[HCDX]: Boston-area group DX outings: summer 1998

["Connelly, Mark" <Mark.Connelly@xxxxxxxxxx>]

BOSTON-AREA SUMMER 1998 DX OUTINGS COMPENDIUM

There were two multi-operator medium-wave DXpeditions
held in the area this season ...

Granite Pier - Rockport, MA
Date: Wed. - 22 AUG 1998
Attendees: Aart Rouw <ARouw@xxxxxxxxxxx> (from Germany),
and Mark Connelly

Aart, a chemical engineer, was on a business trip to the 
New England states and decided to join in a mini-DXpedition, 
US-style.  He and I parked out on the pier just before sundown.  
The site was initially fairly crowded as a boat race was just 
ending.  The weather was uncommonly hot and humid and, until
the wind picked up, there were more insects about than are 
normally encountered at the seaside.  Aart figured he'd do 
better joining me at the Drake R8A in my car, rather than 
trying to DX with a portable.  When the roof-top antennas were 
all set up, we were getting some decent signals from Europe that 
made Aart think that he may have been listening from somewhere 
near his "home turf".  The UK Talk Radio stations on 1089 and 
1053 popped up with good audio, as did Virgin-1215.  Germany 
on 1422 came through well, and a weaker parallel signal was 
in there on 756.  Aart recognized Dutch talk from the Netherlands 
talk station on 1395.  Stations from Spain were in there with 
their typically strong signals on many frequencies.  VOA Kuwait 
on 1548 peaked at 0108 UTC / 9.08 p.m. local.  Latin Americans 
were pretty much a no-show; even the Caribbean splits and 
YVKS-750 were unimpressive.  Domestic-DX-wise, there were 
Newfoundlanders coming in all over the dial, including some 
less-common ones like 1010 with country music behind WINS.

When Aart got back to Germany, he wrote -

Dear Mark,
In the mean time I made it safely back to Germany. Thanks again
for your impressive demonstration of TA-DX from your sea side
listening post.  I hope your mosquito bites have also healed 
already.  These creatures were certainly having a field day of 
their own with the two of us in the car!

-----

Onward to the "DX Clams" Boston Area DXers (BADX) outing 
to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge salt-marsh area 
in Rowley, MA (after a DX group seafood dinner at the Clam Box 
restaurant in Ipswich, MA) 

Date: Wed. - 5 AUG 1998
Attendees: Bruce Conti, Mark Connelly, and Gary Thorburn.

Log summary - Mark Connelly <WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

5 AUG 1998 / 2324-2359 UTC: Senegal-765, Algeria-1550, 
Canaries // Spain-1179, WLFW-1680 (ethnic pirate ?), 
Spain-1296, Algeria-981

6 AUG 1998 / 0000-0059 UTC: Spain-1602, Germany-1422, Spain-1305,
Bermuda-1160, Spain-1107, Spain-1044, Spain-954, Croatia-1134,
Spain-1134, Spain-1143, Spain-1152, UK-1089, Spain-1071, UK-1053,
Spain-756, Venezuela-670 mix w/ Newfie C&W, Ireland-567
 
6 AUG 1998 / 0100-0159 UTC: WLFW-1680 (seemed to mention Boston),
Morocco-1188, Algeria-891, Azores-837 huge !, Azores-693,
Spain-792, St. Vincent-705, Spain-684, Venezuela(Mundial)-880,
Morocco-819 & 207 (//), Spain-729, Spain-738, Spain-774, 
Spain-648, Spain-639, Canaries // Spain-621, Spain-603, 
Portugal-594, Spain-585, Algeria-549 & 153 (//), St. Kitts-555

6 AUG 1998 / 0200-0225 UTC: Portugal-666, UK-909, Portugal-963,
Spain-999, Spain-1116, Germany-756, Spain-1224

Receiver: Drake R8A.  Antenna system for most logs: active whip 
and broadband loop on car roof; phased with Superphaser-1 to get 
cardioid pattern, usually nulling west.  I also used a 100 m wire
aimed southeast, just in case it got auroral (it didn't).  This
wire was run out over the marsh grass to the edge of the low-
tide water.  It's a good thing that my insect repellent was
working, because it got nasty out there.

Heard some TA's that I'd logged in Plymouth last Friday 
(Virgin Radio, etc.); also I noted Venezuela-1500 under WTOP, 
Colombia-1170 killing WWVA, Venezuela-750 in the clear before 
getting covered by CBGY, Venezuela-1080 under WTIC, Nevis-895, 
Anguilla-1505 in WNRB slop, something in Arabic on 1566 (could
be Iran, or one of the anti-Iraq clandestines), and a few 
others I didn't write in the logbook.  Notably absent were 
Mauritania-1349 and Morocco-612 ... are these former "blowtorches" 
now off the air ?

Full-data logs will be issued later in the month.

Everyone used Drake receivers.  Bruce and Gary each had 
Beverage-length wires running east.  Gary also used a 
homebrew air loop.  We all had a good time.


Gary's report -
From: "Thorburn, Gary" <gthorburn@xxxxxxxxxx>

Last Wednesday night, I joined Bruce Conti and Mark Connelly on 
a  "DX Clams" outing, in search of Seafood and Trans-Atlantic
MW DX.  You've probably read Mark Connelly's report.  Now 
it's time to hear from the junior member of the expedition.

We have all marvelled at the extensive and descriptive logs
that Mark turns in.  If you are like me, you have fired up 
your receiver on a good night at home and tried to hear some
of this stuff.  Perhaps like me, you've been disappointed. 

So over the past couple years, I eagerly joined some
mini-DXpeditions, to learn this obscure trade.

Three years ago Bruce, Mark, myself, Paul McDonough, Eric
Cottrell and maybe a couple others met at Hospital Hill
in Rockport MA.  With a marginally adequate receiver, but a
clearly inadequate antenna, I came home with nothing more 
than about two Euro LW broadcasters in my log below 1700 kHz. 

They say admitting you need help is the first step.  So 
a year ago, armed with a new Drake R8A, I joined Mark & 
Bruce at the Rowley marsh site, looking for some help.
We strung out two long wires at right angles across
the marsh, and Mark tapped my R8A into a splitter which followed
his phasing and regen equipment.  Think of it!  Cable radio,
engineered by Mark Connelly.  When Mark heard something
interesting, he'd shout the frequency and I'd scramble to tune
it on my radio too, before he detuned the regen and went looking
for something else.

That trip taught me two things.  First, that all those MW
TA's are really there, if you have a good site and good
antennas.  At home, 25 miles inland, I had heard hets on
the more reliable TA frequencies.  But at the shore there
are hets everywhere, and audio behind many of them.
Second, I learned that tuning a R8A to hear those signals,
often separated by only a kHz or two from a local station,
requires listening in sideband, with skillful use of 
narrow filters and the passband control.  Techniques that I
used on shortwave to improve the listenability of weak or
QRM-ridden signals are essential on MW just to hear them 
at all.

So a month ago I decided to get ready for another Rowley 
marsh trip.  I had built an amplified, tuned 2.5-foot box loop,
fitted it to the top of a tripod, and at Mark's suggestion,
recently added a simple varactor circuit so I could tune it
remotely.   I also had picked up a big spool of wire at the
last Deerchester flea.  Away from the electrical noise
of my home I made a pre-expedition to my back yard.  No space
for a really long wire, but the loop worked fine separating
out domestic stations.  Still, the TA split frequencies 
offered only a few quiet hets. 

Which bring us to last Wednesday.  Fortified with fried
fish and clams, in three vehicles we trekked out the
lonely dirt track off Route 1A which ends at a parking
lot on the edge of the Parker River National Wildlife
Sanctuary.  It is a popular site with birders who
binocularize from the parking area out into the marsh,
or walk further into it along a due-east dirt road
which ends at Nelson Island, the last clump of trees before
the marsh becomes the Parker River.  This minor river
drains a few hills that the last glacier deprived of an
outlet to the nearby Merrimac.  But it expands into a
broad estuary between us and Plum Island, probably the
most northerly true barrier beach on the east coast.
The Parker River Sanctuary comprises much of the estuary
and Plum Island. Beyond Plum Island, the open Atlantic.

I parked facing east, and as the dusk settled I walked further
eastward down the dirt road into the humid gloom with a
spool of 1000 feet of hamfest-grade wire.  A technophobe
heron took wing, and a few kildeer relayed panic signals among 
themselves.  I strung my wire along the edge of the road,
trying to keep it atop the marsh grass for a few inches
of height.  The spool ran out about a third of the way to
Nelson Island, and I returned to the parking lot and set up
my other antenna, the amplified remotely tuned loop.  

By this time, a few birders were returning from the dusky
marsh to their cars, and enquired about our activity.
We explained as best we could.  Actually, there are many 
similarities between the two hobbies, both birders and DXers
share the urge to log rare catches, and sometimes travel to
remote spots with exotic equipment to do it. 

Eager newbies in any activity are easily spotted, as they 
are invariably grossly overequipped but underexperienced. 
I fit this description to a tee.  Having removed the center
seat from the family minivan, I set up a card table, a homey
brass lamp retrofitted to 12-volt operation, prepared my
travel coffee pot with ground French Roast, and plugged
it into the cigarette lighter.  In the aura of a cozy lamp
and fresh coffee, I tidied my reference library on the rear seat
next to me, and placed the Drake at the center of the table.
As the cigarette lighter was busy with the java, I wired
the Drake to a second car battery, and fished two antenna wires
and a remote tuning control through a window.  Now for a tape
recorder, a few extra C-cells, and a patch cable to R8A. 
Earlier I did some clandestine grocery shopping, and cleverly
hid the loot from my health-conscious wife.  From a bag marked
"The Twinkie Outlet" I now produced some unspeakably
embarrassing treats.  Bruce and Mark, of course, were already deep
into the DX,  but did I ever have a set up!

Soon the hets came alive with audio, and I was hearing Trans-
Atlantic DX.  I was thrilled to hear what Mark and Bruce
find to be ordinary logs.  I nabbed one pretty clear signal
and shouted to Mark, "549, is that Algeria?".  He responded
yes, and I felt great for about 5 seconds.  Then my
bubble burst.  I hear Mark saying to Bruce, "I think there's
something interesting on 549, but its getting totally
clobbered by that killer Algerian!"

Using an unterminated wire and a bi-directional loop, I
wrestled with more QRM off the back side of my antennas than
did Mark with his new phased broadband loop / whip combo which
provides a cardioid pattern.  The signal level, and reduced QRM
that he could produce just blew away the best signal
quality I could muster, using an identical Drake receiver.
And it all mounts on the top of a compact car, to boot.  I 
think there is a lot of future in this antenna, and I am
looking forward to when Mark can publish a complete description
of the antennas and associated electronics.

Still, I was quite pleased that my loop did as well as it did.
I compared it constantly with the 1000 ft wire, and in
the range that it tunes (about 400-1800 kHz) it was usually
almost as good as the wire.  In particular, my simple amp,
comprised of a MC1490 chip and about 3 non-critical discrete
parts seems a quiet and effective way to match a loop to a
50-ohm receiver, and I may make further use of it in another
antenna.

I made extensive use of the Drake notch filter to knock
out adjacent channel hets.  Even if a het is only a secondary
source of QRM, the Drake notch is so effective, I find it well
worthwhile to employ it.  How important this is probably varies
from person to person, depending on what kind of noise your
ears can process.

My log book for the night shows a subset of about 70% of
what Mark already reported, so I won't replicate the MW
logs here.  But I also did some LW listening on the long wire,
and I will report that at the end of this tale.

In conclusion, I would encourage each of you to look for an 
opportunity to give a MW expedition a try.  For me radio
is ultimately an aesthetic experience.  If I were able to
expound on that eloquently, I think many of you would probably
agree, especially if you were fascinated by radio as a child.
Remember those late nights, when your parents thought you were
sleeping?  But alert and awake, by the warm glow of tubes and
a dial lamp, you were connected to distant fading cities, enjoying
favorite songs and perhaps a brownie smuggled earlier from
the kitchen.

Radio is still alive.  My Wednesday evening ended late, behind a
glowing ersatz dial, enjoying half familiar British rock from Virgin 
Radio on 1215, and the remains of an illicit sweet snack in the
dark night.  Still a thrill for me.  I thought about the other
end of my wire, invisible in a swamp, 1000 feet but transporting
me thousands of miles.  It was time to go home. I shut down the
radio and my ears readjusted to the quiet marsh in front of me.
I stepped out into the dank air and followed the wire to the far
end of my antenna.

================

LW logs.  0000-0300z 06Aug98. Rowley, MA.
1000-ft unterminated wire on marsh grass.
Drake R8A.

153  Arab music ( Algeria? )
162  Music, Allouis, France
198  BBC, Droitwich, UK
177  Music, ( Germany? )
207  Two stations, one voice, one music ( Iceland? Germany? )
234  FF male announcer, American oldies. ( Luxembourg? )
252  Algeria, over "Atlantic 252", Ireland

=================

/****
*  Gary W. Thorburn  KD1TE
*  email address:  gthorburn@xxxxxxxxxx
****/

From: Bruce Conti <BACONTI@xxxxxxx>
Summer "DX Clams" Highlights

In what has become a new tradition to greet the DX season, a few 
hardy members of the Boston Area DXers (BADX) got together for 
dinner at the Clam Box restaurant in Ipswich, MA, followed by a 
mini-DXpedition at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in 
Rowley, MA.  This year, three of us braved the bugs at the salt 
marsh site; Mark Connelly, Gary Thorburn, and myself.  For the 
most part, it was a typical summer DX session for that site, with 
Spain and northern Africa dominant on many frequencies.  But it 
was nice to hear the abundance of Trans-Atlantic signals, even if 
they were just the usual.  There was also an unusual signal on 
1680, perhaps a Boston area pirate with Spanish and English religion
and Indian-influenced music, very poor audio quality, and using 
call letters that sounded like WLFW.  Mark demonstrated some of the 
new loop vs. whip cardioid technology.  While veteran car DXers 
Mark and I were satisfied with the minimal comforts of compact 
vehicles, Gary took car DXing to the next level with a card table 
and desk lamp setup in the back of his minivan, using a loop on a 
tripod in the parking lot and a Beverage-length wire.  We all had 
Drake R8/A receivers.  Assuming Mark will submit his typically 
thorough bandscan, I've submitted some of the more interesting
catches from DX Clams '98.

Trans-Atlantic DX

792   SPAIN, SER Sevilla AUG 6 0217 - Fair; American nostalgic vocal
parallel a huge signal on 1044. [Conti-MA]

837   AZORES, RDP Barrosa AUG 6 0125 - Excellent!  Rod Stewart, 
other English/American pops, parallel an almost as good signal 
on 693. [Conti-MA]

846   ITALY, RAI Roma AUG 6 0215 - Fair; woman with "Notturno 
Italiano" ID into operatic vocal, SW parallels weren't coming in 
at the time. [Conti-MA]

936   SPAIN, RNE synchros AUG 6 0025 - Good; telephone talk and 
jazz music // 1305. [Conti-MA]

1224   SPAIN, COPE synchros AUG 6 0225 - Good; Telephone talk, host 
brings caller on the air by asking "Que tal?"  Unusually strong 
signal, not heard often on this frequency. [Conti-MA]

1521   SPAIN, SER Castellon AUG 6 0110 - Fair; telephone talk 
// 1575. [Conti-MA]

1548   unID AUG 6 0100 - Likely England with classical music, heard 
while listening for VOA-Kuwait. [Conti-MA]

1566   IRAN, IRIB Bandar Abbas AUG 6 0040 - Tentative; talk in 
Arabic, Iran would be the most likely candidate here, although
propagation to the Middle East was poor tonight. [Conti-MA]

Bruce Conti, Parker River NWR, Rowley, MA; R8A, MWDX-5, wires 
180-m east, 120-m west.

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