[HCDX] foreign LW/MW DX logs

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Repport from:
Bogdan Alexandru Chiochiu
DX'ing from Pierrefonds (Pierrefonds-Roxboro / Montreal's West Island), Quebec, Canada
Equipment:
Sanyo MCD-S830 and Sangean CST-818, both barefoot

Trans-Atlantic DX

162 FRANCE,   France Inter, Allouis NOV 1 0455 - French talk at the Sangean's barefoot threshold sensitivity, occasional words readables such as "amateurs du cinéma" and 2 or 3 political-related stuff I could barely make out, several mentions of "France Inter", but I had to force myself, as the audio was really distorted at such a threshold strenght !!! Played "The Logical Song" by Supertramp around 0105, then more talk. The signal may theoritically have been strong, but my Sangean has such a low gain on LW and MW, that it didn't matter. They were stable to say the least. NEW ! It's a shame it's the only receiver I have with LW on it ! SINPO 15541, although it is relative, with a good LW loop it might have been 3 or even 4 (too poor to be taped, anyway). Keep in mind some of my locals such as the 201 kHz beacon are barely audible with this awful LW receiver that the Sangean is ! (Chiochiu-QC)

198 unID NOV 1 0407 - likely BBC Droitwich here, with barely discernable talk, at almost imaginary level. Nothing readable here unlike France-162. (Chiochiu-QC)

585 SPAIN,   Radio Nacional de España, Madrid NOV 1 0411 - Woman talk and music. Very weak, and unreadable, although trace of it could be heard on the Sangean barefoot probably "stronger", but as my Sanyo MCD-S830 does a better job in the 530-780s and in the 1000-1720s than my Sangean, it is hard to say. The opening probably favoured longwave. On the higher frequencies, one had average condx toward Latin America. (Chiochiu-QC)

Pan-American DX

550 VENEZUELA,   YVKE, Caracas, Distrito Federal NOV 1 0512 - Man in Spanish; very poor, not strong enough to have the slightest effect upon ZIZ-555. Definitively not the 20 kW Radio Rebelde outlet, as it wasn't // 600. Overal SINPO 25512-1. Is CHLN off the air ? They never seemed to be audible. Nothing else, conditions weren't extra-good for North American domestic DXing either. (Chiochiu-QC)

555 ST KITTS,   ZIZ, Basseterre NOV 1 0513 - BBC World Service with lots of geopolitical issues in British-accented English. SINPO 33543 with some very minor splatter from an unID oldies domestic on 560 !!! Usually, these guys are slopped by CHLN-550 here in the Montreal area. (Chiochiu-QC)

600 CUBA,   CMKV, Radio Rebelde, Urbano Norrís NOV 1 0518 - Spanish Adult Contemporary ballads, etc. // SW-5025 on the Sangean CST with it's long-wire ! Not // 550 which had suspected YVKE at that time. (Chiochiu-QC)

780 VENEZUELA,   YVNM, Radio Coro, Falcón NOV 1 0525 - In and out, but mostly in this time with lots of nice gaitas, salsas (Gilberto Santa Rosa and/or Eddie Santiago and/or Frankie Ruiz among them) and tecnocumbias. At 0551 UTC, they played "Recorriendo A Venezuela" which is paradoxally a classical Colombian tecnocumbia by the legendary EL BINOMIO DE ORO. I have it burned on CD, but with the slight flutter and the (very slight) local CJAD-800 splatter, it sounds more authentic. Therefore, it is more enjoyable ! "Recorriendo a Venezuela" by EL BINOMIO DE ORO was followed by "El Merecumbe" by LOS MELODICOS. Then, at 0558, time-check followed by "la publicidad radial es más efectiva, más economica y con mejores precios. (Supermarcado empresa?) se ha recordado y usted(...) cambiar Radio Coro, Siete Ochenta AM, patrimonio de la comunidad... Usted han sintonizado la mejor garancía...por Radio Coro Siete Ochenta AM, patrimonio de la comunidad", followed by a quick "Ruta Musical Siete Ochenta alegrando tú madrugada por Radio Coro" without any other break (a canned "Ruta Musical" announcement was to be expected, hi!), then very quickly into a gaita. Nice signal, mostly at the good level mark, with some fadings, but noone of them were really deep. Most of the side-band splatter was from WABC-770 rather than from local CJAD-800. Thanksfully, this IBOC craze had stopped (at least, as far as the 760 and 780 kHz channels are concerned) !!!! Overal SINPO 34433 ! Unlike my past repport with subpar condx when this was was peaking up at the fair mark for a brief periods before evolving into deeper and deeper fades as the evening progressed, this log is illustrating the typical dominance of this YV powerhouse in the Montreal area. (Chiochiu-QC)


Comments: First of all, I was fairly depressed by the humber of Haitian girls ashamed of their body, so instead of listening to Haitian konpas or Guadeloupean zouk before going to sleep, I decided to search on the Internet upon something that puzzled me: how many people for OFFICIALLY unknown reasons, living in the suburb of Tâncabesti (20 km N of Bucharest) were sick with cancer (leukemia, to be more specific) and the link I found with a study that reavaled people who lives closer to very powerful AM transmitters are 5 times more likely to developp leukemia at a time or another (a South Korean study to say the least, but I'm aware of HLAZ-1566 - may that be the reason, in any event this South Korean topic was opened up on the MWDX list). I didn't found what I was looking for, but I went across SOFTPEDIA, a Romanian more or less DX-related messageboard dealing with radio stuff. A topic was opened up concerning the Tâncabesti tx as compared with the Bod-153 one which was running lower power. Some allusions were made toward DX'ing, then they exchanged regards about the Allouis-162 (France) reception in Romania during the pre-communist era with Bod-153 splatter and they made references to RMC Côte d'Azur as well. Some messages dealed a tiny bit with SW too. I founded that discussion highly-astonishing, as references to Longwave and Mediumwave DX (or even SHORTWAVE to say the least !) from my own country is VERY rare, to say the least.

Intrigued, I decided to try out SW on the new longwire we installed a few week-ends ago. Nothing special, condx were very poor. Only a low growl was found on 6010 with no Radio Mil or La Voz de tú Conciencia to speak off. Then, I decided to try LW. I didn't took too long to came across threshold and fairly distorted audio on 162 kHz. At first, I though there was a spur from an extremely strong MW/SW broadcaster, then I came to realize the musical inflection of the language sounded almost like French. paying closer attention, I could make out a few words such as "amateurs du cinéma". Then surely, a tentative FRANCE INTER mention was thought to be heard at 0453. Around 0555, after an easily recognizable Supertramp track, France Inter was mentioned 3 more times, 1 or 2 political-related words were readable too and I was able to confirm the France-162 reception. I did my best to bring the best out of it, but our longwire which is so effective on SW, is more or less useless on MW, let alone on LW (LongWave). Boy, I was excited and it was interesting for a while, but of course, I can't go too far with such an awful receiver. I just wish I had a loop cut for LW.

I didn't intend to send any repport before Xmas, but this France-162 reception was not only astonishing, but it prooved, psychologically speaking, DXing was still rewarding and a personal reactivation was not only worthwhile, but simply mandatory !!! Of course, I can't go anywhere with this stuff, though I do have one question: is anyone knowing what is the best indoor loop antenna available for LONGWAVE DXING ? Is anyone know someone selling the Radio Plus 150-300 kHz loop ? It might help bringing up better readibility on European longwave broadcasters.

Before I conclude this repport, just one short story. When I officially begun real DX'ing in 2000 (a long, long time ago -> well not that much, but a lot of things happened since then for me, and a lot of them are still need to happen yet), my main obsession was picking up foreign signals on broadcast bands not used in North America, such as the OIRT FM band (since F2 did hit around 71 MHz with the UK police getting around the US, why a signal like Radio Tinerama 68.7 MHz out of Bucharest couldn't be heard in Montreal during extra-good conditions ?), the SW tropical bands and the European longwave band. You cannot understand my joy (and frustrationg going on at the same time) when I realized a dream: receiving a broadcaster on a frequency other than AM, FM and international SW (ex.: not the 90 meters tropical band !)...yes, furstration, because the Sangean CST-818 receiver which does a fine job for casual shortwave DXing isn't up to the job for hardcore longwave DX'ing. With IBOC going on (probably not for WABC, but for other stations), the only way for reliable, yet challenging foreign DXing (more challenging than the major international SW broadcasters) is to DX from 1530 up to 279 kHz, which is a field for it, I have yet to be an expert right now.

That being said, I tried MW, but Madrid-585 was not just fadey (or distorted, by the way), but simply unreadable, though trace of woman talk and music could be squeezed out between the empty room filled by analog tuning in the middle of the 580 and 590 North American gasp. Then, as Croatia-1134 or Spain-1134 (there is a medium-powered COPE on 1134 which seems to throw away Croatia during the huge Mediterranean openings that are routine stuff for the highly-respected Mark Connelly) weren't too be heard, I concluded I couldn't go anywhere with TAs and decided to try my hand at some Latin stuff (the breakdown of the WABC's IBOC nightmare just exacerbated my somewhat slight enthousiasm)... As I have friends at the college who are Latins, this wasn't so problematic, the taste for mediumwave Latins wasn't too far from my heart, so I went on to find average conditions, but good tapeable Radio Coro on 780. I was more than slightly surprised to discover that the canned Ruta Musical announcement at the top-of-the-hour (2 o'clock) was replaced by a short commercial break for the station's publicity coverage at 0158 EDT (0558 UTC), a very short ID, then back-to-back tropical music with time-checks after each song.

With my new computer, I don't seem to find the jack-line for translating the audio of my tape recording into the soundcard of this machine. Of course, coming the middle of November, I would have more time on week-ends for digitalising some of the DX I did. By the way, I do not consider Venezuela-780 as pure DXing, just random MWLing or, to be more conventional (and incorrect at the same time) SWLing. The tape recording of 780 Coro, made between December, 2006 and the wee hours of November First, 2007 is having some good-reception spots on it and could be highly intriguing even for non-DXers. Although, I love it, it is by no means inferior to Aventure FM. If someone want to exchange with me airchecks, I can send MWLing stuff (of the highest quality, sine not every DX moment is scratchy, oh no !!!), stuff recorded on a trip, recordings from Canadian FMers from circa 1998 and NYC stuff (mainly WKTU The Beat of New York, the official signal of the Latin Freestylers and Housers all around) in exchange with the following items:
1) CIBL 101.5 in the early 80s when it could be received only in the south-eastern part of the Montreal's island (around Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) as to discover the new undergound French talents of the time
2) Aventure FM 105.9 in Paris (also was on 95.7 MHz in Lyon, 96.9 MHz in Grenoble and 91 MHz in Chambéry, sometime around late '88 until the 23rd October of 1989 - replaced by MaXXimum)
3) Radio Contact (out of Belgium) during the 1994-1997 eurodance fever
4) Pacific FM, the most soothing-formated radio network, with not just soft music, but highly innovative soft music interrupted by strange stories with a sleeping voice (just as odd-sounding as Aventure FM, I guess, but I never listened - 97.4 in Paris in 1987-1989)
5) 105.7 CFGL during the zouk craze of the late 80s (when they had the right from the CRTC to put up some Jocelyne Béroard "Kollé Serré" on their airwaves
6) CJFM 96 (the most intruiguing commercial Montreal English-speaking FMer of the whole decade) changed to Mix 96, of course, I'm interested in unscoped airchecks PRIOR TO 1993, from say 1985-1989
7) CHOM 97.7 - the Metal-dominated AOR period of the 80s with great cult albums like "Abominog" (1982" by URIAH HEEP and with legendary jocks such as Claude Rajeottte and Andy Renaud (still there doing "That 80s show") - way much more metal than the childish sounding CKOI at the same time which is, for unkown reason, the only station where scoped airchecks can be found - in spite of the same unispired Top 40 stuff CKOI 96.9 (I 97) had in 1985 as compared with 2007
8) Radio Cité 107.3 up to 1989
9) CFQR 92.5
10) CISM 89.3 - when I arrived in Canada in 1997 (from native Romania !!!), they were in touch with the highly-undergoing Quebecor underground scene of the time; a far cry from the Dany Bédard awfulness; is he trying to put some hair out of his mouth or is he really singing ?
11) CIEL from the early 80s through the late 80s - they were even more in the zouk craze than CFGL, as Jean-Pierre Coallier, the owner of CIEL, had a nightclub in Guadeloupe. They played relaxed zouk records such as "Machine à Lanmou" by Zouk Machine
12) Hot 97 during the House / Latin Hip-Hop (freestyle-dance -> Cynthia, Stevie B., JM Silk timeframe) before switched too uninspired Hip-Hop full of rhythmic falsettos !!!!
13) M40, La radio qui repeint la FM (just after Métropolys / MaXXimum - Aventure FM) a rythmic New Realeases network with lots of Dance Music, Grunge Rock, Trash Metal, Lite Rock and Upbeat FF Variety
14) YVRQ, Radio Aeropuerto (before 1986, this was Venezuela's response to North American Easy Listening legends such as CFQR-92.5) on 910, nowadays known as "RQ 910 AM Center" an easy catch from Eastern North America, along with Radio Cadena Agramonte
15) La Voix Du Lésard - France's premier Newwave radio, based in Paris on 103.9 (afterwards, 96.1, then 96.0 MHz), Became SKYROCK in 1986 !!! Any unscoped airchecks ?

CKUT, well, I'm not too interested, I prefer French stuff. I'm interested in FM 96 (ex. CJFM) only because I had vague feelings of listening to them in a past life, but that's another story... Regarding CFQR, a friend told me they had QUITET STORM, an unbelievable show. Therefore, I'm interested in CFQR airchecks as well.

As I talk about French, is anyone having the same problem that I have ??? Lots of devotion toward a radio station, who program is childish or plainly uninspired (such as Montreal's I-97 / CKOI) with nothing creative at all, when they were dozens of stations on the AM/FM dials with much more creative formats that vanished forever: such as Easy Listening (mellow variety, zouk, instrumentals, etc.) or AOR (Album Oriented Rock), etc. FM radio for CKOI wasn't much different in 1985, than today. However, CFGL, Cité, CIEL, CHOM, CKMF Dance Music, CFQR and CIBL were really giving an artistical appeal to the FM band of the 80s. Unfortunatly, I'm not able to find any aircheck from those stations, yet there are lots of ridiculous comments about the pseudo-high quality of CKOI 96.9 at the same time...

Anyway, I decided to put it all here, as many DXers are also airchecks collectors. I have 4 or 5 tapes out of CIEL-FM from circa 1998 (during the last few weeks of the "Antenne Bleue" format, a soft-AC one, before they switched to Hot-AC "Emotion Rock:", then to just AC "Emotion Rock" (2nd version), then to Cool FM alt-rock, then to CHMP contemporary talk radio.

I'm interested in music, of course, as I listen to almost anything who can be imagined, musically speaking, but also in the jingle package, the comments they made about the social issues at the time, the voice of the announcer, the weather at the time (before the global warming), the weather liners before the announcements... As you can see, a very eclectic list of interests in airchecks collectioning from all over the world. If anyone is having anything from at least ONE of this station, please let me know !!!!

I'm boored, because on the Internet, I can only find airchecks from CKOI, NRJ (the WORST French station ever !) and MaXXimum, but nothing else. Listening to CDs doesn't help to find a girlfriend, airchecks neither, but at least they do help building yourself a new world, in this so fragile world !!!!!!

I hope this will be published in hard-Core-DX, since a lot of Hard-Core DXers are also confident aircheck collectioners.

May the good DX be with all of you !
May my CIEL 98.5 airchecks find your heart and your trained muscal ear in a rewarding position !
Bogdan Chiochiu in Pierrefonds / Montreal
Btw.: Information regarding the RADIO PLUS LW LOOP will bring on DXing to another level, as far as my personal challenges were already set...





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