[HCDX] Latin American MW logs from the evenings of APR 18 and APR 19 EsT (APR 18, 19 and 20 UTC)

Hello to all of you !

Here are the logs of the Latin American stations I have received while in NJ over this Eastern weekend. We visit to Manhattan to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and the Central Park and also in the NJ state wich was straight south of NYC on the south of the east coast; all the Latin American radio stations we listened to where all from NJ, either from my Sanyo MCD-S830 with it's ferrite bar antenna in the motel room in Jersey City or in the car mostly from the Mazda Protégé's car radio with broadband whip antenna on the window (the same antenna that is used for FM reception I will think). Logs made in the motel room have the (Chiochiu-NJ1) infication and logs made elsewhere have the (Chiochiu-NJ2) indication.

While in Manhattan we mainly listen to local FM radio in the car wich is WONDERFULL. There is WKTU on 103.5 "103 5 the new K-T-U, The Beat of New York" wich plays almost only dance music; lots of techno and also lots of R&B, but also some house music, eurodance and quite some freestyle (the only drawback was the huge quantity of Madonna songs played; they even gived V.I.P. tickets fro fans who wanted to meet her !). I especially enjoyed hearing Latin-influenced freestyle music from the 80's and early 90's, a kind of music I always look for on Kazaa, but wich is unavalable on Montreal radio, because of the 35% Canadian content rule imposed by the CRTC (by the way that's also why most of the french-speaking music on FF radio comes from Quebec, and not from France !) and also because Freestyle did emerge in clubs in NYC, Miami and Los Angeles and elsewhere it wasn't that popular according to a web-site on the history of this kind of music I come thought some months ago. We also listened a bit to WNEW "Blink FM" on 102.7 wich played some nice R&B, pop-rock and even eurodance.

Well, enough stories, into the logs now:

530 TURKS AND CAICOS, Radio Vision Cristiana APR 19 0325 +/- - female vocal, good but in mix with two TIS stations, // to WWRV-1330 wich had an excellent local signal APR 20 0308 - with gospel SS music and announcements about the resurection of Jesus beetwen the songs. Excellent, way over the TIS stations ! (Chiochiu-NJ1)

600 unID, growl APR 19 and 20, UTC (around 11 PM EsT on APR 18 and 19 late evenings) - Poor / fair signal of a distorted growl with possible bits of audio with WICC presumably on night pattern as no sign of them; also heard here at home QTH against WICC / CKAT / CMKV Radio Rebelde / YNLD La Nueva Radio Ya / Dominican Republic, probably a Cuban off-channel. (Chiochiu-NJ1)

640 CUBA, Radio Progreso APR 19 0300 - Theme song followed by "Perspectiva". Fair in mess with WNNZ (Chiochiu-NJ1) + APR 20 0141 - after at least two minutes of nothing or traffic noises after Radio Guadeloupe faded-out, playing son music, occasionally very good, but mostly buried with QRM from noisy places near the street like bridge lights, circulation fires et al and occasionally some WNNZ. Also about twenty minutes later we were in a place near some metallic things on the acces street that acted as amplificators for local AM stations, since we briefly got for a minute or so pretty distorted spurs and images. (Chiochiu-NJ2) + APR 20 0327 - Cuban dance music followed by ID as "Radio Progreso, la onda del alegria de Havana", then salsa mx. Fading slowly from good to poor and vice-versa (Chiochiu-NJ1)

640 GUADELOUPE, RFO Radio Guadeloupe, Pointe-à-Pitre APR 20 0128 - with zouk music. Briefly fair-strong for a couple of minutes, but afterwards lost to QRM from computers in shops near the street we were going thought in Newark and bits of WNNZ or Mojo Radio-Toronto. Replaced by Radio Progreso at 0141 UTC. (Chiochiu-NJ2)

690 unID, probably a spanish domestic APR 18 2054 - SS religion, heard mentions of "Señor" to 2059 when I hear a mention of an "iglesia" somewhere - not sure where because of the very weak signal and slight het from IBOC side-band of WOR-710, wich was followed by gospel SS mx. Heard near the water in a parking while my father called at a public phone to have informations about where to find a motel room, when we got further the signal vanished completely and only got ignition noises along with some IBOC hash. Very weak signal, but readable while in the parking - I just wish I would have been more attentive at the religious speach and at the name of the church who was mentioned. Thinked it was a spur from RVC-1330, but it was NOT // to the 1330 local. Is groundwave DX from Venezuela (Radio Barquisimeto) or somewhere else in Latin America possible under a water path (we were very close to the coast) at 4 PM in the mid-afternoon in the Spring or could this be a religious domestic. What kind of programs do WOKV in Jacksonville, FL have ? (Chiochiu-NJ2)

730 MEXICO, XEX, Mexico D.F. APR 19 0308 - Fair with ranchera mx; possible call ID beetwen two songs and did hear a slogan that sounded like "La K Buena". Not even a het from CKAC ! (Chiochiu-NJ1)

800 NETHERLANDS ANTILLES, PJB, Bonaire APR 20 0150 - presumed with English religious talk about "God", mostly atop Cuba. (Chiochiu-NJ2)

800 CUBA, CMBT, Manzanillo APR 20 0152-0154 - Presumed ! Man in Spanish very strong and over PJB. No ID, but this has been reported before on the East coast, for instance on the 66-06 issue of IDXD by William McGuire in Cheverly, MD. Also because of the Eastern period, CJAD or CKLW may had a talk-show about God wich I may had mistaked for TWR (PJB) and then the two minutes of SS may have been PJB mixing with CKLW and not Cuba mixing with PJB ! (Chiochiu-NJ2)

980 COLOMBIA, HJES, RCN Cali APR 18 2311 - presumed w/ fútboll game in SS. Very good signal, but with lots of intense splatter from 970 as noted on the car-radio while my father was outside the car. Also audible on the Sangean 606 barefoot wich was in the car at the time (when I got outside, the Sangea radio was full of images from NYC AM stations on both LW and MW, so I lost this one). There were no other skywave signals on the lower half of the band, so I suspect conditions were auroral (later in the evening I could not even get the Montreal clears - i.e.: 730 XEX and not CKAC). If this was indeed RCN Cali, then it is my best MW catche from this trip ! (Chiochiu-NJ2)

1490 unID, APR 20 0045 - Salsa music. Very strong completely topping other 'graveyarders' such as WICY with just minor splatter from NYC local on 1480. Also heard here in Montreal during the auroral evening of FEB 6. Almost certainly a domestic, but who ? Heard while alone in a parking with my father at a shop buying ice water. (Chiochiu-NJ2)

Tomorrow I will sent a report of the FM loggings to Hard-Core-DX and WTFDA as well as to several of you. I didn't got any e-skip or tropo duct but some quite distant tropo-scatter. More about this later !

That's it for now !

73 and good DX,

Bogdan Chicohiu

Btw.: Dario, since you were interesed in Cuban MW from where I have been, I can encode for you in real-audio what I have taped Saturday from Radio Progreso 640.