[HCDX] abysmal conditions / South American MW DX wonders / LW DXing wonders

[aurel chiochiu <acq@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warm greetings to all of you !

Spain-585 with anemical strenght seems the only low-band TA getting through, despite a few checks on other channels. Last night, while they faded-up to poor-fair levels, a high-pithced low-growl from a computer in the neighborhood prevented any program details to be taken... Is Saudi-594 loggable from Montreal ? What about Morocco-594 ?

In spite of higher solar flux which means SLIGHTLY weaker Spain-585 reception, conditions aren't auroral enough to allow for door-to-door South American DX. Since, I did found some Aventure FM promos (yeah!) and I begun to get tired of French music, the interest of DXing is getting back, but franckly, conditions are really abysmal.

Auroral conditions do not only mean attenuation of east-west signals, but also an enhancement toward the south. For exemple, on 780, even though I was able to null out WBBM perfectly using the Sanyo MCD-S830 barefoot, Radio Coro was still very faint. I could barely make it // to the Internet webstream.

ZIZ on 555 was fair, the only SLIGHTLY MORE NOTEWORTHY reception of the past night, but once again the adjacent 550 kHz channel had a very poor mess on it with nothing even close to be YVKE or Cuba or Jamaica (which is unheard yet on this channels, Jamaicans are very difficult for me - of all the 3 easiest ones 580, 700 and 720, only 580 is possible, because on 700 there is unnulable Infos 690 splatter and on 720 CKAC is ALMOST unnulable and as I can BARELY null out CKAC-730, I get QRM from WGN in Chicago, but that's another story).

The other night, once again, the first signal to fade in on 760 was a VERY WEAK WJR off the back of the ferrite bar antenna (it was very good with the antenna aimed perpendicular to E/W - so I talk about -> the nulled and residual aspect of the otherwise powerhouse WJR's signal) and not even a peep from the Colombian HJAJ-RCN powerhouse.

By the way, it's interesting, I did read some comments of Randy Stewart in Missouri who was complaining Colombia was regular and Venezuelans were seldom heard, well, here it's the reverse situation, while during average condx (which, at this time, are WELL BELOW average) I can easily get up to a semi-dozens YVs, HJs are seldom heard with the exception of HJAJ 760 RCN Cadena Basíca in Barranquilla on the HJ northern coast. I wonder why. When I begun DXing, there was at least one other regularly heard Colombian, on 610 in Uribia (those on LatinMWDX probably found the file in the 610 kHz section) very strong and alone during auroral conditions with slight splatter from semi-local WVMT 620 in Burlington, Vermont and occasionnally during high-latitude NON-auroral conditions, WIP in Philadelphia would fade down and this would be on top for a few minutes, but not anymore. All I got the last those years I was active on MW on and off was Cuba which apparently increased power (there were times when Rebelde-610 was stronger than the juggernauts using 600, 670 and 710 which now are jammed by overmodulated 690 Montreal next-adjacent local splatter as well as by WFAN-660 IBOC, but still pests to some extent). When I begun DXing in 2000, Rebelde-610 was heard maybe once or twice and the rest of time, COLOMBIA Radio Difusora Nacional de Colombia, HJKL, had it's channel to it's self with WIP aurorared-out. I was so silly, I had an obsession with Radio Rumbos and with RCN Barranquilla and I wanted to record a tape with the signal peaks of these two pests in order to improve my very rudimentary (at that time) Spanish with NotiRumbos and RCN newscasts as well as with contemporary tropical grooves, and missed the excellent traditional Latin selections HJKL-610 used to have. Shame on me ! So let's get back to my question: why, in Montreal, YVs are easier than HJs ? and also, why the city of Riohacha, despite being on the HJ north coast, just like Barranquilla, is so hard to get from Montreal ? Is Colombia easier from Ontario or upstate New York ?

I think, to enjoy Venezuelan DX as much as I used to, there are two things needed: a CME (coronal mass ejection) and a list with YVs by state. I used to have one, but was accidently put by my parents in the garbage and now I have to know by heart were the station is. Among the easily heard states, I need Carabobo, Nueva Esparta (why the state isn't just called ISLA MARGARITA is beyond my knowledge !)and LARA. Since Colombia-610 is using lower power or is inactive, YVSX on 610 kHz should be remotely possible, but the most reported YV on 610 is, by far, YVSE. Where is YVSE located ? in Aragua ? I had briefly logged Aragua with NotiRumbos in a mess on 570 back in 2001... Condx toward Latin America were way much better then.

Well, at least the enthusiasm for DXing is back, I think I'm in the perfect mood for reactivating, I have been more active this fall than in 2006-2007 or in 2007-2008 and it payed off with some nice segments taped out of Spain-585, now with a higher flux it has weakened, but still audible at times on the Sanyo MCD-S830 which is a good indicator condx are poorer for TAs, but not auroral enough for wall-to-wall South American DX (on mediumwave).

However, if NON-auroral condx persists, I may get into LW... We commanded a LW loop antenna from Australia and we are looking forward for a better receiver than the Sangean CST-818 which is the only rx that has LW on it here. It overloads badly on LW and MW and isn't too sensitive, although it's not that bad on SW. I can easily tune in to Africa Numéro Un on 9580 kHz and at times, Medi Un on 9575 kHz is quite listenable, so the performance on SW is quite good, on FM is certainly enough for sporadic-E DX'ing, but I would like to DX LW TAs. What is the best medium-priced portable for LW DXing ? Is the Sony SW-77 good for LW ?

May the good DX be with you !
I hope to bring in some decent logs during the upcoming weeks as the exams too are quickly running away from me and the holidays are ALMOST starting out !
Bogdan Chiochiu in Pierrefonds (Montreal's West Island), PQ
Btw. I: Sorry for off-topic postings, but I did sent my comments to LatinMWDX too, even though only about half of this post has any relation with South American MW targets !
Btw. II: Is anyone having a real jingle (not a promo) out of Aventure FM ?
---[Start Commercial]---------------------

Order your WRTH 2008:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2008
---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html