[HCDX] Radio Rumbos

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For the third or fourth time this season, I was able to catch Radio Rumbos on 670 kHz. At 0340 UTC DEC 7, I noticed flutter on the Radio Rebelde pest and at 0341, heard two dorbells clearly through Rebelde, but the voice was almost inaudible.

Radio Rumbos was impossible to listen for real this season until now, but loggable. What maked this station loggable were the dorbells. The dorbell sound interval sound played between the news items really cut through the interferences like a hot knife through butter, almost as easily as the Radio Reloj's morse code "R R". If you are familiar with Radio Reloj and want to have a similar DX challenge, you may want to try for Radio Rumbos in Caracas, DF, Venezuela.

It is sad though that they are only detectable as dorbells in QRM these days, possibly because the Arroyo Arrenas's Cuban transmitter upped it's power. In the 2000-2001 DX season, for exemple, they were fairly regular; not among the strongest Latins, but somewhat close to them in regularity. Aside from the ever-famous Noti Rumbos newscast, they played very great music on weekend nights (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings) and while I don't have the tapes of this anymore, I still have some real-audio files and you can hear a short clip on the LatinMWDX group site. I was also able in March 2001 to pick up Rumbos on 570 kHz from Villa Cura in the Aragua state once (they are a difficult catche in North America, extremely seldom reported), for several seconds. 

Unfortunately they aren't on shortwave or the Internet anymore, so MW DXing is the only way of nailing Rumbos down.

If you are into chassing Latin American MW signals, consider seriously joining this great Yahoo ! Group. You will often receive instant alerts, have access to lots of real-audio files of station IDs, songs intros, etc. and maybe other things as well. It is absolutely free ! If you want to hear this and other interesting ones, consider yourself almost obligated to join.

I have noted other Latin signals as well as very mediocre Spaniard audio on 585, but this was by far the most interesting one. The strongest Venezuelan, on peak, was YVNM-780 in Falcón, not YVKS-750 like usually. But, Rumbos on 670 was by far the most challenging and intriguing signal. The steadiest and strongest South American, for slightly over 10 minutes, after 0030 UTC was RCN on 760 kHz.

The article on the purposes of DXing this Bolivarian land will be ready very soon, especially after I have the confirmation I beated that damned cancer (the scan wasn't completely ready even today). It will contain useful information on most of the Venezuelans I heard and the ones I haven't heard yet, but I know they are regular.

Be the good DX stuff with you !
Bogdan Chiochiu on Montreal's West Island
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