Warm greetings to all of you !
I have been buzy lately either with preparing invitations for my birthday
party (even so I forgot to call several times a music-minded Peruvian girl
to ensure she will attend my party and I feel ashamed which is why I decided
to write down my logs in order to try forgeting such an upset misunderstood
situation) or chatting with some highly charismatic Venezuelan DXers using
SKYPE. Another reason for my lack of any DXing is that I have highly
annoying high-pitched growl on 172 kHz terribly offending reception of
Morocco's Medi Un (171) that seems to originate from our neighbor's house
(who are on vacation). It can be nulled with the PK LW loop perpendicular to
the North-East, but the Morocco's signal is somewhat weaker. That being
said, it isn't as weak as I have thought, because the directionnal pattern
of Nador-171 is NNW which means some of it signal manages to scatter toward
the northeast of my QTH, even though the correct bearing from Montreal to
Nador (Morocco) is SSE not NE !
That being said, I reactivated last night and I must say I'm impressed with
the 150-450 kHz LW loop... The connector cable was included, so I didn't
need to purchase it the past few days... Another thing to mention: it
amplifies the 153 kHz TA channel properly, though only some moderate hum
could be heard on this channel ! I have some severe noises issues between
198 and 279 kHz meaning I didn't log RMC Info 216 kHz lately... In addition
to those, I'm get a severe high-pitched growl on 234 kHz so unless it stops
during the next few weeks, it would be a while before I relog RTL !
Enough chatter, into the logs:
Trans-Atlantic DX
162 FRANCE France Inter, Allouis JUL 18 0305 - playing one of the latest
Vanessa Paradis tracks, then interview with her. She told she dislike
jolidays on the beach and what she enjoys the most is the performance on
stage... Good signal but static scracthes made readability so-so. This was
the only LW signal that happened to be on a clear frequency without growl
and noises from hte neighborhood downstairs at this late time, while
Germany-183 had already faded out ! (Chiochiu-QC)
171 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador JUL 18 0255 - woman host of an Arabic music
program containing mostly plaintive Egyptian religious vocals. Very good at
times. Best on 169 kHz in AM WIDE Mode with the PK LW loop perpendicular to
the north-east / south-west which is not too bad as 171 Nador has a NNW
directionnal pattern meaning some of its signal manages to scatter toward
the north-east of my QTH. I took my battery powered Sangean ACS 818-CST
along with the PK LW loop and just came to the other side of the road and
this station was QRM-free ! (Chiochiu-QC)
183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg JUL 18 0210 - carrying French Top 50
memories... Noted at a fair, but very clear level, S3 out of S7 on the
Sangean's reading meter ! (Chiochiu-QC)
189 ICELAND Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskalar JUL 18 0240 - Tentative with very
weak audio; the first sign of a darkness path of any kind between Montreal
and Gufuskalar ! During the month of June, the only Trans-Atlantic darkness
path allowing Icelandic DX is between Newfoundland and Gufuskalar, because
of the proximity ! (Chiochiu-QC)
198 unID JUL 17 0315 - with man talk. Very threhsold and very noisy, both
man-made and a huge amount of static scratches from a nearby thunderstorm !
Could be unlogged Algeria ! (Chiochiu-QC)
9575 MOROCCO Medi Un, Nador JUL 17 2250 - fair with splatter from 9580 and
9570 kHz; with mostly plaintive Egyptian vocals, religious in nature. When
the darkness path between Morocco and Montreal is viable, LW 171 kHz often
fares better than SW 9575 kHz, as far as its signal strength goes !
(Chiochiu-QC)
11820 SAUDI ARABIA BS Of the Kingdom, Jiddah and / or Riadh JUL 18 2108 -
Fair with koranic male chanting. SINPO 35433. I will be happy when I will be
able to identify them on 594 kHz. 1521 would be impossible given my
equipment, the relative lack of selectivity, WWKB-1520 QRM and, to a lesser
extent, local splatter from overmodulated CFAV-1570. +JUL 18 2122 - SINPO
45533 right now with Koranic chanting ! +JUL 18 2126 - going into a prayer,
then back into Koranic chanting at 2130 GMT with the same SINPO ! +JUL 18
2131 - with a prayer in the form of speech ! (Chiochiu-QC)
Pan-American DX
750 VENEZUELA YVKS, Radio Caracas Radio, Caracas, Distrito Federal JUL 17
0320 - man talking about FM listening issues. Very poor and difficult to
follow with QRM from both WSB in Atlanta and a nearby thunderstorm in my
neck of the woods ! (Chiochiu-QC)
760 COLOMBIA HJAJ, RCN Cadena Basíca, Barranquilla JUL 18 0720 - carrying
CNN audio feed in Spanish. They talked about the Latin American countries
with the fewer cases of swine flu. Bolivia was among them. Good in a
difficult WJR null. (Chiochiu-QC)
780 VENEZUELA YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, Falcón JUL 18 0625 - carrying Ruta
Musical 7-80 with some great cumbias that were taped. More on that later for
the followers of the LatinMWDX group ! SINPO 42232 in and out of splatter
from both CIGM-790 and WABC-770 that were local-like; not much annoyance
from local CJAD-800 though. Dear Bruce, this one isn't in Distrito Federal,
but in Falcón which is another Venezuelan "estado". Instead of virtually
inventing logs of Ecuadorian or Peruvian outlets, why not try to consider
each YV estado a new spot on a map rather than a new station from the same
old country ? Mexican estados are allowed as seperate and DISTINCT targets
on IDXD ! Why not do the same with Venezuelan "estados" ? (Chiochiu-QC)
Additional comments:
I have a severe case of noises on several spots on LW, MW and even SW since
several months... Now it has jumped from 162 to 171 kHz leaving France Inter
in the clear but burrying Medi Un... It seams to come out of our neighbor's
backyard, as I did some testing the last night with the radio in the dark !
Any hints on how to solve this awful issue I have with DXing ? On MW, I
can't DX anymore 570, 770, 900 (where I had Cuba a few weeks ago), 1100,
1110 in addition to those channels swamped by awful IBOC hash such as 650
and 670 ! At least WABC is keping its IBOC crud at night, but the growl from
powerlines or guess what other noise factor is destroying WABC-770 (which is
almost local-like here), while leaving 760 and 780 in the clear with just
some adjacent channel splatter from locals or local-like pests !
I have powerline hum between 198 and 279 on LW, which is why I DX mostly the
frequencies below 200 kHz ! What should I say to our neighbors, dear DXers ?
I'm going to walk the dog, but hope to comeback before the Middle Eastern SW
broadcasters switch off their entertaining outlets !
This report is brought to you by Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu, DXing from
Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada using a Sanyo MCD-S830
/ PK AM LOOP combo, a Sangean ACS 818-CST / C-LOOP HDSM 150-450 kHz LW
Shielded Magnetic loop combo and a Grundig G5 / random wire connected to a
broken Yagi antenna combo
May the good DX be with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu
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