying poems about Xmas and talking endlessly about their own feelings related to Christmas... They played one song regarding a French legend dealing with the little mouse. Very strong around Le Marché Central area, but lost around the Saint-Laurent suburb to a C&W which was a true pirate ! Logged in car with a friend driver. (BC-car-QC)


Trans-Atlantic DX

162 FRANCE   France Inter, Allouis DEC 3 0740 UTC - News report regarding a weird bread that comes out of China and which has maked many French persons ill, the on that did eat it... Hope it didn't contained soya as it blocks a protein from reaching the human brain, though I understand soya is very good for the cows ! Good reception even with the Grundig G5 set for the AM Wide filter ! (Chiochiu-QC)

171 KALININGRAD   Radio Rossi, Bolshakovo DEC 9 2340 UTC - some Slavic sounding vocals and Russian talk with a few words ending in "iski"... Caught on tape at least one "Radio Rossi" mention, so I finally succeded in nailing down these guys which along with Poland-225 make up for my furthest longwave DX. Very poor, but over Medi 1, which eventually rose to strength (though never better than a poor-fair level, I'm sure since Spetember or October they have done something wrong with their transmitter in Nador and / or with their modulation) around 2350 GMT with Radio Rossi completly faded out. NEW log and NEW country ! An electricity shortage at the time due to a heavy snowfall and, fortunatly, I had my battery powered Sangean ACS 818-CST along with the battery powered active PK LW Shielded Magnetic loop antenna ready ! (Chiochiu-QC)

177 GERMANY   DeutschlandRadio Kultur, Oranienburg DEC 17 0520 UTC - Woman in German. Poor signal, but not that bad overall. Semi-regular over the past few weeks with a lack of geomagnetic conditions, but I don't expect to hear Germany-177 anytime soon with the increasing solar activity and the two big solar flares that would sooner or later produce something on Earth. (Chiochiu-QC) 

183 GERMANY   Europe 1, Felsberg DEC 9 2300 UTC - After a very short newscast, back to a psychology talkshow with a host named Caroline. One of the callers was a man whom wife ended the relationship with him abruptly and he lost his child. He couldn't have his child back, because he had a "casier judiciaire" behind him due to "délits mineurs". Sad ! Very good / huge with no buzz thanks to an electricity shortage, but some static scratches ! SINPO 45354 (Chiochiu-QC)

189 ICELAND   Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskalar DEC 19 0034 UTC - Man announcer taking phone calls requests from his listeners... One of them asked for Pink Floyd, but before Pink Floyd, there was the "Look At Your First" title track from the 1971 URIAH HEEP's awesome prog album... Jammed with an annoying sound shortly before 0100 GMT (2000 Eastern Standard Time) by the awful buzz as described above, but still hanging in with an unlistenable jammed sound... Excellent on the Grundig G5 ULR / PK LW loop combo and poor but listenable on the Sangean ACS 818-CST barefoot ! On the G5 ultralight barefoot, however, they were harmed by a fairly strong mixing product from 50 kW northeastern clears... The G5 is more sensitive than my Sangean on LW, but has also a much weaker dynamic range, as far as overload goes ! (Chiochiu-QC)

198 ENGLAND   BBC Radio 4, Droitwhich NOV 23 2350 UTC - with an item about the Old Soviet Union. Good. Apparently the little buzz that disturbed the BBC reception on this channel has moved up the band toward 207 kHz. I certainly miss it, since I can't wait logging Ourlaou, Algeria which is also on 198 and would be an excellent longwave Trans-Atlantic catche ! (Chiochiu-QC) 

225 POLAND   Polski Radio 1, Solec Kujawski DEC 19 0025 UTC - played what sounded like a Xmas-related reggae vocal. Initially somewhere between a poor and a fair level and slowly, BUT COMPLETELY completly faded out a few minutes later. Best reception this season of Poland on longwave ! (Chiochiu-QC)

234 LUXEMBOURG   RTL, Beidweler DEC 9 0014 - Rock music... Poor through a few NDBs (non directional beacons). SINPO 22331. Usually this one is blanketed by a WiFi malicious signal, but this time around it was audible thanks to the electricity shortage ! (Chiochiu-QC)

252 ALGERIA   Alger Chaîne 3 DEC 6 0302 UTC - Koran chanting by a male, followed by the beginning of their French language morning show. Good and over Ireland with minimal splatter from local non directionnal beacon UL on 248 kHz. (Chiochiu-QC)

612 MOROCCO   RTM, Sebaa-Aioun DEC 19 2302 (tentative) - Tentatively them with a fair-strength TA het on the high-side of megapest CHNC-610. Too much CHNC splatter to get ANY audio. Unfortunatly, they don't seem to know when to unplug their mediumwave transmitter in order to allow adjacent channel Morocco to get through ! That being said, the rising solar activity probably won't allow our dearly ionosphere to skip through the ever-normal "mid-winter anomaly" either which harms east-west Trans-Atlantic paths. (Chiochiu-QC)

1341 unID DEC 21 2100 UTC - a het briefly disturbed reception of the WSYR/WSTG/WMSA/others big graveyard mix, most likely a Trans Atlantic heterodyne and possibly Northern Ireland (if active). Heard on the Sanyo MCD-S830 / PK AM loop combo ! (Chiochiu-QC)

9575 MOROCCO   Médi Un, Nador DEC 16 0840 UTC - Fair-good, with heavy distorted audio, with news. I think that while 171 is undermodulated, 9575 is overmodulated, not necessarily causing as much pain to my ears as the buzz tonight, but certainly making the sound very low-FI. SINPO 35542. (Chiochiu-QC)

9935 GREECE   R.S. Makedonias Avlis DEC 5 1420 UTC - Fairly good reception with a few slops from adjacent channel powerhouses, playing contemporary Europops and Eurotrance and man with comments in an unknown indo-European language. SINPO 34343 (Chiochiu-QC)

9580 GABON   Africa Numéro Un, Moyabi DEC 5 2132 UTC - start of the Africadanse program of contemporary African tropical grooves at an excellent level with minor choppy fadings. SINPO 55544. Better than usually here, especially at such a late time, perphaps due to a short run of solar activity on late November which still improoved shortwave reception above 9000 kHz during the first days of December ! (Chiochiu-QC)


Pan-American DX

550 VENEZUELA   YVKE, Mundial, Caracas, DF DEC 20 0632 UTC - Px of trad YV mx w/ W host that announced an UN SOLO PUEBLO song was about to begin which is exactly what happened. Played an even mixture of joropos and gaitas. Very good at times, but with flutter due to slightly weaker domestics coming in behind at the same time (mostly WEVD and the Rhode Island Disney station). SINPO 43523-2. (Chiochiu-QC)

555 ST KITTS   ZIZ, Basseterre DEC 21 0856 UTC - Dude taking call from his listeners and talking with them. He talked with one of them about global cooling saying the temperatures will drop from 20 to 17, to 15, to 10 and then to 7 ! Very interesting chatter... The break in the chatter was used to insert some gospel and calypso mx selections, included a Xmas-related calypso. Huge signal, mostly in, with a nice and clean good signal strength. SINPO 44534 (Chiochiu-QC)

570 CUBA   CMDC, Radio Reloj, Pilón DEC 20 0502 UTC - clock ticks behind megapest WSYR and semi-regular WMCA. I didn't had the patience enough to wait for the RR morse code IDs though. SINPO 21522. Happily, I found a way to tune the PK passive AM loop in order to totally avoid the computer growl hammering the low-side of this channel. (Chiochiu-QC)

580 PUERTO RICO   WKAQ, Radio Reloj, San Juan DEC 20 0503 UTC - a completly different format than the news/time station logged the previous minute on the previous channel. Heard with health issues px, about food and alcohol. Very strong, atop domestics. SINPO 44544. Semi-regular here. (Chiochiu-QC)

600 CUBA   CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norrís DEC 20 0511 - Cuban salsa dura slightly over WICC in CKAT (North Bay, ON) null, but mostly inaudible with WICC (Bridgeport, CT) overwhelmingly strong...and WICC is officially in C-Quam stereo, so since it is often stronger than co-channel Radio Rebelde, its C-quam signal might reach the Montreal area, who knows ? (Chiochiu-QC)

610 CUBA   CMAN, Radio Rebelde, Bahía Honda DEC 20 0511 - Cuban salsa music under WIP in null of megapest CHNC New Carlisle, Gaspésie, QC. Rare ! (Chiochiu-QC)

750 VENEZUELA   YVKS, RCR, Caracas, DF DEC 21 2320 - Ad for a restaurant with chicken meals. Huge / very good, totally killing WSB Atlanta also on 750 AM ! (Chiochiu-QC) 

760 COLOMBIA   HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla DEC 20 0248 UTC - Cumbia music sample, followed by a vallenato one, then the follow-up of an interview in Spanish. Good signal, but in a tricky null of megapest WJR in Detroit, MI and a slight amount of splatter from huge WABC-NYC on 770, but more out than in. SINPO 43522 (Chiochiu-QC)

780 VENEZUELA   YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, Falcón DEC 20 0628 UTC - an upbeat mainstream merengue song followed by station promos and a brand new canned ID. Fair with some local splatter from overmodulated CJAD-800. WABC-770 was splattering less than usual, even though it was local-like, maybe the structure of its signal was different. SINPO 34322. DEC 21 2249 UTC - fading up with transmitter-site sunset with canned ID "...señal de Radio Coro" then "El Burrito Sabanero" by Hugo Lopez which is a wild blend of tropical cumbia and traditionnal música llanera I've downloaded several years ago. Hugo Lopez was a Venezuelan harp genius, having learned perfectly to play that instrument the day he received it as a gift ! SINPO 33221, but my earliest reception of them ! One of my dreams and favorite hobbies-whithin-a-hobby is/was to hear early fade-ins of Latins or Caribbean signals in the 4PM to 6PM time slot during the winter when sunset is slightly BEFORE 6PM in order to enjoy some highly intriguing challenge ! http://200.6.157.20:8034/listen.pls isn't working right now, so mediumwave DXing is the only way to get in touch with this Venezuelan station. (Chiochiu-QC)

910 VENEZUELA   YVRQ, RQ-910, Caracas, DF DEC 20 0644 UTC - another one playing música llanera and something I haven't listened to in a big while. Poor, but nice signal, nevertheless and quite clear... SINPO 25532. The Connecticut tropical CHR Spanish station "La Mega" seems to have learned to drop power at sunset, as required by the Federal Communications Commission. No sign of Cuba either, which is dominant on 910 usually (playing cha-cha-cha when propagating here) when and while WTAG La Mega respects his nighttime power pattern. (Chiochiu-QC)


Trans-Pacific DX   

7295 CHINA   CNR1 jammer against VOA DEC 5 1346 - Commercial sounding Asiatic station, talk in CC, never any music and sounded like a never-ending block of commercial ads. Poor-fair with flutter but nothing in the way of really deep fadings, poor overall. Occasional QRM from a ham using a nearby frequency. SINPO 23532. Best shortwave DX in a while ! Thanks to Glenn Hauser on CumbreDX for having helped me to ID these guys ! (Chiochiu-QC)




Additionnal comments:


Bogdan speaks: A short run of semi-auroral condx on Satuday night / early Sunday morning provided me with a reliable fair reception of YVKE-550 Caracas (sometimes good, sometimes weak and fluttery due to the variable strength of co-channel domestics such as WEVD in Waterbury, Vermont) and, as evidenced by the logs above, some seldom heard Pan-Americans like WKAQ-580 and YVRQ-910. Semi-regular still means seldom heard in the case of a Pan-American, because conditions have been such that I've been lucky to hear something else other than Radio Coro 780 and maybe 2 or 3 other ROUTINE signals during the last couple of years. I even tentatively received ZBVI on 780 over Radio Coro in WBBM null a few days ago, but actually forgot the time I heard it, so it's rather useless to report it, especially in IDXD.

As to answer the questions I've received in my mailbox, such as the one of DXer Konnie in Connecticut, I've heard Radio Enciclopedía, but never payed too much attention because aside from this station there isn't much to hear. I prefer 750 where I have at least a slight chance to get HJDK Medellín over WSB/YVKS or 600 where there are occasionally glimpses of Nicaragua (yes !) or Dominican Republic (a few times), rather than spend my time on a not-so-rewarding channel like 530. 

As for 106.7, well, it appears we have 1 pirate in my area, one with country, besides the LEGAL flea-powered Radio Enfant. The one with country was still quite strong, which kinda rulles out WIZN which is weak and unreliable on a good car radio, but still can be considered or could be considered BEFORE as a "SEMI-local" which is exactly what it was. I think the C&W station is a pirate as well, as there are spots of my area where WIZN isn't heard at all (unless there is tropopsheric enhancement), yet that C&W oddity was alive and kickin' !

Another pirate on 107.7, Jewel, never any call-letters, just MoR easy vocals, now with your Xmas classics from today and yesturday. But are they all pirates ? Yesturday, Jewel was weaker than they usually are (I heard them for the 1st time two years and a half ago), maybe the tropo-scatter conditions were almost inexistent, which is not unusual for this time of the year !

As far as FM DX goes, well, I'm getting ready for the mini-season Es season and I hope to pick up some educationnal 88-92 MHz gospel music broadcasters during this Christmas holiday, even though I know the truth about the agenda behind Xmas.

As far as AM Stereo DX (and semi-local listening) is concerned, I wonder if I would be able to pick up WIRY in stereo. There is some QRM from other graveyarders fading up and sitting today at my computer with my Sanyo MCD-S830 boombox AM-FM / PK AM loop combo on the next room, I heard my first new North American (and also my closest unheard) WSTJ in St. Johnsbury, Vermont which was quite interesting, of course, that considering the crowded status of this local 'graveyard' channel where dozens or even hundreds of North American domestics are coming in at the same time causing OFTEN, BUT FORTUNATELY NOT ALWAYS an endless cacophonic brouhaha.

As I'm sitting on my computer desk writing all of this, at 06:46 PM Eastern Standard Time, the buzz has reappeared, not sure of due to the reparations undergoing or due to some poorly insulated leakage. However, even though my love for DXing, a hobby I almost grew up with, will always be there to some extent, this cannot be compared with my love for the history of French radio, especially Aventure FM. I would gave half of my tape collection if I could hear a single Aventure FM tape recording instead of hearing this unbearable buzz during the mid-evening time slot when the reparations of nearby highways are disturbing LW, MW and SW reception. For those who don't know, two vaccine shots drove me crazy the same evening, they did make me hyperactive and even confused and I accidently deleted the ONLY Aventure FM (06.10.88) tape I had. Now, if I could just get in touch with the persons on RadioActu that had Aventure FM airchecks many years ago when my father disconnected the Internet and I found their dusty messages (at the time) too late... That being said, if you think you can help finding a dusty Aventure FM tape recording, please don't get yourself vaccinated against H1N1. Besides the possibility of deleting your Aventure FM tape due to hyperactivity caused by a painful shot, do remember that MOST GOUVERNMENTS signed a pact with BigPharma to make it immune against any procedures if you are severely injured - even if injured to death - by that H1N1 shot. Of course, I'm exagerating things in order to make jokes, since few persons were ever drove crazy by vaccines in order to delete their favorite airchecks on tape, I'm more sensitive than the average due to Asperger (on the the good things is that many Aspies are into DXing and are getting really deep into their passions and at age 14, I was so obsessed with DXing and the Monday Morning Silent Periods when Uruguay was heard on 1090 with Radio Imparcial instead of WBAL - the MMSP I never experienced since I wasn't even born at the time, some persons thought I was 50 and I was misleading the other members of IRCA and WTFDA and manipulating them, WANTING to appear younger than I really was which was of course WRONG, since I'm a very special person), but, of course, you don't have to avoid the H1N1 flu shot in order to sent me an Aventure FM tape recording or MP3 file, it's just for your health. However, to get back on topic, I still STRONGLY believe I'm about to listen ONCE AGAIN to a full aircheck of Aventure FM. By the way, I wonder what an Aventure FM-like format would sound like with the 65% French language content and the 35% Canadian content... There are some other things to do, such as watching historic-related cartoons like Asterix & Obelix or even Tintin on Télé-Québec, but noone of them are as entertaining as a good old Aventure FM tape from 1988.


Well, I hope everyone's Christmas wishes, at least, most, if not all, of them will merge into our tangible reality and that there would a nice shift between unwinding moments in family and party with your friends ! I will try to report more often, as I slowly get into the Motorola C-quam thing, but right now, in spite of the still-quite-heavy listening done over the past month, I think radio is not just DXing. Aside from local radio listening, airchecking and AM Stereo, there is also SWLing... As several of you already saw, I'm as much interested in program content as I'm in logging new stations which is why the speed of me making new logs isn't the fastest in the world, far from it ! That being said, having specialized in Latin American mediumwave DX as we head toward the end of a 3 years time slot with no significant auroral enhancement is another explanation for why I often report the same signals over and over. The third explanation would be that for propagation studies, we need to know when that specific stations fades in or out, how often it can be heard, etc... Well, enough for now, I will try to do some other things or, at least, try answering some e-mails, calling some friends and, of course, since curiosity is always a factor, try to enjoy my FIRST EVER winter solstice FM Es opening, while the Summer openings may (or may not) be hitting hard the Southern Hemisphere... ¿ Hay algúnos dentre ustedes que han alcanzado la escucha de nuevas emisoras TV-FM durante las últimas semanas por la parte sur de nuestra Tierra ? ¡ Muchísimas gracias, feliz Navidad y que los deseos los más cercanos de la verdadera plenitúd sean alcanzadas igualmente !



This report is brought to you by Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, DXing from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), QC using his Sanyo MCD-S830 AM-FM boombox along with the tunable passive PK AM loop, his Sangean CST-818 CST / PK LW loop combo, but also his Grundig G5 ultralight with the same PK longwave loop

May the good DX be with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu
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