[HCDX] DX logs from the past night and this late afternoon / early evening

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello to all of you !

I have noticed excellent high-latitude conditions on the AM broadcast band over the past two evenings: had CKEC a few dozen of minutes earlier on my Sangean CST-818 barefoot wich isn't so good and on my Sanyo MCD-S830 while it was fading down to the mess. Also 980 was very strong, SLIGHTLY weaker than local 990 and I got a domestic with a good signal, slightly OVER remains of nulled CJMS Saint Constant, but didn't stick around for an identification when I finished some work on history today, too early for WHO I think, still you never know. When I tuned beetwen 1040 and 1050 I only got splatter from CJMS/unID domestic-1040 and WEPN-1050, so wasn't able to get Spain on 1044 at all.

Also, had WRKO almost local-like on 680, they had to be like this to get through the splatter made by superpest CINF Infos 6-90. It's been a lo-o-ong time, since I hadn't heard WRKO. I wanted to get the RNE outlet in Sevilla. With the ferrite bar antenna inside my Sanyo pointed E/W that reduced CINF signal a bit (and a lot of it's splatter) as well as some WRKO wich is SSE (Boston is South-South-east from Mtl) just distorted overspills from WRKO-680 and CINF-690 and could hear nothing beetwen them and I will never hear anything on this channel untill I'll finally have in my possession the Drake R8B (CINF was still too strong anyway to allow RNE Sevilla to be audible on 684 and I beat the Mark Connelly situation is even worse here at his Billerica location, since the local pest - WRKO - is not 6, but 4 kHz from RNE). However around 0320 UTC, I had the ferrite bar antenna in the E/W direction and had bits of light music with my radio tuned between 580 and 590 - this must have been the Madrid station ! The best time to try for 585 with my relatively modest equipment and inland location should be very shortly before dawn at the transmitter site due to the grayline enhancement. I will try again this Friday since I don't have school the next day (I'll give a try when I'll finish this report, but when sunrise hit Madrid I'll be sleeping though). I think 585 is my best bet for hearing my first TA, since there is nothing extremely strong on either 580 and 590. I even failed to broke my radio, since the highest spot in the house is a furniture wich is large on the E/W direction (and the ferrite antenna since it is relatively small, when my radio is E/W it catche N/S and vice-versa) and very small when I aim the radio N/S (with the antenna E/W) so I had the radio with one side on the furniture and the other one on my hands ! I believed it was the only spot wich escaped local noises, but then I founded another one wich was lower but farther from noisy neighborhood TV sets, etc. but couldn't find any signal then - will try Friday during tx dawn enahancement. 

Otherwise, I just got back from the car-radio a few minutes ago and the apparent Boston station on 980 along with at least two other stations were rolling over the CKGM-990 local splash. Had WABI, I think (I was talking with my father when the ID was actually given) with network news mixing with maybe another domestic and sometimes tropical music (probably YVRQ, I never heard WLAT in CT wich is also in Spanish), the only SS spot on the dial except for 530. Last night, I had a nice reception of Radio Rebelde on 670 (probably the best frequency for Cuba in Mtl) with no sign of anything other than remains of nulled WSCR (I hope to hear Radio Rumbos again, they were nice to hear with their dorbells in their Notirumbos newscast and their mostly salsa/merengue tropical music) and RVC-530 wich was interesting as if propagation conditions were up in all the directions (but not auroral enough for anything South American).

Another interesting experience last night when I briefly tuned to local pest CKAC-730 was Ron Fournier talking about "l'antenne de CKAC", about the station getting heard in Quebec City. Then had a phone-in from a listener in Vermont that was on his truck and heard them very nicely especially at night. Ron asked him if he was listening over a satellite or something like that and he say it was on 730 AM. The announcer was surprised but he conceded there some nights when NYC stations were coming (they are there every night unless it's aurora and I consider them pest), then he told him in Cincinnati when he was young in the 70's he could hear the Montreal's hockey team and the Toronto one very clearly. He was even more surprised, then changed the topic and talked sports with the VT listener. I wonder what Ron will say if he learned that CKAC is regularly heard in Scandinavia ! He will be drived crazy !

Before going into this week's report, I should mention that I'm still very tired due tot he cancer treatments and this morning waked up once again around 11 AM, this is very stressing, because the next week I will start over intense chimio treatments with the need to wake as early as 7 AM. Also, when I move my head over the cushions as I sleep, I have pain on my hair as if someone pulled my hair off - not a really big amount of pain, but still quite annoying.

Well into the logs now:
Equipment: Sanyo MCD-S830 with internal ferrite bar antenna
                  Sangean CST-818 barefoot and with random wire in our interior yard
QTH: 4190 Edward Higgins
        Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada
        H8Y 3M9

Pan American DX

530 TURKS AND CAICOS, RVC, South Caicos SEP 29 0144 UTC - Radio Visión Cristiana Internacional jingle and mention of a "pastor". Very good. (Chiochiu-QC)

670 CUBA, CMQ, Radio Rebelde, Arroyo Arrenas SEP 29 0330 UTC - SS ballad, then "Estacion, de la virtud manera de vivir la noche" program spot followed by woman with program announcements, then introducing a Julio Iglesias-like ballad. Very good with some flutter fadings but generally way over weak remains of nulled WSCR. With 600 dominated by a loud WICC, this may be the 
easiest way to log Cuba on MW from Montreal. The furthest MW station IDed last night. (Chiochiu-QC)

Trans-Atlantic DX

585vt SPAIN, RNE Radio Uno, Madrid SEP 29 0317 UTC - Very tentative ! Bits of light music getting at an extremely poor level through 580/590 QRM. Failed to broke the radio, as it was on a furniture that had considerable lenght only on a N/S bearing (the highest spot in our house, where I can place the radio !), and very windth when the radio was aimed N/S (with the antenna E/W and when E/W, the antenna beam is N/S). (Chiochiu-QC)

Domestic DX

1320 CKEC New Glasgow, NS SEP 29 1914 EDT - End of nx followed by "CKEC Weather" with a cloudy forecast, then "You're listening to Thirteen-Twenty CKEC Radio New Glasgo" ID followed by "If You're Still My Sunshine" top-40 of the 1999 summer (definitively not the kind of music you'd expect to hear from an Adult Contemporary station). Initially very strong, but reception deteriorated dramatically during the song with fading ups of several co-channel stations. At tune-in, it was easily receivable on my Sangean CST-818 barefoot ! (Chiochiu-QC)

Shortwave DX

9555 SAUDI ARABIA, BSKSA, Riyadh SEP 29 2043 UTC - At tune-in heard exotic Arabic music followed by man in AA, short drum interlude, then man talking and laughing w/ another one followed by apparent theater with woman and man and Mid-Eastern violin beetwen each segment of the apparent play. At 2052 heard what sounded like "habeebee" (lover) mentioned wich give me the intuition it was a play about love (I only know a very few words of arabic !). At 2056 fanfare. Then around 2058 time pips followed by man w/ mention of "Arabeea" and "Allah" (God) - Mark Connelly talk about Duba-1521 (and is obviously available to all the outlets in the BSKSA network) as being a station with mostly islamic religious programming and the PWBR listing confirm this was indeed the Saudi station). Slight QRM from adjacent RHC-9550 wich was it's self badly splashed by DW-9545. (Chiochiu-QC)

9575 MOROCCO, Medi U, Nador SEP 29 2219 UTC - heard this while working on history with great exotic African music based mainly on flute with some percussion to 2117 when I hear man in AA followed by an ugly AA tune. Poor reception. Taped. (Chiochiu-QC)

9580 GABON, Africa Numéro Un, Moyabi SEP 29 2222 UTC - tune-in to the beginning of a really great rythmic sad soukous tune followed by woman-made "Africa Numéro Un" liner, then man reviewing apparently a science-fiction movie, brief phone-in at 2230 followed by talk with another man present in the studio about malnutrition in Africa. Reception was relatively good, but comprehensibility was generally mediocre, due to the low modulation I think. Also in the middle of the tune for about a minute or so had a brief bursts of powerline noises on this channel. (Chiochiu-QC)

FM listening:

103.7 CKRK Kahnawake, QC SEP 29 1845 EDT - with "Monster" slogan followed by a really great regge tune with the lyrics "Out in the streets they call it murders" (a Google research revealed the singer was Damien Marley, not sure if related to Bob Marley, I know his wife Rita Marley is popular too - I do like the Rita Marley's instrumentation but not the voice, horrible), then Biggy and other stuff as well. Almost excellent when detuned to 103.65 to avoid CIME-103.9 splatter. Not real DX, but it remind me of how hard is to get Jamaica from Mtl with the big stations on 700 and 730 being 10 kHz away from 50 kW megapests. Sheldon, have you ever bagged Jamaica from Greenfield Park ? I only had 580 once and if Jamaica-580 comes in again I will not be able to tape it anyway, since I now have tape noises on this channel. Great country with great music - I have at least a semi-dozen Jamaican reagge CDs here and one compilation burned by me. (Chiochiu-QC)

It's well past 11 PM and I have to go to bed right now !
Be the good DX stuff with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu
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