DXcellent Cape Cod Adventure

[MarkWA1ION@xxxxxxx]

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Mark Connelly - WA1ION

When I got to Windmill Beach in South Yarmouth (Cape Cod, MA) 
about 45 minutes before sunset on 15 JUN, I knew it was going to
be an interesting DX evening.  The reason for the optimism was
a strong 1197 het, even though little other TA action was up.
By 2350 UTC (7:50 PM local), still a fair amount of time before
sundown, BBC Lesotho was in with a solid signal, and by the top
of the hour (8 PM / 15 JUN local; 0000 UTC / 16 JUN)  ... yes !
loud & clear "This is London" and the "Lilybolero" interval
music hitting better than S9 on the R8A with just a loop on
the roof of the car.  This is right on par with the best signal
noted out of this station on a previous outing to Rockport a
couple of years back.  Lesotho the loudest TA on the dial ?  
Yes ... and by a wide margin !  The next strongest signal was 
Senegal on 765, but its level wasn't even close to what was 
coming in on 1197 from the deepest corner of Africa ... more 
distant than some parts of India and China.  Spaniards such 
as 684 and 855 (that are usually "blowtorches") weren't even 
in the game at the time and Canaries-621 just had a mediocre 
het.  So right away, it started to look as though stations in 
the southern hemisphere almost at the shortest day of their year, 
had a significant advantage over those stations north of the 
Equator that were heading towards their longest day.  As the 
beach outing progressed, receptions from south of the Equator, 
and from tropical regions slightly north of it, held sway.  
In rapid succession, as the sun went down over the Cape on 
a warm, hazy evening, Guyana-760, ZBVI-780, Brazil-690/720/760, 
French Guiana-1070, probable St. Lucia on 840, and many (more 
common) Venezuelans and Caribbean islands stations boomed forth 
from the R8A speaker.

I drove back to my parents' house in West Yarmouth, 2 miles / 
3 km from the beach, for an overnight stay.  At their house
I have a sloper running to the top of one of the pitch pines
in their backyard.  The pattern of this antenna exhibits a
moderate null towards New York City pests.  Lately, I've
been having good success phasing this against a loop.  Around
(UTC) 0210 / 16 JUN, I started listening at the house.  
Initially there were just some routine Caribbean and South
American signals.  At 0242, on 1040, I was surprised when,
out of a cacophonous Latin American jumble, the Spanish talk 
which emerged identified itself as being in "San Pedro Sula"
at least twice before going into a romantic vocal.  That's
Honduras (HRNN2) with just 3 kW !  Admittedly 1040, like 760 
and 860, is one of those "Wal-Marts" of Latin American DX, 
where one can camp on the channel and shop for something new 
every few minutes, but this catch still provided an unexpected 
DX thrill.  Some TA action was noted, with a good reception
of VOA Sao Tome - 1530 at about 0315.  But the TA DX was just
of incidental interest at this point.  Back to the Americas,
1180 sounded like a CB skip graveyard with about 7 equal-level
S9+ stations hammering each other ... and none was WHAM !  
Hearing Panama on 860 turned out to be less rare than previously 
thought: Radio Reforma in with ID at 0452 on this always-fun 
channel.  Half a minute later, there was a hint of the Cuban 
Reloj, and then 860 offered forth Brazil, coming from the 
background to the front row in a hurry with a suddenly-huge 
signal.  It should be mentioned that the loop versus sloper, 
phased via delay-line, slapped a null against CJBC-860 that 
made it completely disappear for a long time with no need for
control readjustment.  As soon as Brazil-860 took charge,
a "walk" down to 840 showed Brazil on top there too !  
The CARACOL Colombian "semi-split" on 1100.3 was noted
in passing (parallel 810 & 1090 CARACOL's).  It was killing 
WWWE.  The 1131.3 thing - maybe Colombia - was putting a fat
het on WBBR, but good audio was hard to find.  A number
of fairly-common Colombians and Venezuelans were booming
at the time: YVRS had Turks & Caicos beaten (with KDKA long
gone and hard to find).  A highlight of the evening at least 
as good as the 1040 Honduran was the catch that showed up
on 1070 ... Argentina !  Spanish news from Argentina, with 
numerous local mentions, rolled in briefly at 0523 UTC, 
topping an unruly pile that had French Guiana, CHOK, other 
Spanish talk, and remnants of nulled CBA in it.  This lasted 
until 0525, when French Guiana (with French talk // St. Pierre - 
1375) conquered all.  Wow ... one good DX catch gets QRM'ed 
by another !  Well, if Argentina was in on 1070, let's see 
what's happening on 1040.  No surprise: Sao Paulo, Brazil 
atop with MONSTER signal: slightly-reverbed Portuguese talk 
and numerous mentions of Sao Paulo businesses at 0531.  Then 
it took a fade and a teletalk show from (HJCJ) in Bogota, 
Colombia took over.  Domestics WHO and WYFX were so badly buried 
that it wasn't funny.  A try for Argentina-870 wasn't as 
productive as the rest of the session: just a pesty Cuban 
there with WWL and WLAM bubbling in around the edges.  Another 
Brazilian was logged before the evening was out: Sao Paulo on 
1000.  At 0545 UTC, it surged in quickly, mowing down more 
routine channel occupants HJAQ, CKBW, and WMVP.  After a 
few more routine HJ and YV logs, it was time for bed and the 
end of an exciting DX day.  This opening - in the heart of the 
"non-DX season" - was not, by any means, a full-tilt domestic-
skip-killing aurora.  (Imagine what THAT would have been like !)

LOGS WILL BE SENT SOON.
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