Pirate Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 17 October 2010

[Dave Valko]

17 OCTOBER 2010: This was the first Sunday morning outing up to the SGLs since last Spring. I was hoping that propagation conditions would be favorable as the geomagnetic field was a bit unsettled in the last 24 hours. In fact there was an M class flare at 1910 UTC Saturday. The data showed a small MUF of 7 mhz over the north Atlantic. All I could get when I awoke at 0550 was a weak R. Amica. I almost decided not to go out. Conditions turned out to be about normal or slightly below compared to last season. Signals were very fady as you'd expect with disturbed conditions. Heard over a dozen stations, so it was worth the trip and effort. I had some difficulty getting started. When I started listening back in the Jeep, I wasn't getting any signal at all. Upon investigation, I found I broke the positive wire off the post of the ARR preamp. I made a quick repair with knife and aligator clip and was back in business. I enjoyed getting out to listen again. Hope to have good propagation conditions this season.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 55°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0640-1105 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 86 A Index =41 K Index = 2 No storms.
WX: Mainly clear. Warm, around 49° F. (9° C.)


4026 LHH 0711 end of anmnt and into mx. Didn't stick with it. Typically weak and very fady. (17 Oct.)

5820.04 Orion R. On at 0657:27, and lively Dutch song at 0658. Canned ID jingle at 0702, then into Percy Faith. 0705 another canned anmnt, John w/live anmnt at 0710, 0731, 0744, 0752, 0818 among others. IDs, greetings, etc. Jingles. Was able to recognize "Calypso" by John Denver. Still audible at 0828. (17 Oct.)

6200 R. Starlight Came on sometime between 0712 and 0719 when I wasn't recording. Mx audible at 0719 t/in. That was abt the time I was able to get any audio as it didn't get that strong again. Looked like it was still in at 0828, but not at 0831. Occas. machine-gun bursts from a UTE. (17 Oct.)

6205.46 UNID. Per Irish Pauls Radioblog, was getting a signal here from 0736 to about 0802. No audio to speak of. Ricks radio blog had a tentative of Misti R. here at this time. (17 Oct.)

6210 LHH 0653-0712 very weak signal w/strains of audio on peaks, particularly around 0705. Brief UTE QRM a couple times. Assume this was LHH. Stopped the recording at 0712, and when I returned there was another signal here on 6210.05. 0743 brief anmnt between songs. Was playing Pop/Rock songs. M tlk in UK accent at 0826. Still there at 0913. (17 Oct.)

6210.05 R. Quintus Found this along with 6210 on return and restarting the recording. 0719 pleasant Dutch Pop song. More presumed Dutch Pops. 0738 brief anmnt w/what sounded like ment of Quintus. Voice sounded familiar too. More mx. Was really confusing at this time as both this and 6210 were about equal and both with audio. Went off at 0741:30. (17 Oct.)

6220 Mystery R. Strong signal w/Dance mx 0653. 0703 CW w/W ID, more mx. Very strong at this time, but faded of course. Another ID at 0729 and 0758 between songs. QRM from SP numbers stn after 0800 effectively notched out. Not very audible by 0820. (17 Oct.)

6265 R. Geronimo Per others loggings, seemed to sign on at 0838:15. Signal showing up on the display and just rising above the noise floor about every 5 seconds. Certainly not strong enough to get audio. (17 Oct.)

6287 R. Shadow?? Had a carrier here from 0653 to at least 0817, but never did get any definite audio. So not sure if this was R. Shadow or not. The peaks seemed strong enough a couple times. (17 Oct.)

6304.73 R. Paardenkracht 0648 anmnts w/ID at t/in while trying to set up the Perseus to record. Mx, then more anmnts at 0653-0656. Mainly unrecognizable Pop and Rock mx, but did recognize one song but can't recall the title. Still getting audio by 0840. Still there at 0912 and even bits of audio. Fady signal. Subpar for the Paardenkracht. (17 Oct.)

6305.26 R. Sallandse Boer Could see the transmitter being tuned to this freq on the spectrum display at 0809:04. Then got what sounded like pleasant Dutch Pops. 0815 short live anmnt w/morning greeting and "Hello", but couldn't copy anything else. Voice audio had a little roomy echo to it. Another anmnt at 0817 w/what sounded like a ment of testing and ID, but the voice audio sounded different that at 0815. Back to mx. 0822 another short anmnt possibly in Dutch. 0827 another Dutch-sounding anmnt w/possible ID. Must have gone off between 0828 and 0831 as it wasn't there at 0831. Surprised to hear this and had to notch out R. Paardenkracht to make it audible. (17 Oct.)

6315 UNID. Signal came on at 0741. Went off at 0757:11. Couldn't get any audio. Too many clicks and pops on this freq for the sync to lock on. Thanks Irish Pauls blog. (17 Oct.)

6375.84 Sonic R. Came on the air at 0808:45. First got some mx at 0811. Peaks after 0816 gradually getting stronger. Nice little peak of about 4 seconds at 0821.55. Was strong enough on peaks between 0818-0823, but the peaks weren't long enough to recognize songs. Looked like it was gone by 0831. (17 Oct.)

6400.76 R. Star Int. Signal on at 0758:24. Pgm start at 0800 on both this and //5810.7. Mx at 0803. 0806 W w/ID for R. Star, and e-mail addr. Kind of like New Age Classical mx. W anncr at 0817 briefly. Other instrumentals. 0834 Jazz w/W vcl, then W anncr again at 0835. Sounded like a Beatles song at 0854. Longer anmnts at 0900. Strong w/some UTE QRM. Came on 5809.59 at 0758:12. This freq stronger but w/rumbling wide UTE QRM. (17 Oct.)

6525 R. Face de Blatte On the air at 0800:07. Seemed to be going off and on for a couple minutes, then on at 0805. Finally just strong enough to hear some mx at 0822-0825. Couldn't recognize it though. Too much fading. Also had some SSB traffic QRM from above. (17 Oct.)

6939.9 Mike R. (probably) Signal nere at 0717. Thought it might have been Cactus Jack, but see by the blogs it had to be Mike R. (17 Oct.)

6959.64 Atlantic R. 0903 Definitely mx at times on brief peaks. Sounded like Oldies. (17 Oct.)

7610.05 R. Amica 0640 very weak w/just bits of mx at first t/in. Dance mx at 0714, then unreadable IT anmnt at 0715. (17 Oct.)


Also had what I thought was a European Pirate on 6310.7 signing off at 0744, but turned out to be Outhouse R. from NA. Was a bit confusing.

Nice to be able to send out a decent report once again. Hope everyone had a pleasant Summer.

[JoJo]

Hello Dave, welcome back Summer here was great. Hope yours was well too. Thanks for the report, much appreciated