Warm greetings to all of you ! I have been hit by grippis since barely past a week, so aside from a rather limited DX (with, coincidentally, some of the most mediocre condx noted this season, at least as far as LW and MW TAs go), I couldn't see my girlfriend and I'm late with several works for school. As I'm writing this repport, I still have some cough to deal with.
I'm report mainly to keep in touch (especially since I rejoined the NRC - National Radio Club), since there wasn't really something to get excited with, this time, NO exception. I can't think, right the top of my head, of one single more elusive catche I may have caught during the past few weeks. We are approaching the end of the traditionnal MW DX season and, like usually around the equinoxes, some auroral enhancement can always bring unexpected DX from the south on top of North American pests, as far as mediumwave DX is concerned. On SW, I tryed in vain to get XEOI Radio Mil, and only got a jumble containing 1 or maybe 2 Spanish signals with nothing even close to Mexican Radio Mil (on 6010 kHz). On LW, this must have been the worst run of conditions, since I got the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop. We are seriously considering buying a similar loop for mediumwave, as for having a backup combo to the Sanyo-MCD-S830 barefoot and also for getting more DX in the 800-1000 kHz range area where the Sanyo MCD-S830 sucks (sorry for such a harsh word against my favorite receiver) ! Into the logs now: Trans-Atlantic DX The LW TAs were heard on the Sangean CST-818 / PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop combo ! The SW TAs were heard on the Sangean CST-818 / shortwave southern random wire combo ! 162 FRANCE France Inter, Allouis FEB 21 around 0350 - Woman in French. Fair-poor, not threshold, but still too mushy with all the additional slight, albeit annoying buzz, to understand. Steady though. SINPO 35332. Almost surprised to get this one under such mediocre ionospheric conditions ! (Chiochiu-QC) 171 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador FEB 17 2305 - Assumed with barely noticeable audio. Very, very weak with some growl from computers in the neighborhood (not our own). Of course, during such mediocre conditions, logging Russia-171 would be unthinkable and Russia-171 and Morocco-171 are the only signals that are reported in eastern North America on this channel with the probable exception of a LowFER ! (Chiochiu-QC) 183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg FEB 21 0605 - with repport from a psychoveterinary who was trying to understand the animal's feelings. Good through some slight buzz. SINPO 35354. The only longwave broadcaster to reach the Montreal area with, at least, a half-decent signal ! I got to understand that animal's feelings issue, because the signal was in French, not in German. In fact, until 1981, in France (as well as in most of Europe), private radio was illegal. If you were caught running a radio station (a pirate one in this case), the Police will be visiting your home in less than a hour. They were continuously monitoring the whole LW, MW, SW and VHF FM spectrum for that purpose ! So, a few guys had the bright idea of running private radio from neighboring countries such as Luxembourg, Germany or Monaco and in the case of other European countries, from aboard a ship out in the International Seas ! While the latter one is known as being an offshore pirate, the former one is known as being a "radio périphérique". Otherwise, I have quite some trouble with my German, as I missed the class last Friday and I did not do yet the small homework for the private German teacher I see twice each month ! (Chiochiu-QC) 189 ICELAND Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskalar FEB 21 0607 - Assumed this usual blaster with music and talk heard weakly. (Chiochiu-QC) 198 ENGLAND BBC Radio 4, Droitwich FEB 21 0603 - Man talking in British-accented English. When the PK's Shielded Magnetic longwave loop was set to amplify 198 kHz, while attenuating everything below and above, including nearby 201, the local beacon on 201 kHz went unreadable (even though it's in Morse which is known for cutting through all sorts of QTM c.f. Cuban Radio Reloj) as this one violently overspilled 3 kHz above ! Fair and mushy and unreadable for me, as I'm not QUITE as fluent in English, as I am in French, Romanian and, to a lesser extent, Spanish, though sounded vaguely like a weather repport, as I barely picked out 1 or 2 words out of the mush ! Not // ZIZ-555 (BBC Radio 4 realays BBC World Service overnight) anymore at this time ! (Chiochiu-QC) 9575 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador FEB 20 2014 - with a nice set of traditionnal Arabic music, very monotonous but full of monotonous, yet emotional fullfilling powerful vocal harmonies. Fair-good until killed by some powerful buzz around 2020 that ruined several LW, MW and SW frequencies. I'm not as much into shortwave as I was several years ago, but after seeing on YouTube some videos of Romanian FM DXers catching Middle Eastersn stations via sporadic-E layer skip, my appetite caught on ! The LW outlet on 171 kHz was very threshold at best during the past few listening sessions ! SINPO 33543 ,with some splatter from 9570 rather than from the rather weak Gabon-9580 signal from which I sucessfully escapted by swithching to 9576 kHz in AM Narrow Mode instead of 9575 kHz in AM Wide Mode, until the buzz appeared at 2020 UTC (1520 EST / 3:20 PM local). Was DXing this semi-regular North African shortwave broadcaster mainly because I was absent from school last Friday due to the cough ! (Chiochiu-QC) 9580 GABON Africa Numéro Un, Moyabi FEB 20 2015 - briefly tuned to this one as to see the source of splatter against Morocco-9575 and found it at a rather weakish strength before it got completly killed by an awful buzz at 2022 UTC (3:22 PM local / 1522 Eastern Standard Time). The rather weak strength of this powerhouse enabled me to listen to Medi Un 9575 very slightly detuned to 9576 kHz in AM Narrow Mode ! (Chiochiu-QC) Pan-American DX 555 ST KITTS ZIZ, Basseterre FEB 21 0608 - running BBC WS feed ! Fair-good with British nx announcer talking about the foreign reaction to the politics managed by Russian president Dmitri Mvedevev. Not // 198 which was obviously running the domestic BBC Radio 4 broadcast rather than the BBC World Service one ! I'm surprised to get this run-of-the-mil Caribbean outlet during such abysnal conditions toward all directions ! (Chiochiu-QC) 780 VENEZUELA YVNM, Radio Coro, estado Falcón FEB 15 0047 - Presumed with melodic ranchera vocal heard at a poor-fair level with splatter from local CJAD-800 that was playing music on Saturday night. If them, this is the first showing of this Venezuelan powerhouse in over a month ! Mexican ranchera is very popular in Venezuela as well and often heard on this station, so I'm not even claming Mexican XEMF in Monclava. This was almost certainly this old visitor, Radio Coro, which I'm enjoying right now, as I type this, with special Carnaval programming over their website at http://www.radiocoro.com/ ! Is Colombia still on 780 kHz ? I never heard HJZG La Voz del Valle in Cali (a Todelar station) or even HJZW Radio Almirante in Riohacha ? In some corners of eastern North America, during the mid-90s, Radio Almirante used to be slightly more commun than Radio Coro on 780 kHz, right ? Why are they missing nowadays ? (Chiochiu-QC) 1070 SOUTH AMERICA unID country and station FEB 15 0055 - Spanish-sounding music and talk heard at a very threshold level with very slight splash from WTIC-1080 wich, thanksfully, is keeping their IBOC crud silent at night ! In the latest DX News issue, I see Radio Santa Fé (HJCG) reported by Chris Black in South Yarmouth, MA (Massachussets for the non-DXers out there who are receiving this message as well) on Cape Cod which I heard only once before, just like the two other commonly reported South Americans: Emisora Atlantico (HJIJ) out of Barranquilla and Mundial Zulia (YVMA) out of Maracaibo, estado Zulia from which a nice real-audio clip was posted by me several years ago on the excellent LatinMWDX Yahoo! group ! That being said, domestic North American WNCT in Greenville, NC (North Carolina - Bogdan) is also remotely possible, though the very weak music didn't sound Mexican, as far as I can remember (didn't had tape running as this very threshold signal quickly faded away). (Chiochiu-QC) Additionnal comments: I went through the whole last DX News last issue and noticed a big mistake ! As the Boston area pirate on 1710 kHz got heard by Bruce Conti, he commented that compas music is the Haitian equivalent of AFRICAN zouk music (?). This is almost totally wrong ! Zouk music came from the overseas FRENCH departments of Martinica, Guadelupa and French Guyana. The first zouk album LOVE AND KA DANCE by Kassav', recorded in 1979 and received by the public somewhere in December of 1979 or January of 1980 was recorded in Guadelupa and Martinica and has more Caribbean roots than African ones (though it has a few and enjoy a huge amount of popularity in Western African nations such as Congo and used to be HUGE in the Ivory Coast, before they replied with their afro-zouk equivalent more precisely known as "coupé-décallé" which is a blend of Afro-zouk and traditionnal Western African melodies) ! While there are a few African ZOUK artists out there, they almost always copy the FRENCH CARIBBEAN TRUE ZOUK MUSIC. If you'd like to hear some great ZOUK music, please try to check out Battery Crémil, Eric Brouta, Eric Virgal (not quite as good as the former ones, but very typical of classic zouk-love; which is a slower extremely popular variation of ZOUK music), Tanya Saint-Val (AWESOME voice, vocals and songs !), Zouk Look, Zouk Machine, Kassav' (the godfathers of Zouk !), David et Corinne (a borther-and-sister duo who play more original ZOUK-LOVE than the rahter unsinspired and generic zouk-love singer ERIC VIRGAL), Edith Lefel (which died from a heart attack in January of 2003 - he was popular between 1984 and 2002 releasing ALMOST year after year some astonishingly great records), Harry Diboula, Thierry Cham, Cyrielle (a new one, not as good as the oldschool "zouk rétro" artists) and several ones... I used to be a big fan of zouk music, though my musical tastes changed over time, and I get insulted by people affirming zouk comes from Africa and not GUADELUPA or MARTINICA where, when one gets bored with zouk, tends to enjoy Haitian kompas as well... One tend to forget the overseas FF departments ! In fact, zouk is a mixture of kompas, calypso, urban African music (to a small extent !) and American funky music with, originally, a mixture of traditional and electric instruments, even though nowadays the artistical part of zouk is gone and artists such as CYRIELLE, JEAN-MARIE RINGALD, SLAï and most of the other ones, are seeking for money and fame rather than artistic accomplishments... Also, if you want to check some kompas, try for ZENGLEN, GARCIA REIZA, SWEET MICKEY, DAAN JUNIOR, TOP VICE, T-VICE, DJAKOUT MUZIK, MISTY JEAN, ALAN CAVé, ZIN, BLACK PARENTS and for FUNKY KOMPAS -> ZEKLE (which means lightning in French creole) and if you like old-school kompas which sounds like a polished version of Dominican merengue, try for TABOU COMBO (70's). Prior to the 70's, during the 50s and 60s, kompas sounded fairly close to the Venezuelan "orchestras bailables" of Los Melodícos and, especially, Billo's Caracas Boys, so if you want to check some pre-Tabou Combo, please try for Coupé Cloué, Les Shleus, Shleus and, especially, the legendary Tropicana d'Haïti... L'Orchestre Tropicana / Tropicana d'Haïti is definitively a Haitian version of Billo's Caracas Boys ! I play lots of French Caribbean music at the college radio station from both Haiti and Guadelupa ! I used to be really into both zouk and kompas, though mostly into the former one, as kompas isn't catchy enough. Some salsa and cumbia tropical songs or trad. gaita ones are way more catchy than most of the kompas, though a few kompas are borderline catchy with some pretty amazing melodies ! Another good news for those on the west coast still reading me is that while WTIC-1080 has learned to keep their IBOC crud off at night, KNX-1070 has quickly learned to do the same ! Nothing to do with DXing properly, as WTIC is directionnal NORTH-SOUTH to protect KRLD in Dallas, Texas (on the same channel), but if the trend continues I may once again hear HJKH RCN Antena Dos on 650 on a semi-regular basis. Just wait for co-channel WSM to learn complaiining about nighttime secondary coverage areas stolen by WFAN-660 ! If I wasn't that sick with cough et al, I would have wrote a complaint to the FCC regarding WSM/HJKH-650, but for the next few days, doing this is beyond me, as I'm quite lazy ! Last, but certainly not least, I had the warm pleasure of receiving a phone call from one of Ontario's top-notch FM/TV DXers (and also a mediumwave "zealot" - is that word appropiate for that circumstance ?), Saul Chernos, before heading to Bahamas with a great receiver along with his Radio Shack loop ! BOGDAN SPEAKS: Saul Chernos was calling the operator and asked for Chiochiu in Montreal and there wasn't any, but the operator was nice enough to suggest him to try for Pierrefonds, the western suburb where I live, so he came upon me. This was just before the grippis ! We had talked for several minutes with a huge amount of pleasure... The TV DX issue was particularly serious, as he is better equiped than me, I do have a Yagi antenna since a few months, but do not have a sensitive low-VHF tuner anymore for double-hop Sporadic E TV DXing. I broke the TV telecommand during the chemo, as my father was insulting myself for vomiting (my father is a bit narcisistic !) and the Magnasonic TV tuner was put to the garbage, because one couldn;t change the channels anymore. For FM, it's a different story ! The newly purchased Degen 1103 which overloads badly on both long and mediumwave is great on both SW and FM ! Since Venezuela is about 2400 miles from Montreal, it is definitively within 2Es range from me, so I could always get the most powerful signals using the Degen 1103 whip on FM and then, connected to the soundcard, make .WAV and / or MP3 files of those... We also had a lengthy talk about mediumwave DX. Since during excellent TA condx of December, 2008, I had audio from Algeria-549 trying to break through the weak adjacent North American signals on 550 kHz with CHLN gone forever, I suggested him to try for that one from Bahamas, which is slightly closer to Algeria than Montreal... I don't know if he had the time to write it down in the logbook, though I gladly hope he had at least a poor signal out of this Algerian blaster ! Very warm, we spent almost a half-hour talking... Too bad, we didn't DX althogether, or we would have had the chance to hear both that very weak elusive Latin on 1070 kHz mediumwave which is the only SLIGHTLY, ALBEIT DEFINITIVELY more interesting catche among that ugly repport ! There is also Cuba on 1070 kHz. Saul Chernos is a great journalist with a great deal of experience and he may come to Montreal another time for analysing an important event or something like that... As far as DXing in group, I had two friends, an older Québécois one and a Colombian one with whom I DXed, two occasions with each, during the 2008-2009 winter holidays and in less-than-stellar conditions, we did hear a few things of interest; it was, nevertheless, a good introduction to what can be heard on AM. The Colombian friend almost couldn't believe I had the Colombia-760 signal so huge (back in early January, 2009) using a normal radio and I have him a CD recording containing an MP3 file converted from the HJAJ-760 tape. Me and Saul Chernos, also talked about the ultralight receivers (the Degen 1103 is one of them!) and about the Newfoundland DXpedition. What can I do in order to attend a DXpedition ? I have been on and off DXing, with the same amount of enthousiasm on peaks, such as now, since 2000 and a DXpedition for someone young like me would be such an awesome adventure ! Since Chernos is also an NRCer and I hope to see his Bahamas repport in the next DX News's IDXD issue ! I really hope, that in Bahamas, thanks to it's coastal situation and, in spite of the huge amount of Cuban QRM, one could get some South American, African and, who knows, south-western European (i.e. France and Spain) MEDIUMWAVE DX with some nice reception quality ! I'm not only curious to read the Saul Chernos's results from Bahamas, I can't wait !!! Is the Radio Shack Saul Chernos suing THAT good ? I mostly heard bad things about it, it is cheap, it's nulling abilities are poor and can't compare even with a Select-A-tenna. For myself, during our next trip, I'll take a magnetic loop... Is a MW magnetic loop quite good, even though it's inferior to a LW magnetic loop ? Is a MW magnetic loop SLIGHTLY worse than a Beverage or WAY MUCH worse than a Beverage ! I heard from an old DX friend in British Colombia that a longwave magnetic loop is better than the average Beverage, but on mediumwave it's a different story. To what extent, it is worse than a Beverage ? We are heading for Romania in a few months, toward the end of May, after cé-gep ends and, then, I may see a completly different perspective on DXing from my own country, I place where I did some DXing when I was young, nut very casual and uninspired as you can imagine DXing from a brick house or on the 4th floor of a builiding with concrete walls and ceiling, you would get just some 500 kW short-skip nighttime mediumwave signals from the neighboring countries, nothing to really get excited like the Pan American DX and, to a lesser extent, Trans Atlantic DX I'm used to enjoy from here that captivated my attention since the past few years. But, there is the possibility of DXing from outdoors, i.e.: from a park ! I will try to get in contact with some of Romania's top DXers during the course of the several weeks, as my health improves ! {END OF THE BOGDAN SPEAKS part} I have nothing to add anymore, time to get back to DXing or fighting against that damned grippis ! This repport is brought to you by Bogan Chiochiu DXing from Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada DXing using the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot and the Sangean CST-818 along with the PK's Shielded Magnetic LW loop for longwave and the random wire (along with the same Sangean rx) for shortwave ! May the good DX be with you ! Bogdan Chiochiu Btw.: Coming soon, my ratings for this season, as far as LAs and TAs are concerned ! ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2009: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2009 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. 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