Pirate Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, for 21 March 2010

[Dave Valko]

21 MARCH 2010: Forgot to readjust my alarm to compensate for Eastern Daylight Time last weekend and ended up waking at 0510 UTC instead of the usual 0610. I didn't realize it until I looked at the Perseus clock when I started listening out at the remote site!! Before I left, Amica was coming in, and LHH had some audio. Cuba was strong on 6220 with no sign of Mystery R. Conditions on the whole seemed just a bit better than fair. It was very very fady. Very quick and abrupt. I was just about to leave at 0900 when conditions got a little better and several more stations showed up. So I stayed another half hour until the general morning fade out occurred. Since it was warm and I didn't have to wear as much clothing, combined with the fact there wasn't much snow, I was able to get started quickly....an hour and 10 minutes before I intended actually!! It was nice listening in relative warmth for a change.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0550-0930 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 84 A Index = 9 K Index = 0 No storms. A small 6 mhz MUF at southern end of Iceland. Weak Auroral zone.
WX: Partly cloudy and starry. Around 42° F. (6° C.)

4025 LHH Decent audio w/Rock song at 0600. M anncr when I returned at 0637, but not as strong. 0642 "Too Shy" Kajagoogoo. 0644 DJ chatter ending w/canned anmnt. Heavy QSB. (21 March)

5775 Bluestar R. Signal on at 0854:48, then mx at 0855:20. Just getting strains of mx but a peak at 0859. Didn’t hear any anmnts. Signal seemed strong enough but audio seemed weak. Went off at 0904:40. Machine gun UTE QRM. (21 March)

5800 R. Continental Came on at 0832:27. Just strong enough to hear some mx at 0834, 0837, 0843 peaks. Too weak and too much noise for sync to lock. Signal last seen at 0922 peaking in between static crashes. (21 March)

6175 No sign of R. Suzuki, but did hear what was obviously China Nat. R. come on at exactly 0900. Nothing was heard/seen there before. (21 March)

6205 R. Borderhunter Came on at 0832:16, and mx start abt a minute and a half later. 0836 "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. 0842 opening ID “Secret Soundsâ€

[Altrex]

Hi Dave,

Thanks again for you logs.
Good to see you did copy Altrex also on the sunday
Still hoping conditions will go up, the comming weeks.

Keep on listening Dave,

best regards,

Radio Altrex.