European Pirate Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 16 Sept. 2007

[Dave Valko]

15 SEPTEMBER 2007: Since R. Brandaris was supposed to be on the air, and after hearing some signals on the 48mb around 2145 UTC, I decided to take a trip up to the remote listening location. Conditions were pretty good. There were only a few stations on the air, but they were doing well.

RX: JRC NRD-535D
ANT: 315' Beverage at 45°
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 2210-2330 UTC
Solar Indices: S.F. = 67 A Index = 5 K Index = 1 No storms.
WX: Partly cloudy, cool 50° F. (10° C.) and dropping.

6305.7 R. Brandaris 2210 already on and audible. 2218 Pop mx when I got setup and started listening. 2220 DT Pop song. 2223 "You're listening to R. Brandaris Int. on shortwave" ID by M. Into instru. 'peppy' mx, then pleasant Polka Waltz. 2229 ID, phone, and e-mail by M. Into instru. song popularly used by many pirates. 2231 another soft DT Pop song. 2240 phone and e-mail anmnt. 2243 live M in echo w/GM anmnt. 2259 phone and e-mail anmnt again. 2306 short canned ID anmnt, same as heard at 2223. 2318 live EG anmnt, then GM, and then back to EG, all in echo over instru. mx. Graduallly getting stronger. Freq was steady. Didn't seem quite as strong and there was too much local QRM back at home later. (15 Sept.)

6220 Laser Hot Hits 2225 Heard back on the air here w/W Pop song. 2227 M w/tlk and ment of shortwave, difficulties in broadcasting, song anmnt, and into song "Naughty Girls". 2232 ID and song anmnts again, more Pops. Ment of Weekend Music R. at 2236, etc., and into song "Nightfly" dedicated to Laura. 2302 nice tee-shirt ad, e-mail request. 2323 IDs. Peaking at S-6 by 2320. Wonder what Mystery R. is going to do if LHH stays here. (15 Sept.)

6400 WMR 2233 ID, phone, and song anmnt by Jack as I tuned in, then "Imigration Man". Excellent S-6 signal and fairly clear with a little audio under Hams on // 3910.14. Gone at 2239 but was there 1 min. earlier when I tuned out. 3910.14 was off too. Never returned to at least 2330 when I left. When WMR was on, it was even stronger than Sahara 6300!!! (16 Sept.)

16 SEPTEMBER 2007: Seeing how good conditions were in the evening before, and hearing a signal on 6290.16 at home when I awoke at 0616 UTC, I decided to take another drive up to the remote listening QTH. Unfortunately conditions really went downhill during the night. It was really poor. WMR and LHH were barely there, although 7 hours earlier they were 100% copy!! Not only were conditions poor, but I had a terrible difficulty getting the antenna laid out. Not long after I started out through the woods, the flashlight batteries died almost instantly. I stumbled back to the Jeep to get new ones. I was having trouble getting the antenna straight as well. There also seemed to be more traffic on the road, which made me a bit nervous (I don't like leaving the radio equipment in the Jeep unattended). By 0730 UTC, what few stations were on had almost disappeared completely. So I only lasted about 45 minutes.

RX: JRC NRD-535D
ANT: 315' Beverage at 45° more or less.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0655-0735 UTC
Solar Indices: S.F. = 68 A Index = 4 K Index = 1 No storms.
WX: Crystal clear starry night, 35° F. (2° C.)

6290.16 R. Mazda (pres. from UK DXers log) Heard at home at 0617. Not much stronger at the remote site, if at all. Started out already tuned in and recording before I began laying out the BOG. Got a bit of mx at 0656 just before the UTE came on, and again at 0658. Some SSB traffic at this time as well. A few more bits of mx between 0705-0706 when it was fading in and out. Signal seemed strong enough but audio too weak and too much UTE QRM. Could still barely hear it at 0730 but nearly gone. (16 Sept.)

6400.12 WMR 0704 on w/Rock mx, then recognized Jacks voice in anmnt. Not very strong. (16 Sept.)

6220 LHH Still in at 0655 start but weak. (16 Sept.)

5720.03 Orion R. 0713 Rock mx. 0715 M anncr sounding very much like Johns, but couldn't really copy anything. Then continued mx. Fading badly over the next 10 minutes. Another anmnt at 0728. Impossible. (16 Sept.)

[JoJo]

Thanks dave for all the logs, nice to read you are still dx-ing