[HCDX]: weekend DX summary (13-15 MAR)

[WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Summary of DX on 13 - 15 MAR 1998 - Mark Connelly

On Friday, I noted somewhat auroral conditions on the car radio 
as I drove on a cold moonlit night heading down Route 3 through 
the long stretch of pinelands in Plymouth north of the Sagamore 
Bridge and Cape Cod Canal.  Cubans seemed to be all over the lower 
part of the dial.  The TA hets were the predictable ones from 
Spain, Algeria, Morocco, and the Canary Islands.  A representative
channel would be 620: Cuba dominant and a fat het from Canaries-621.
I reached Harwich around 10.30 p.m. local (0330 UTC: 14 MAR).  One
of the experiments I conducted was the phasing of two broadband 
loops separated by about 43 m / 141 ft.  At various times I had
these oriented E-W and then N-S.  The spacing was along a line 
that was the same direction as how the two loopheads were oriented.
Phasing the loops worked out quite well.  Results were a bit 
better above 800 kHz than below: the ideal frequency for the 
given spacing, a quarter wave, would be at 1744 kHz.  On the 
lower frequencies, there was somewhat more of a likelihood of 
nulling forward (desired) and back (interfering) stations
together.  At 0358 UTC / 14 MAR, I started DXing in earnest.  
Right away 610 kHz proved interesting with a nice "La Radiodifusora
Nacional de Colombia ... la voz del Amazonas" ID.  Note that this 
is Uribia, not Bogota (RCN).  Right after that some Venezuelan ads 
popped up.  This would be either YVSE or YVXY.  I looked for the 
Brazilian I'd noted in Rockport earlier in the week, but no show 
this time.  After 0400 there was some TA action that was Spain-
dominated: 999, 1044, 1107, 855, 1116, 1296, 774, 1305, 1359, 
1413, 1521, 936, 684, and probably some others I didn't write 
down.  Also had Canaries - 1179 & 621, Libya - 1251, 
Algeria - 891 & 981.  In other words, the basic "big guns",
excluding northern Europeans that were "aurora'ed" out of the
action.  South Americans got less numerous as the evening wore
on (and domestics got louder).  Big Colombians on 700, 760, and
770 rolled in.  In the Caribbean, only the Cubans (several
including parallel Progreso's on 640, 660, & 690) and St. Kitts
on 555 made much of a show.  (Big boomers PJB-800 and R.V.C.-530
were car-radio copyable earlier, per usual.)  I called it quits
at 0620 UTC.  Some of the Spaniards (especially 855) were still
booting in good signals then.  

On the afternoon of Saturday (14 MAR), I did a beach stop at 
Duxbury Beach, MA on the way home.  Bruce Conti had mentioned that 
he might be over at Rowley at the same time (though his last 
set of logs indicated that he may have opted for home-only 
operation).  The Duxbury Beach session ran from 2240 UTC 
(14 MAR) to 0020 UTC (15 MAR).  When I started, it was raining 
a bit, so I just ran two 27 m wires out on the beach (one wire 
northeast, one southeast) and phased them.  I didn't notice a 
whole lot from Latin America, but the more-southerly Trans-
Atlantics weren't bad.  In the log: Morocco-1044 (S9+30), 
Lesotho (over Spain) -1197,  Mauritania-1349  (loud!), 
France-1467, Saudi Arabia-1521 (huge), Vatican-1530, Spain-1584,
Libya-1251, Canaries-1179, Colombia-1170, Morocco-1053, 
Algeria-981, Cuba-890 (WBPS nulled), Croatia (over Spain)-1134,
Spain-1107 & 1071 (both huge), Spain-999, Spain-954, Spain-918,
Morocco-612 usual bulldozer signal, Egypt (over Spain)-864, 
Canaries-837 & a het from presumed Azores-836, Morocco-819 
(//612) with Egypt-819 just a bit under, Egypt-774 briefly 
over Spain, Senegal-765 slightly over Switzerland, W. Sahara-711 
loud - about equal to WOR, UK-693 (in big mess with Azores, 
Spain, others), Spain-603.

More DX information and antenna experiments later.

73 ... Mark 

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