[HCDX] recent DX logs

[Mirela Chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warm greetings !

Lately, I have been VERY active in the DX hobby and while I was not always able to send out loggings, it was a pleasure for me to pick up unusual signals. Anything from longwave to VHF FM has been active with exotic broadcasters at random times.... The highlights ? They were quite a few, but I might mention STEREO 1230 WBLQ in Westerly, Rhode Island which came atop the 1230 graveyard pile-up with, despite some platform motion, occasional moments of full stereo Motorola C-QUAM decoding, RTM Azilal on 207 kHz longwave in NDB and static QRM/QRN and last but not least an unID bachata and Latin music station on 93.1 MHz FM on the Tecsun PL-310WT during an early season sporadic E opening Friday afternoon at Cap Saint-Jacques, a remote QTH here in Pierrefonds ! Enough chatter, into the logs now:

Trans-Atlantic DX

162 FRANCE   France Inter, Allouis MAY 11 0200 UTC - apparent Heavy Metal and alternative rock show with music and long interviews in the style of this full service state owned outlet, with a break at the top of the hour for newscast. One of the items were how to reduce the impact or to avoid the PARADIS FISCAUX. Fair to good strengths but static scratches QRN made understandibility only so-so. SINPO 35242. Heard on the AIWA CS-W220 boombox with the gorgeous PK longwave loop standing by ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

171 MOROCCO   Medi 1, Nador MAY 11 0340 UTC - playing some beautiful flute based North African music (chaabi or something like that). Fair level through static scratches, then another song followed by the beginning of daytime regular bilengual FRENCH/ARABIC programming. Nice to see they are back at their normal power levels, as for a few months in late 2009 they were very weak, almost unusable. Very happy AND I will feel even happier when I`ll start getting them on FM via triple-hop sporadic E layer propagation, but this is obviously an EXTREMELY rare occurance, so... (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

183 GERMANY   Europe 1, Felsberg through the first two weeks of May UTC - heard most of the evenings with stable signal levels ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC / ChiochiuVerdunQC)

198 ENGLAND   BBC Radio 4, Droitwhich MAY 1 0258 UTC - carrying BBC World Service with ID for this rebroadcast. Poor level. LW and MW DX generally very poor at my too noisy Verdun QTH ! (Chiochiu-VerdunQC)

207 MOROCCO   RTM, Azilal MAY 12 0349 UTC - playing some nice oriental flute with talk between two flute songs. Fairly good through NDB and static QRM/QRN. NEW and I`m looking forward saving a better recording of them during an even better trans-Atlantic opening... The last night was a surprise only because they were showing up, as they were even stronger than Medi 1 from the same country... Heard before quite a few years ago from a Montreal-Est QTH in 2009, but it is a FIRST TIME for me in Pierrefonds ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

216 FRANCE   RMC Info, Romoules MAY 5 0403 UTC - Météo France. Good signal, slightly above NDB QRM in sunrise greyline enhancement ! Heard on the AIWA CS-W220 with one of my two PK longwave loop antennas ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

234 LUXEMBOURG   RTL, Beidweler and / or Junglister MAY 5 3336 UTC - Music mixing with adjacent NDBs, between RMC-216 and UL-248 (UL being a local non-directionnal beacon). Semi-regular in the Montreal area ! Heard on the AIWA CS-W220 boombox with the PK loop standing by, as my Sangean CST-818 almost gave up after such a heavy utilization and I don`t have a good cable to connect the PK loop (s) to the EXT ANT jack... On a VERY good winter night, RTL can overpower the beacons though ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

252 ALGERIA   RTA Alger Chaîne 3, Tipaza MAY 5 0340 UTC - political discussion in French. Powerful signal on the Sangean which is slightly MORE selective than the Aiwa found on EBay, but pretty tiny modulation ! (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

Pan-American DX

900 CUBA   CMKP, Radio Progreso, Cacocúm MAY 12 0240 UTC - playing the original disco track FANTASY by EARTH WIND AND FIRE, then a salsa remake in Spanish of that same song followed by more Cuban music inside the RITMOS program. Powerful, but unstable signal in a tight null of CHML Hamilton with QRM from an unID Classic Rock signal. (Chiochiu-PierrefondsQC)

93.1 unID MAY 10 1730 EDT - bachata, merengue and reggaetón music in and out and when I caught a spoken segment they spoke in Spanglish, so likely from South Florida or maybe, just maybe, a Dominican or Puerto Rican station (perhaps maybe PR) oriented toward upcoming tourists... I might have saved something useful on my Sony Voice Recorder connected to my trusty Tecsun PL-310, I will see later... ! (Chiochiu-CapSaint-JacquesQC)

Domestic DX 

1230 WBLQ, Westerly, RI 04/13 2147 EDT - LUCKY YOU UOU LISTEN TO BLQ followed by an oldie about San Francisco. Huge signal, slightly on top, some stereo separation, but a good deal of platform motion on the Sony CFS-6000 from Chris Cuff and the PK passive mediumwave tunable loop ordered from Australia, from Paul Karlstrand. My best domestic DX catche on a graveyard channel ! Am I the only one to get graveyard DX in C-QUAM STEREO when and where available ? I also get from time to time WIKE in Newport, VT on 1490 kHz C-QUAM even though they are close tot he VT/NH border ! (BC-QC)

89.1 KMUW Wichita Public Radio, Wichita, KS 05/10 1900 EDT (and 1800 CDT) - the legal ID came through and I knew it was definitively sporadic E I was witnessing. Exciting and slightly frustrating, as despite this nice catche only a religious station on 88.3 stayed there long enough for enjoyment. Nothing definite above 92 MHz where IDs are more frequent during this first of the season Friday afternoon opening ! (BC-QC)

90.7 unID 05/10 1150 - reggae music fading in and out of CBOF Ottawa. Sounded like some weak Es was preparing to hit the Montreal area. Heard in the car radio ! unID ! (BC-QC)

93.1 unID K-something 05/11 1520 EDT - playing One Republic music and saying You are listening to K---, your number one hit music station ! Good with intense splatter from WEZF 92.9 on our DX unfriendly car radio. WEZF is not even a true local, but a SEMI-local to speak of... Any ideas ? (BC-QC)

93.3 05/11 1528 - playing rock music for 1 or 2 minutes above tropo scatter from Quebec City which had Niagara French oldschool alternative rock.... Didn`t stayed here long enough for any details, but seemed to me it was Es ! (BC-QC) 

Additional comments:

A very nice dude in Mauritius Island who lived several years in the late 1980s in Paris is about to help me finding Aventure FM 105.9 MHz airchecks so I`m not too worried about this radio broadcast anymore, as much I was in the past.

Also, strictly more DX wise, I want your opinion on the Tecsun PL-310.... This receiver had a very directionnal telescopic antenna. When not properly oriented it can make strong semi-locals sound like fringy monaural signals and some not so strong ones sound a bit fringy. I can get stations I normally only hear them in the car radio, but with less or no splatter.... Practically now, when KMUW-89.1 was coming through, I fired a Sony XFD-S05 portable and was treated with almost nothing but noise and slight CISM splatter. On the Tecsun, however, they came reasonably clear with occasional ST peaks. By the way, I tested about twice a Grundig G8 or an Eton something which is a dual conversion receiver and it is the only thing that surpasses albeit slightly this Tecsun. Why ? Because it doesn`t mute to MONO when the signal is weak, a feature I do not necessarily enjoy since I am used to weak stereo signals. Last but not least, can a DSP technology that maximise the signal-to-noise ratio and filtering with a Tecsun and dir. telescopic antenna enough to surpass 2 element or 4 element Yagi ? I was really impressed as NO other receiver in our house picked up KMUW, not even the Sony XFD-S05 which dealt pretty well with the splatter of CISM though, albeit not perfectly.

So that`s it for now ! As time is available, recordings of the 89.1 and 93.1 MHz skip targets will be posted to some of you, but I need some feed back first... According to the Internet, I do not see any other mention of an FM e-skip opening May 10, so I assume it was indeed a fairly weak one !

73, may the good DX be with you !
Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu
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