AM broadcast band logs since the beginning of October
Report from:
Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu
4190 Edward Higgins
Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada
H8Y 3M9
Equipment: Sanyo MCD-S830 portable w/ internal ferrite bar antenna
Sangean CST-818
2002 Mazda Protégé's car-radio w/ whip antenna
Foreign DX (times in UTC):
Trans-Atlantic DX
585 SPAIN, Radio Nacional de España, Madrid OCT 15 0245 - w/ great flamenco
music program. Time pips at :00, then jingle w/ woman saying "Radio Nacional de
España; Informativo !" then man w/ "Buenos Dias." and American political news
like the fight against poverty. Very good on peaks with minor slops; my best
reception of this and my best TA reception right now ! (Chiochiu-QC)
1134 SPAIN, COPE, synchros OCT 19 0335 - Tentative; man in Spanish, woman
vocal. Noted rap at 0341. Extremely poor reception with 1130 splash and
high-frequency triring growl. Expected Croatia from Mike Beu tip, but got this
one instead ! (Chiochiu-QC)
1215 ENGLAND, Virgin Radio OCT 16 0020 - end of an apparent soft-rock tune,
then woman in British accented English with mention of "Goo Goo Dolls" and "two
twenty" time check. Weak-fair signal strenghts. With WPHT-1210 nulled, most of
the slops were from 1220. No ID, but what else could this have been ?
(Chiochiu-QC)
Pan-American DX
526 BAHAMAS, ZLS, Stella Maris OCT 17 around 0100 - Morse Code IDs, fair to
weak. (Chiochiu-QC)
530 TURKS AND CAICOS, RVCI, Caicos NOV 15 2250 - Already good at this early
time ! Played a really great cumbia tune about love at 2255, 5 minutes before 6
PM local followed by a gospel tune about "la misecordia de Dios" (at least it
didn't mentioned Jesus Christ, the masochist) during which I tuned away.
(Chiochiu-QC)
535 GRENADA, GBC, St. George's NOV 07 0335 - Tentative w/ political talk; lost
to RVC-530 splatter at 0338. + NOV 15 2250 - already in w/ weak and distorted
reception. (Chiochiu-QC)
540 ECUADOR, HCFA2, Radio Tropicana, Guayaquil NOV 07 0346 ??? - "Tropicana"
and "Tropical" mentions followed by salsa music, some guitar based oldies
(which I thought to be pasillos but where clearly part of 60's English song and
of domestic origin). Briefly in mixing w/ 1 or 2 domestics, in CBEF null. Is
"Tropical" part of a Tropicana's slogan or spot or have I heard something else
? Maybe Bjorn Malm (hi Bjorn !) can check this out from Ecuador ? (Chiochiu-QC)
550 VENEZUELA, YVKE, Caracas, DF NOV 06 around 0500 - Good and fadey on top of
partly nulled CHLN w/ talk about "la revolución Bolivariana", music (tropical
dance and salsa romantica) and YVKE jingle between 1 Latin dance and 1 romantic
salsa tune. This jingle will be posted on LatinMWDX within a few days. New,
Venezuela #12, Distrito Federal #5 ! This would have been an old friend if I
didn't had CHLN as a problem. (Chiochiu-QC)
555 ST KITTS, ZIZ, Basseterre - Noted each night on this first week of November
! (i.e. NOV 04 0104 Fair w/ non-stop soca music.). NOV 15 2214 - Already in w/
soca at a rather poor, but LISTENABLE level. My EARLIEST reception of this
station ! (Chiochiu-QC)
560 CUBA, Radio Rebelde NOV 04 0230 - New with programming // 670, 5025 others
! (Chiochiu-QC)
570 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, HIMS Radio Cristal, Santo Domingo NOV 04 0115 -
Presumed w/ Meringue music in mess with WMCA and Cuban Reloj. + NOV 05 0152 -
0203 - Noted again w/ meringue and for a longer amount of time than on NOV 04,
but the possible ID was buried in the Cuba/WMCA mix. (Chiochiu-QC)
570 CUBA, CMEA Radio Reloj, Pilon NOV 04 0155+ - Noted at a poor level in mix
with much stronger WMCA and presumed HIMS. Only the code was getting well, the
talk was essentially incomprehensible. (Chiochiu-QC)
580 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, HIAF Radio Monte Cristi NOV 04 0118 (pres.) -Reagge
followed by a great sad bachata tune. Good in mess. Presumed from having heard
it on the car-radio in the fall of 2003. (Chiochiu-QC)
580 CUBA, Radio Rebelde NOV 06 before 0200 - In // with 5025. New !
(Chiochiu-QC)
580 PUERTO RICO, WKAQ, San Juan NOV 15 0614 - Presumed w/ talk-show about
natural medicine. Strong. Faded away at 0617. (Chiochiu-QC)
590 CUBA, CMHI, Radio Rebelde, Santa Clara NOV 12 0320 - Cuban music // 600,
610, 670 and obviously others. New ! (Chiochiu-QC)
600 CUBA, CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norris NOV 05 0006 - mentioning
broadcasting on several frequencies on "onda media" and "onda corta . 5025 kHz
en la banda de sesenta metros" during the Estación perfecta para la noche pgm.
Often good reception, but transmitter seem slightly defective, as there is
always a slight growl with this one. (Chiochiu-QC)
600 unID LA NOV 02 0320 - Excited woman in Spanish way under Rebelde about this
time. I logged Nicaragua here in 2003 and Dominican Republic was regularly
heard testing here too in late December 2002 and early 2003 until February.
(Chiochiu-QC)
610 CUBA, Radio Rebelde NOV 12 0523 - Way under WIP, in CHNC null w/ Cuban
cha-cha-cha music // strong 600 and surprisingly 590 (pretty good, but w/ lots
of co-channel QRM). (Chiochiu-QC)
640 VENEZUELA, YVQO, Unión Radio, Puerto La Cruz, estado Anzoátegui NOV 17
2320-2323 - Presumably audible for this 3 minute slot w/ the beginning of a
Venezuelan baseball game. By 2323 UTC faded under WNNZ / others. (Chiochiu-QC)
670 VENEZUELA, YVLL, Radio Rumbos, Caracas, DF NOV 10 0338 - doorbells noted
under WWFE as Radio Rebelde took a fade, in WSCR null. + NOV 16 0317 -
Noti-Rumbos in heavy QRM from CMQ-670 and adjacent channel splatter from
WFAN-660. QRM from 2nd adjacent channel local powerhouse CINF almost not
noticed at all this time though because the skywave signals were too strong.
(Chiochiu-QC)
710 CUBA, Radio Rebelde - audible every night over/under WOR; mostly over
though. Sometimes more reliable than 670 and 5025. (Chiochiu-QC)
740 unID NOV 15 0240 - Piano music and Man in Spanish briefly through residual
CHWO and semi-nulled CKAC splatter. (Chiochiu-QC)
750 VENEZUELA, YVKS, RCR, Caracas, DF NOV 03 2323 - Talking about a baseball
team w/ 9 victories and 2 looses. Fairly good, then overtaked by WSB at 2325
for a minute then rose atop again at 2326 w/ "RCR" ID and mention of "equipo"
followed by polite ID "Usted escuche RCR 750 Palabra, esta radio" followed by
more talk from the man that gave the polite ID. WSB at 2328, but underneath
YVKS grew stronger again at 2329 for a few seconds, then back to the dominance
of WSB. NOV 15 2256 - Talk-show about corruption, getting quite good. Already
trying to break through WSB at 2250. (Chiochiu-QC)
760 COLOMBIA, HJAJ, RCN Baranquilla NOV 05 0055 - Ads, over llanera music
station (YVQQ ?) followed by sports news "RCN presenta la información
deportiva.RCN Cadena Basica". Poor + NOV 05 0125 "nuestra radio RCN, La radio
de Colombia" jingle, then fútbol talk followed by "RCN el ultimo en succeso"
spot. Good to excellent now with no QRM in WJR's null. Very often, I have a
high-pitched growl on this channel, probably of local origin. (Chiochiu-QC)
760 CUBA, CMCD Radio Reloj, Guanabacoa NOV 05 0047 - RR code under Colombia.
Also had children's music of unID origin (probably the same station I have sent
recording to Henrik Klemetz and José Elias Diaz a few years ago) mixing with
Cuba/Colombia in WJR null at this time. (Chiochiu-QC)
770 CUBA, Radio Rebelde NOV 06 0047 - Spanish romantic music slightly behind
WABC, // 5025. Never heard or even have heard of a Cuban outlet on this
frequency before ! (Chiochiu-QC)
780 VENEZUELA, YVNM, Radio Coro, Coro, estado Falcón NOV 03 0245 - My best-ever
reception of this w/ great llanera music back-to-back w/ TCs between the tunes.
The most relevant one (because it is more than just a time-check) is "Radio
Coro dando la hora: diez cincuenta y tres minutes (music started) toda la
musíca creolla en Radio Coro 7-80" followed by a beautifool emotional female
llanera harp vocal. Continued like this until 0300 when I hear a full IDs
announcement and promo for non-stop music program "Ruta Musical 7-80"
(partially readable because the signal faded down from almost excellent at
tune-in to weak and a little bit fluttery along w/ the moderate local CJAD-800
splatter). Surfaced again to somewhere between the good and very good marks
(weaker than at 0145) at 0318 w/ romantic salsa tune, then usual TC, jingle
"Radio Coro 7-80 (por en vivo ?)" and tropical pop song "Pideme" started w/ man
over the intro of it saying "Más y más música en Radio Coro 7-80 AM" followed
by a romantic boy-band mid-tempo modern AC song. During the Adult Contemp.
record reception got really poor.
Peaked again to a nice level at 0355 w/ romatic salsa record "No Me
Acostumbro", then full IDs: "Radio Coro 7-80 . como la autentica emisóra del
grand pueblo falconiano, del gran pueblo falconiano, con mas presencia en las
comunidades, más avances y programas informativos, espacios para todo y todo
opinion (entonces ?) y la música que todos quere escuchar, todos quere
escuchar", music samples, "Radio Coro 7-80 AM adelante !" followed by more
music samples wich included reaggeton hit "Lo Que Paso, Paso" (entre tu y yo)
by Daddy Yankee. "Arriva con la programacion mas completa y variada de la radio
falconiana ! (more music samples) "En el hogar, en la oficina, en taxis
particulares y en todas partes es siempre la señal 7-80 de Radio Coro, Radio
Coro." "Potencia, cobertura, sintonia y precisión radial, Radio Coro, 7-80 .
reafirmando (inconfundible ?) primer lugar de sintonia en Falcon" then short
familiar interlude, another short announcement (essentially unreadable),
"escucha Radio Coro" jingle which lead to the "Imno Nacional de la Republica
Bolivariana de Venezuela" with "música de Juan José Gandaeta". After the YV
anthem, promo music started w/ man over it "Desde Coro, ciúdad capital de
estado Falcon, patrimonio cultural y historico de la humanidad, transmite en
amplitud modulada Radio Coro 7-80 con 20 mil vatios de potencia . . transmisora
. municipio Miranda . . Falcon, isles del Caribe y el mundo, Radio Coro
patrimonio de la comunidad". "Desde esto momento, está en el aire (pause) Ruta
Músical 7-80 . . . . alegre con musica . mañana por Radio Coro 7-80 A-M." then
non-stop Latin music of various styles like romantic, cumbia, etc in and out
until I decided to go sleeping. + NOV 05 0030 with "La Discoteca del Pueblo"
pgm of apparent modern cumbia music with an almost excellent signal (until
about 0035 when it begun fading away) and moderate to severe local splatter. +
NOV 15 0407 - Break in bloc of llanera music w/ "Por Radio Coro, 7-80 AM, 24
hóras con tu señal en el aire". Good for a few minutes despite local CJAD on
800. + NOV 18 0455 - Music, short ID and time-check. Briefly at a nice level.
It's the first season I get them so regularly: always nice to listen to
Venezuelan local radio from as many "estados" as possible ! (Chiochiu-QC)
890 CUBA, CMDZ, Radio Progreso, Chambas NOV 15 0415 - w/ Nocturno pgm of
variated music, mainly in Spanish and mainly romantic or pop styles. Program
announcements at :30 included web-sites www.radioprogreso.cu
www.radioprogreso.com.cu. At 0500, after theme song and canned ID, a propaganda
pgm against George W. Bush started. Good, sometimes excellent ! (Chiochiu-QC)
900 MEXICO, XEW, Ciudad de Mexico NOV 05 0348 - ". Noticias Doble U" and "Doble
U Radio" IDs atop channel with fair reception, then after 0350 UTC overtaked by
a Radio Progreso outlet (CMKP Cacocúm) wich was at times stronger than the 890
//. Not bad considering my radio isn't super at the top of the "low-band" and
Mexicans are so tough to hear here in Montreal ! Also noted metions of Montreal
coming from the CJAD relay in Sherbrooke for a new domestic catche mixing with
these two Latins. (Chiochiu-QC)
910 CUBA, CMFA Radio Cadena Agramonte, Camagüey / YVRQ RQ-910 AM Center
Caracas, DF - (tent.) suspect a mix of both w/ talk about Cuban music by
female, then old-fashioned cumbia music, indecipherable ID, then woman fadeback
fighting a second SS station. At 0240 starts "Duele el Amor" by Ana Torroja and
Alek Syntek, presumably played by YVRQ. (Chiochiu-QC)
910 CUBA, CMFA Radio Cadena Agramonte, Camagüey, NOV 17 0054 - noted through
late in the evening with fútbol game, Ecuador vs. Cuba, several mentions of
Camagüey. New ! My first Cuban not part of a big national network !
(Chiochiu-QC)
Domestic DX (times in EDT or EST):
600 WICC, Briedgeport, CT OCT 02 2255 - Italian pop vocal followed by Italian
new-wave tune, then man w/ program spot "Can't find a better way to spend the
night together. I'm John McLarghan. Nice music ! It's called Woman To Stay.
That mean, so good night on AM Six Hundred WICC."
630 CFCY, Charlottetown, PEI OCT 02 2259 - Shania Twain 1998 # 1 hit, ID, then
a really boring C&W tune. New, PEI # 1 (Chiochiu-QC)
630 CFCO, Chattam, ON OCT 15 2240 - 1980's pop tune, ID followed by a boring
oldie. Good in mess with no evidence of usual CHLT Sherbrooke's short skip
skywave+weak groundwave pest signal on the East-West bearing. Spain-585 good at
the same time on my barefoot Sanyo (Chiochiu-QC)
640 WWJZ, Mount Holly, NJ NOV 16 2231 - playing a slightly remixed version of
the Aretha Franklin 1967 # 1 hit, // 1460. New ! (Chiochiu-QC)
1320 CKEC, New Glasgow, NS OCT 02 1953 - w/ presumably Irish music (hi Mark !).
The announcer gived the names of the tunes at 1956, concluding the show and
saying "Sweet music coming your way on Sunday evenings" followed by a ballad
then woman w/ forecasts and IDing. Afterwards, pgm of religious music started.
While I understand it's a pest in Mark Connelly's area, here it's a good
domestic catche and indicates great high-latitude conditions. (Chiochiu-QC)
1380 WNLA Indianola, MS NOV 15 1631 ". on News-Talk 13-80 WNLA" promo over
NYC's SS which at 1635 played Nice And Wild's Diamond Girl in background of a
friendly talk w/ a listener followed by a nice Aventura bachata tune. It's the
first time I hear Latin freestyle while DX'ing. But the biggest surprise it's
WNLA it's self which makes Mississipi a new state for me, an unexpected
surprise since I'm not extremely involved in domestic DX ! Still, a research
via Google suggested they are Gospel. Maybe a recent format change ?
(Chiochiu-QC)
1530 WCKY Cincinnati, OH OCT 02 2017 - ID and "the revolution of talk radio"
slogan between ads. Strong through really annoying splatter from over-modulated
CFAV-1570 (40 kHz away and the splatter is still pretty severe !), the worst
station on Earth which considerably diminish my TA possibilities. New, since
they were calling their selves WSAI ! (Chiochiu-QC)
UNids:
1490 OCT 03 0655 - Clary Clarkson's Break Away briefly in graveyard pile-up.
(Chiochiu-QC)
Shortwave DX (times obviously in UTC)
5910 COLOMBIA, Marfil Estereo, Bogota NOV 12 0715 - Presumed ! Undeciphrable
break between two Latin tunes. Very weak w/ high-frequency growl. My only
noteworthy reception, as I didn't listen much to shortwave over the last month
and a half. I used part of the Justice antenna connected to my Sangean receiver
instead of the long-wire wich brought overloading from mega-pest CFAV-1570 all
over the bands + the telescopic antenna extended at maximum. (Chiochiu-QC)
A few comments: it's been a long time since I didn't sent a full report to the
lists and to all of you. East-west conditions were probably excellent on the
period of October 15 w/ extremely nice reception quality of Spain-585 and CFCO
was good in mess with extremely short-skip (about 150 kilometers) CHLT-630 not
in evidence at all. The following evening I caught what sounded like
Virgin-1215. Due to my very low immunity system and tiredness, I didn't profit
too much from these conditions. I should have tried each afternoon, 2 hours
before sunset for Norway-1314 and others. Using a barefoot portable, albeit a
good one, I was lucky to catch even what I did. A high-frequency growl and
splash from 1130 prevented me from netting the lower powered Spaniard that was
coming on 1134 instead of the Croatian audio Mike Beu had hints from down in
Texas. Even so, it was a great experience to hear some of my first TA catches
and is certainly a big high-light of the last month and a half. In a few days
or weeks, I should be able to make audio clips, especially the TA ones,
avalable to some of you.
Another high-light had to be Coro-780 which was regular, not as consistent
night-to-night as RCR-750, but sometimes REALLY strong. On the evening of
November 2 (NOV 03 UTC) for a period of over 10 minutes they were way stronger
than the RCR powerhouse. I could hear it on my Sangean CST-818 barefoot very
well, making it my best Latin American MW reception so far using this radio.
However there were times when despite the still strong 780 YV signal, the
barefoot Sangean 818 barefoot had too much residual WBBM co-channel QRM while
the barefoot Sanyo nulled WBBM to provide half-decent reception of this
Venezuelan. I hadn't been successful in installing the Justice AM antenna that
we have for CCrane. In any event, it was fun to tape them and to be able to
report some detailed logs of the most reported Falcon state outlet. I hope I
didn't bored anyone with the long announcements of YVNM-780. I just see in IDXD
John Wilkins of Colorado and John Callarman of Texas as well as on Patepluma
DX, the logs of veteran Iowa MW/SW DX'er Don Moore which really inspired me.
Don Moore quotes on his Venezuelan and Ecuadorian logbooks canned IDs as well
as over the air announcements which are definitively helpful in learning
Spanish and even more helpful when it comes to learn the ways in which Latins
IDs.
The third high-light which some of you, especially those who are living in my
part of the world will immediately get curious about, is the assumed log of
Ecuador-540. I really heard on Sunday night two weeks ago for maybe 1 minute
Tropicana and Tropical mentions and a salsa song was apparently starting. My
question for Bjorn Malm in Quito is wherever the 540 Guayaquil station use
"Tropical" in their promos or not. In October 2002, I claimed hearing
Quito-640. When I had tape I reviewed the tape made of that claimed reception
and I realized the "radio nationale" mentions were gived on Guadeloupe and that
Quito was mentioned in the Guadeloupe's newscast. They were very weak at that
time, and the Spanish heard was YVQO which was occasionally in that evening.
When you are young and dream of something exotic, such mistakes can happen
especially when considering that Ecuador-640 was heard at the Newfoundland 1993
DXpedition which is way further from Ecuador than Montreal. You will say that
NF has a water path toward South America, but you need to take in consideration
the fact that there is still a pretty fair amount of Colombian land before
coming into Ecuador and also the powerful local signal of CBN in St. John's
(which would be a great catche here, by the way). When I thank at that and also
that there was a big aurora and the "radio nationale" + Quito mentions I was
really convinced. Now, I realise that I should be a bit more drastic about my
logs. Right now wherever or not the world Tropicana was part of HCFA2's slogan
will definitively determine wherever or not what I was hearing a few days ago
was Ecuador or not.
Another oddity was Radio Rebelde which appeared the other week-end at very
unusual frequencies like 770 slightly under WABC. Now, I still get 670 and 710
every night even during below-average conditions at stronger than ever levels.
Radio Rumbos which was a regular in Chicago's null in 2000-2001 is now a
difficult catch due to Radio Rebelde which wasn't even a player on this channel
in the fall of 2000 and would only came in from time to time in early 2001.
Since the Miami exile station WWFE-670 and WQBI Radio Mambi 710 both have
anti-Castro programs, I suppose Rebelde upped their power on those channels to
protect his good people from the "bad imperialists". That doesn't explain
however why I heard Rebelde on 770 or 580 kHz though. The 770 and 580 signals
weren't consistent and this week and the past one (when I done little DX'ing
because of a lack of red globules, related to my ending chemio treatments) were
unheard, but were noted at least once each. The Cuban DX was good with new
Reloj-760, Rebelde on several frequencies as mentioned and a provincial station
on 910. Venezuelan DX was good too, but the only "new" station has been
YVKE-550.
Last, but not least, I was very surprised while typing 1380 WNLA into Google to
come across a station from MS, especially considering it was quite sometime
before LSS in Mississippi. The format indicated in all the listings I come
across is Gospel, not News/Talk, which is also odd. Maybe I misunderstood 1 or
2 letters, and what I thought I heard happened coincidentally to be also on
1380. Barry McLarnon of Ottawa in correspondence via e-mail some time ago told
me MS was the last state he caught east of Mississippi after South Carolina and
4:30 PM seems early, considering MS is south-west of MTL, it should get dark
there about 1 hour and a half later. Strange !
DX-wise, aside from the lack of time devoted to listening during several days
in October due to the health problems, I should mention as a lowlight the fact
that despite above-average Latin conditions on several days this month on the
AM band, I haven't heard my 7th Venezuelan state. The only new Venezuelan was
YVKE-550 which is still nevertheless a nice catche ! But a probable Latin
signal on 740 may turn into Puerto Ordaz which is in the Bolivar state, since I
discovered that about SSE I get the less CKAC splatter, so 720 and 740 may yeld
some great Latin American catches. I need to do some work to verify if the CKAC
splatter is not still too high, since the only thing I listened two nights ago
was CHWO-740 which is not enough for a good verification.
The only other lowlight is that I'm still not 100% sure I beat that testicular
cancer. I need to do a scan on November 23 to make sure everything is fine.
Since the blood tests have been correct for already some time (since cycle 2
begun in fact), everything should be excellent. Still, with optimism and great
DXperiences that keep the mood up, this should not be much of a real lowlight.
Well, that's it for now ! Time to get back at the radio dials !
Be the good DX with you !
Bogdan
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